hampshire guitar orchestra newsletter

This is a web-archive of the Newsletter we emailed to our subscribers in December 2009

The passage of time may mean that some links to external sites are out of date or broken

ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ... Almost 120 readers now!

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 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. You're all very welcome :-)

LATEST NEWS

So what's been happening?

Quite a lot actually - pin back your ears - here comes the news!

Since we last wrote we've finished the calendar year's concert commitments with two more concerts.

The first is our now traditional concert for our local Hospice - the Rowans Hospice in Purbrook - we raised over £800 to go towards their provision of quite wonderful care and love for those who need it so very much.

And then last night, hot off the press (well, cold off the press actually - it was snowing as we drove home), it was our "Carols and Curry"...
A small concert at one of the Sheltered Accommodation complexes in Portsmouth - individual flats and a communal lounge with lots of wardens and helpers (us men take our lives in our hands there - some of the women thought we were very young and dashing!)
And then a few hundred yards up the road to a little restaurant for our once-a-year get-together.

We have a few more pounds to add to our fund-raising total, but this year, it's grown to almost £48,000 and proof, if ever there was a need to state the obvious, that in a recession, people are still happy to be generous when it's for people less fortunate than themselves.

WHAT'S COMING UP?

It's the close season for hago right now - we don't want to sit in a stone church in shirtsleeves till we're sure spring is on its way.

But we have some excellent concerts lined up for 2010, and we'll send you details of each of them in good time, and as soon as we have the ticket price and booking information.

A reminder that if you want guitar lessons, Derek, our MD has one-to-one vacancies during the day - ideal if you are retired or working flexible hours. You can "reply" to this email, but if you want to read up a bit more first, visit Derek's brand new tuition pages. You see, you might just find that someone's given you a nice guitar for Christmas!

PLAYERS

We are very hopeful that a diploma-level guitarist who is moving into the area will be joining us after Christmas, but that doesn't mean that we don't welcome enquiries from other players too. Our overall standard is improving, so we're really looking for someone who is at least Grade 6. You can find more details here on our website.

WEBSITE NEWS

Now this is where there's been a tremendous amount of things happening.

We moved our website over the summer, and it's given us a lot more storage. We've put together some galleries from the years gone by, mainly for those players who've left us and moved out of the area - two to Australia, one to the Channel Islands, one up north. But we've also grouped together some photos that show the fun we've had

with Cambridge Guitar Orchestra (our next joint concert is in Portsmouth in June) - scroll down - there's a lot to see!
with West Sussex Guitar Club who have been so supportive and encouraging
at the Birdman of Bognor - perhaps the most eccentric thing happening on the South Coast of England!

There's a contents list for all our galleries at this page.

It's part of our living history - information that we just don't want to throw away.

All our Newsletters are archived now, as well, at this page.

And you can find us on Facebook too.
If you're not a member, you can read all our latest news. Check out the Boxes and Wall tabs.
If you're a member, become a Fan - then you can get automatic reminders about our next concert, and get occasional news posted to your NewsFeed. Sounds a bit alien? Well, click the link and see!

A CHRISTMAS WISH

It's just a week to go until Christmas Day. With subscribers all over the world, in different climates, and with different beliefs, it's not easy to find a message that sums everything up.

For us on the South Coast of England, we are looking out on snow - a real rarity in these parts, even in the coldest part of winter - and that makes us feel Christmassy, I can tell you!

But whether you believe in the message of Christmas or not, it is a time of year when we are rightly encouraged to think of others who are less fortunate.

Virtually every concert that we play is in aid of a local charity, so all of us in hago thank the many of you who ARE able to come to our concerts, for all you have done this year to help raise money to help provide goods and services for those in need.

We hope too, that you'll be able to come to one of our concerts in 2010, and help us again do what we do best - run concerts that raise money for charity.

From all fourteen of us in hago, we wish you the merriest of Christmases and, more importantly may you have good health and good fortune in 2010, and the energy to use both of them to the full.