hampshire guitar orchestra newsletter

This is a web-archive of the Newsletter we emailed to our subscribers in July 2007

The passage of time may mean that some links to external sites are out of date or broken

ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER

This free newsletter is a small-scale production to keep you in touch with what's happening in hago - we always include links into our main website where you can read more, see photos and explore still further, so do click when you see a link...

Welcome to the many people who have subscribed since last issue - here's where you find out what we're up to.

NOT ANOTHER NEWSLETTER?

Well yes, we're sending this one a little ahead of schedule because we stop to enjoy the glorious English summer soon - we don't hold concerts in the biting cold & rain of January & February and we don't hold concerts in the scorching heat - no wait, the biting cold & rain - of August either. So read on and find out when you will catch us again!
And it's soon - don't miss it!

CONCERT NEWS

We played a really fun concert down in Southsea in early June, to help raise funds for the Street Pastors scheme - friendly help on the streets of Portsmouth late at night, when youngsters are at their most vulnerable. By serendipity (we love that word) - the concert raised exactly £500 - a "monkey" to all our cockney subscribers and Eastenders fans.
And it was the biennial (we love that word too) hago "staff outing" to our wonderful friends Cambridge Guitar Orchestra (CGO) 9 days ago... a cracking concert with some great people - a chance to renew fierce (pretend) rivalries during the concert and generous (genuine) hugs afterwards at our now legendary post-concert party at the local hotel. You'll know that pop groups have a reputation for trashing their hotels before they leave. We did too. But in that most British way - we left a peanut in the lounge, and two people didn't make their beds properly before they checked out....

WHAT'S COMING UP?

Our final concert before we break for our Summer Hols is but a few days away - we're at St Faith's Church Havant, close to our spiritual home - on July 7th at 7:45pm.
It's a big church, so there's no need to pre-book, just come along to the very middle of Havant and help support hago support St Faith's Organ Restoration Appeal.
Now the cigarette ban has hit home, it's time to concentrate on pipes. Organ pipes... For more details and a map, visit our July 7 page on our website...

Come and meet us "out of uniform" at the John Stripe Theatre, University of Winchester on Saturday July 21st at 7:45pm, when we're in the audience, supporting some of the planet's finest young guitarists at the first ever World Youth Guitar Festival. The planet's finest? Yup - the concert includes guitarists from both hemispheres!
See www.wygf.org - come and encourage the next generation of music-makers!

After the summer break we have some wonderfully special events...

Come down to Bognor Regis on September 2nd at 13:30 and hear us in the Bandstand; then, when we're done, watch grown men leap off the pier and flap their arms. Yes - it's the 2007 Birdman of Bognor - that celebration of quintessential English Eccentricity - we're proud to be associated with it for the third year in succession.

And come on down to the Portsmouth Guildhall on September 29th - we're playing as part of a massive concert with Milton Glee Club - we're promised an audience of 1500.
Come along and make it 1501!

We've concerts in Four Marks for some GPs, in Wickham for some Nuns, in Southwick for the local Hospice and in North End for... well, they have so many causes they're still deliberating.

You can always get an up-to-date list on our concerts page

RECRUITMENT NEWS

Over the summer we're losing one of our players and that means we hope to welcome another guitarist into our ranks - someone who likes that heady blend of commitment & concert! Fancy having a go on one of our different sizes of guitar? Well, you might just be the person we need to join our team - 12 concerts a year is great fun, believe you me!

Are you just a learner? Well, tell your teacher that we have an opportunity for the right person here which is pretty much unique, and as a learner, why not join our MD's Guitar Workshop.

REPERTOIRE

We've polished up those three new pieces we told you about last time. Complete with choreography...
What has Power Walking to do with guitar? Well, you'd best come and see us again :-)

WEBSITE NEWS

A little change to our website front page means you can see exactly when more "news" is added to our website.

Do call back often - it changes on a weekly basis.

We hope to meet many of you on July 7th - hope you manage to make the best of our damp and gloomy summer!

We're back again suntanned (or rusty) as the evenings start to draw in...