THE annual concert was, as usual, a great success.

The Aber Valley Male Choir impressed so much last year they were booked for this year too. They lived up to their reputation.

Under the baton of musical director J Geraint Evans, they enthralled the audience with a wide selection of music, old and new, spiritual and secular, Welsh and English.

Soloist (also for a second consecutive year) Miriam Simpson Moran is well known in Redditch. She again delighted with her choice of items and her delivery. The choir's long-term accompanist, Aurelia Jones, is a capable and sensitive pianist.

President Pat Radford welcomed guests; Chairman Essillt Thomas announced the many raffle winners and thanked everyone. The evening ended with the singing of both English and Welsh national anthems.

May 16 was the President's Evening. Pat had arranged for Warwick Taylor, president of the Bevin Boys Association, to speak. He brought with him several miners' lamps and interesting photographs.

There were 48,000 Bevin Boys, selected for that duty according to the last number on their registration cards for National Service.

The scheme was thought up by Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour in Churchill's wartime cabinet, at a time when coal, essential to the economy and war effort was in short supply and extra miners were needed.