The Christmas Truce preparations are coming on nicely thanks to the efforts of a relatively small group of highly motivated French & British people.
We are very lucky to be able to count on the following for their worthy contribution:
1. On guitar / mandolin we have the amazing trio of Derrick Llewellyn, Victor Piuk and the newcomer John Anderson who can do nice twiddly bits between verses. Without their input the Truce Carol Service would not go ahead. They accompany us on those great tunes such as John Lennon's Happy Xmas War is over, Greg Lake's I believe in Father Christmas and the popular Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer in French & English. This year we will sing three moving anti-war songs in English, French and German and we will be relying on our guitarists once more for their musical talents.
We also owe a debt of gratitude to our faithful pipers and drummer: Miccaïah Kesteloot and Pascal Lebeau. Their participation sets the skin tingling when they begin the notes to Little Drummer Boy, I'm Dreaming of Home and Auld Lang Syne.
2. We have a tight-knit group of singers who rise to the linguistic challenge of singing in four languages, even if they aren't always completely sure of what they are saying. The group is mainly made up of women and we would like to see a few more men getting involved ... but carol singing and such doesn't seem to be an acceptable pastime to most Frenchmen. I put it all down to what you do in school. I reckon that attending a religious assembly every morning at Grammar School did me no harm at all. I still love singing hymns, even if I have a pretty rotten voice, and I always recall our November assembly to commemorate Remembrance Day. Our Headmaster (Mr squeaky shoes Gibson) would recite the ode (exhortation) which was carved into his wooden lectern and he would remind us of the names on the roll of honour on the wall above our heads. I think that there is a cultural void in France because of the school system which has removed all traditional / cultural rituals from the schoolday.
3. We have been joined once again by a dynamic and very enthusiastic team from Dissidance which is a dance studio in the town of Albert. The President and founder of Dissidance Anne Ferrière is one of the dancers who loves the idea of dancing in church and being inspired by different themes in different languages. This year they have developed a series of movements that grew out of the German anti-war song Das weiche Wasser bricht den Stein. Their choreographer Tayeb Benamara had 24 hours to dream up a dance during a flying visit (just like last year) and he has succeeded once again.
So we continue to gear up for our annual Truce. We enjoy what we are doing and hope that others will venture out into the cold on December 19th to share a moment of festivity with us.
The Carol Service starts at 6.30pm in the church in Pozières. Before going into church you are invited to leave your dish of something (savoury or sweet) plus a carton or bottle of juice in the village hall in Contalmaison, as that is where we will be heading after leaving the church for the traditional Truce buffet.
