St Andrew's, Dearnley

Gifted

Please make a note in diaries of a social event at St Andrew's, Dearnley on Saturday, 24 September which will take the form of a 'Lancashire Night' and will feature the Wigan-based band 'Gifted', a group of talented musicians who, in the past 18 months, have raised thousands of pounds for churches, charities and other good causes in and around the Wigan area.

Full details, such as ticket price, start time, supper etc, will not be known until after the next meeting of the social committee, but it should be a cracking evening that will potentially raise lots of money for Church and our Wider Welcome scheme as well as providing another opportunity for everyone to let their hair down and have, on this occasion, a 'reet gud do'!

All the relevant information will be released as soon as it is available, but we felt it was wise to give everyone advance notice of the event in the hope that we will have a full house, a great evening and raise significant funds for Wider Welcome. In the next week or two we may be in a position to release details of significant financial support for the event from a corporate source, but more of that later.

The band call themselves 'Gifted' as a play on the words 'Gift Aid', given that most of their concerts involve fund-raising for churches, charities or other organisations. A six-piece band, they play a wide range of music including, Folk, Celtic, Ballads, Rock n Roll, Country, Fifties, Sixties, Shadows instrumentals, Modern, Music from the Shows and Gospel, to name but a few.

The band is comprising of Pat Fisher, Mike Fisher, Gareth Dickinson, Craig Claxton, Jamie Harrison and Tony Bostock.

Pat is a classically trained singer and is renowned for her beautiful voice. She has recently sung "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth" as a solo in front of a choir of 300 and an audience of 2,000 people. She is extremely versatile and can sing anything from opera, to ballads and even Mike Harding. She plays keyboard and has sung with many top names in her career.

Mike is a classically trained guitar player, plays lead rock n roll, plays the banjo and is involved with vocals.

Gareth is another lead guitarist and is "Wigan's answer to Hank Marvin". His ability to capture the "Shadows sound" is uncanny.

Craig is a talented drummer and percussionist and helps "drive" the band.

Jamie is the bass guitarist and has played with the Wigan Jazz Youth Orchestra, played all over the world and is also a fine singer.

Tony plays 12-string guitar, mandolin, keyboards and has been known to sing a couple of songs.

They all live in the Wigan area and are good friends. They have all played music for many years, but the band has been together for 18 months and is constantly in demand.

Tony said: "We are really looking forward to coming over to Littleborough, to sharing the evening with you and, collectively, to raising lots of money for your great project."

While the evening will be based on a traditional 'Lancy neet' --- they're all Lancy lads and lassies and Tony comes originally from 'Owdham' --- it may not be exclusively so because 'Gifted' has so many other 'strings to its bow'.