Past Gigs

Andover Rocks Reignited was a great success, filling the town with music and fun, and raising a total of £5000 which will be spent locally on music provision for adult mental health.

AMLS were part of the folk stage which ran all of Sunday afternoon at the White Hart hotel, and included Mayfly Morris, Guinea Lane, Keltyke, Charles Allison and Amanda Kane-Smith, with a jam session to finish.

Overton Mummers, Mayfly Morris and Andover Museum Loft Singers took part in the inaugural Overton Wassail, blessing the apple trees in Overton Community Orchard for a fruitful coming year.

AMLS were honoured to take part, with 5 other choirs and several soloists, in a concert to celebrate the lives and work of Sarah Morgan and Paul Sartin. It was held at the Theatre Royal Winchester on 4th February 2024. This beautiful highlights video is presented on YouTube by Winchester Community Choir.

Andover Museum Loft Singers put on a show at The Lights, Andover, with guests Keltyke, Jacamanda and Mad Magdalen on 23rd March 2024. This video of the AMLS segments was kindly filmed for us by John Baxter.

Andover Museum Loft Singers performed at Romsey Beggar's Fair on 13th July 2024. We all had a great day, with some Loft Singers also performing in bands The Mighty Hump and Guinea Lane, and most of the other Loft Singers watching! Our set had slightly showery weather but we kept the worst of the rain at bay by singing 'Hal an Tow' to call in the (reluctant) summer. (Photo: John Hosen)

The choir was honoured to be invited by Whitchurch Folk Club, to perform at A Concert for Paul, a mini-festival celebrating the music and folk passions of our late, much-missed, musical director, Paul Sartin. The event was held on 22nd October, in the church and grounds of All Hallows, Whitchurch, Hampshire, and was open to the public. We performed three songs arranged by Paul: Wild Rover, Acre of Land and Love is All Around.

Dave Allen was there to capture our performances on video.

Members of the Andover Museum Loft Singers, attending the Sidmouth Folk Festival, were surprised and deeply honoured to be invited onto the stage for the finale of the Paul Sartin Tribute concert. The choir joined Jackie Oates, Jon Wilks, Saul Rose and Joe Sartin in a tearful rendition of If I Was a Blackbird.

The choir takes to the stage just after 1 h 57 minutes in the following video, generously shared by Folkscape.

Andover Museum Loft Singers performed on the outdoor stage by the Guildhall in Andover town centre, then later indoors at Andover Museum on Friday 3rd June 2022 as part of the town's celebrations of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Sadly this turned out to be one of the last times the Loft Singers were able to perform with Paul Sartin, as he passed away a few months later. (Video: Catherine Hosen)

Photo: Julio Etchart

The Andover Museum Loft Singers supported Quimantu at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden on November 5th. We'll be singing a set of traditional songs arranged for three- or four-part unaccompanied harmony.

In the second half of the concert the Anglo-Chilean group Quimantu took to the stage for a vibrant virtuoso set of Latin American and European music and songs.

The concert included a short ceremony to award Roger Watson a Gold Badge from the English Folk Dance and Song Society for his life-time contribution to the English folk music scene.

The concert was presented as part of the Voces Festival, a festival of music and poetry celebrating Chilean & Latin American culture in the UK.

The Sheepstealers invited the Andover Museum Loft Singers to join them to sing an original new song written by Rob Bartholomew and Pete Uglow.  Although The Sheepstealers started the project earlier this year, due to Covid-19 the recordings have been made by all the individual performers at home and edited together to create this video.  We hope you enjoy this performance, the video has been uploaded at Full HD resolution so to enjoy the full impact select "1080pHD" in settings.

Discover more of The Sheepstealers on FaceBook

Sing Out! is the 2nd Covid-19 lockdown video project from Andover Museum Loft Singers. The song was written by the late Sarah Morgan, a former conductor of the choir, who wrote the lyrics and set them to the shape note tune "Russia" composed by Daniel Read. Here it is sung by members of the choir past and present, some on video others just on audio directed by Paul Sartin and edited by Matt Williams.

We are delighted to announce with thanks that we have been awarded a grant by the Test Valley Arts Foundation in support of our forthcoming Raise Your Voice – Again singing workshop on the 21st March. A limited number of places are still available.

Choir members, friends and relatives – a total of 37 individuals attended the annual Solstice Walk from Whitchurch to the White Hart, Stoke on the 22^nd December.  The weather was kind, no rain, very wet underfoot but worth the effort to join the crowd gathered for carol singing and the Mummers play.  A collection raised £102.63 in support of the Countess of Brecknock Hospice.  Thanks to all but especially Steve and Marion for their organising the event.    Mic Laird

We would like to thank the patrons of The White Hart, Bridge Street, The Redbridge, Wetherspoons and The Lardicake for their generous donations which enabled us to present £178.02 to the Andover Crisis Centre as result of our carol singing.    Mic Laird

AMLS choir members were invited by their Musical Director Paul Sartin to join him and his band Faustus at two of the summer's most prestigious Folk Festivals. Combining with a choir from the English Folk Dance and Song Society, and singing friends from Sidmouth and Whitby respectively, we were the chorus in a show of words, music and stories, entitled Living By The Sea. The show was written by storyteller Matthew Crampton, and Musical Direction was by Paul Sartin. Both Sidmouth and Whitby performances were enthusiastically received by festival goers.       Photographs: Barry Carter and Richard Gearey

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Each year in August, Andover High Street comes to life at Andover Shilling Fair celebrating the town’s Georgian heritage. The Georgian streets light up with a variety street performers, stalls, rides, horse drawn carriages and period costume, This year was no exception and Andover Museum Loft Singers entered into the festivities entertaining the crowds singing a varied set of songs under the direction of Paul Sartin.

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Members of Andover Museum Loft Singers joined a combined choir to take part in the Living By The Sea project on the Ham stage at Sidmouth Folk Festival August 2018. The performance was so well-received that we were asked to return for a repeat performance in 2019.

A fantastic evening on Saturday, 13th October 2018 with Andover Museum Loft Singers and friends at The Whitchurch Folk Club provided a magnificent feast of musical entertainment for our guests

Members of Andover Museum Loft Singers sang a varied selection of songs to entertain the crowd in the wonderful autumn sunshine on Saturday 20th October at Bere Mill Farm, Whitchurch

Andover Museum Loft Singers performing in Andover Methodist Church on 6th April 2019 in support of the Andover Rocks project. Andover Rocks is a fundraising music event for music intervention in adult mental health, raising money for the Community Mental Health Team.  (Click image to enlarge)

Andover Museum Loft Singers took part in RedFest 2019 in the Parish Hall, Whitchurch on the 6th April 2019.  This event was raising awareness & funds in support of preventing closure of The Red Post as a public house and it eventually becoming a community pub.   (Click image to enlarge)

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We had a wonderful afternoon at the Sarah Morgan Memorial Concert in The Guildhall, Winchester. Along with Alton Community Choir, Petersfield Community Choir, Spotlight Singers, Take Note and Winchester Community Choir, choirs which had been associated with Sarah, we praised her memory in song and helped to promote the Sarah Morgan Foundation.

54 singers attended a collaborative workshop between the AMLS and the B-Naturals in Whitchurch on Saturday 9^th February where a full day of effort saw the teaching and then recording of four songs. All arranged by the B-Naturals they included ‘Oh You Pretty Things – David Bowie; I Am The Walrus – John Lennon; Surfer Girl – Brian Wilson and The American Stranger (a new song for the B-Naturals).

Those that attended this very successful, enjoyable day ranged from far and wide – Alton to Frome and Oxfordshire were finally regaled to a very irreverent version of the Elvis Presley hit Blue Bijou – the tale of an aerial toupee – I Blew By You - which caused much merriment.

Sincere thanks to those that attended and the B-Naturals themselves for making the day so much fun.

Mic Laird – Andover Museum Loft Singers

Andover Museum Loft Singers supported this worthwhile event on Thursday 17th May 2018 at the Winchester Discovery Centre singing a number of songs from our extensive repertoire which were well received by an appreciative audience.

During December Andover Museum Loft Singers were involved in several events to raise money for charity.

On 9th December 2017 we took part in the "Stories For Homes" concert at St Michael's and All Angels Church in support of Shelter, we were pleased to support this concert which raised over £500 for Shelter.

Members of Andover Museum Loft Singers with conductor Cathy Mason

Carol Singing around Andover town centre pubs on the 14th December 2017 and the annual Solstice Walk on 18th December culminating at a song session at The White Hart, St Mary Bourne raised £82.82 for the Andover Crisis & Support Centre

Andover Museum Loft Singers is 20 Years Old

We celebrated our 20th anniversary with a Birthday Party for members past and present, and for our families, friends and supporters.  A wonderful time was had by all and we sang for our supper to entertain our guests, and ourselves!