New Season at the Ridings 12th September, 2025 

     (by our Suffolk correspondent)

Report Phil Barr videos Joe Fisher photos by Barbara

    Another unsettled looking forecast for a Friday in September failed to disturb the stoic band that is Wakeylele as they presented once more at the Ridings shopping centre, this time under the leadership of Chris Haywood – Poole. Tuesday’s rehearsal had led to a slight change in the programme with Wild Side of Life being replaced with the upbeat Urban Spaceman, but other than that, the eclectic line-up of songs remained with an Oasis classic rubbing shoulders with Willy Nelson.

  And… from what I can gather from a variety of independent and very reliable sources, Chris led the band with great aplomb in what was his debut as leader at a larger venue, having first cut his teeth in the more intimate surroundings of Walton library, where books by John Grisham probably outnumbered the audience. By all accounts, this time, the audience was not only present in much larger numbers, but people were swaying in the aisles by the time the throbbing beat of YMCA was ringing out, (according to Dave Flatters). Rumours that amongst the crowd of onlookers was a person wearing dark glasses and a moustache, making notes, could have been a chap we know from Crofton are unsubstantiated, although when he was heard to ponder aloud whether a particular song would sound better in G rather than C, it did raise my suspicions. Talking of David – whoops – he will be wiping the surface rust off one of his ukes to lead the weekly session on Tuesday and I can already inform him that to keep our spirits up while driving through torrential rain accompanied by thunder and lightning, we were singing along to my favourite song, Enjoy Yourself (ah-em). 

  Well done to Chris and the band, and to Dave F and Joe for the admin and video, which has just popped up, and to Richard for his continuing valued work in the background.

   There were donations into the bucket of £44.90 by the publicand the YAA stall took £303,59 totalling £348.49