WOULD this had been otherwise and not a memorial concert for one of its members.

Diana Hannah had sung with Vital Spark for the past eight years, attacking the West Gallery songs with typical verve and gusto; harassing leader John Willie to exploit every avenue of publicity and to promote the latest CD.

Sadly, Diana died two weeks ago after a short illness and, 52 hours before their appearance at The Fringe, Vital Spark had sung at her decidedly different funeral in Worcester, attended by 200 or more people; belled morris dancers and bedecked representatives of folk traditions among them.

West Malvern-based Vital Spark sing the church music of the 18th and 19th Century that was turned out by the Victorians when they brought organs into their places of worship.

It crossed the Atlantic, where it survives to this day as unaccompanied Shape Note.

This was a celebration of both traditions from early 18th Century reworkings of psalms to the 1980's American Big Sky.

Along the way the audience was also treated to soaring harmonies and toe-tapping music from fiddles, clarinet, cello and serpent.

There was the eloquence of Dalmatia; Thomas Clark's exuberant setting of the old version of Psalm 57; simplistic fugue tunes; the miserable Worms' Anthem from the Book of Job and Vital Spark itself, Edward Harwood's setting to Alexander Pope's The Dying Christian to his Soul - an early Gallery piece that was THE funeral song of its day.

The concert ended, as Vital Spark had closed Diana's cheerful funeral, with Reginald Spofforth's uplifting glee, Hail Shining Morn.

Like the funeral and the wake that followed, this was an evening that Diana would have relished. It was fun, it was informative and, as usual, the audience was not many.

Diana Hannah was herself a vital spark in the lives of the very many people she knew.

Her presence will be sadly missed by all those who were touched by her enthusiasm, her vivacity and her generosity - and that includes this reviewer.

David Chapman