NW Air Ambulance Hallowe’en Ceilidh

It was all Greta’s idea. And Bill’s.

The original plan was to try to give something back to the NHS for all the hard work and sacrifices made during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unfortunately that was going to be an administrative nightmare, so…. 

They came up with A Plan to raise funds for the North West Air Ambulance, a service that relies totally on charitable subscriptions in order to operate. They get no government support.

Now flying helicopters around isn’t cheap, and if our caring Conservative government can’t be mithered to finance this vital emergency service, then we’d try to do our bit.

New Mills Town Hall was hired, the Hopgoblin Big Band all signed-up, and the publicity campaign began: FaceBook, direct emails, word of mouth, knocking on doors, posters in New Mills businesses, fly-posting (tsk), and mithering the blazes out of everyone we came across all, played their part.

It seemed to have worked: the hall was filled on the night, nearly everyone was in fancy dress, and the band were on fire. It was damned hard work, but well worth the effort.

You helped raise:

£1000

from ticket sales, donations, and a raffle.

Pretty good eh? 

So thanks to the good folk of New Mills and those from (much) further afield who came along and bopped to the band – we’re all extremely grateful for your support.  

Oh, and we enjoyed ourselves too!

Photos from the evening are here.

Our next public ceilidh will be on New Year’s Eve, at the Morley Green Club, Wilmslow SK9 5NT. Details will follow shortly.

NW Air Ambulance Fund Raiser: 30th October 2021

HopGoblin Ceilidh Band have always run our New Year's Eve and Summer Solstice ceilidhs as not-for-profit, ticket money goes to hire the hall and to pay for materials needed on the night, the band doesn't get paid.

We're charging a bit more for this one because it's a fund-raiser for NW Air Ambulance, an emergency service that relies totally on charitable donations - the government pays nothing.

The band have paid for the hire of New Mills Town Hall, again the band won't take a fee, so the maximum amount of cash can go to support North West Air Ambulance.

Tickets available soon.

Thanks - and we hope to see you on the night!

 

Socially distanced music session. 24th June 2020

…with cake!

Ed kindly offered the use of his back garden to sit and play music whilst maintaining a safe and sensible distance from one another. 

It was a rather hot day, knocking 30degC – that’s a lorra lorra degrees C.
We drank refreshing tea, we scoffed delicious Victoria Sponge (baked by Ed’s lovely wife), and played music that left us invigourated, refreshed…and maybe just a bit hot and sweaty.

Up until now(ish) our music sessions have been more or less restricted to online Zooming – along with all it’s limits.

Music via Zoom is all very well, it helps you keep your hand in, but there’s nowt like playing together – separated yet in a group.

So that’s precisely what we did, and that is exactly what we’re going to keep doing until it’s safe to do otherwise. 

We’re waiting for pubs to re-open. Singing and playing music in a pub is likely to be a no-no for a while, most likely until an effective vaccine becomes available. In the meantime the possibilities of playing outside pubs, ie beer gardens, is looking to be the best option. 

Here’s a little of what we played at Ed’s – recorded by Mrs Ed (baker of the finest of Victoria Sponges):