Despite the unwelcome advent of the Omicron variant, the attendance at the WEOS December concert was only slightly below that of the November event. In such uncertain times it was pleasing that a very good number visited the Weyhill Fairground Hall to welcome Steve Hubble, from Broadmayne in Dorset, to perform the Club’s Christmas-themed concert.

Steve, who was making his fifth appearance at Weyhill, provided a delightful and varied selection of music throughout the evening, concentrating his Christmas selections in the second half of the concert. The performance was opened by the distinctive voice of Richard Burton, introducing Jeff Wayne’s Eve Of The War (from War Of The Worlds). This was followed by the ever-popular Wind Beneath My Wings (a Bette Midler hit) and the late Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman.

A change of style was then introduced by way of George Gershwin’s ‘S Wonderful and a Joe Loss Cha Cha titled Poppa Yo Quero, before a Swing number, Sway, in the style of Michael Bublé. Then, arguably, came the highlight of the evening, at least judging by the applause ….. Somewhere (Bernstein and Sondheim) from West Side Story, for which Steve utilised Barbra Streisand’s arrangement.

Big Band music was represented by Splanky, in the style of Count Basie, before Steve demonstrated his love of John Barry’s compositions by performing the theme from Dances With Wolves. To bring the first half to a close, the audience was entertained with three more tunes: The Look Of Love (Burt Bacharach), The Impossible Dream (from the musical Man Of La Mancha) and New York, New York (a well-known hit for Frank Sinatra).

After the interval, Steve accompanied the audience with a few traditional Christmas carols before continuing with a wide-ranging medley of popular festive tunes, too many to mention but most of which were easily recognisable. However, two tunes could possibly be deemed unfamiliar, namely the theme Somewhere In My Memory from the film Home Alone and Barry Manilow’s Because It’s Christmas, both of which were well received. For his finale, Steve played a few more carols and, although the concert had gone over time everyone stayed to hear an inevitable encore – O Holy Night, as performed by Celine Dion.

Steve certainly made sure the audience had an excellent start to the Christmas period, and it was hoped that the excellent standard of entertainment would be allowed to continue into 2022.