Archive Gallery

10th January 2024

Today we presented our last cheque to the amazing Marvels and Meltdowns Family Centre. The hard working staff were very thankful for the £1500 cheque raised from our previous gigs, we wish them all continued success in 2024. Any future funds raised by the The Stokes Bay Strummers will go to our next charity 'St Faiths Hub'.

Thank you to The Stokes Bay Strummers. (From M & M)

NOW TAKING 2024 BOOKINGS

The Stokes Bay Strummers ukulele band have had a very successful year. With 8 Christmas 🎄 gigs in the coming weeks we will have done 35 by the end of the year. We play well known songs from the 50s, 60s and 70s and play in retirement and care homes, W.Is and friendship groups for the elderly. In our 350 odd gigs so far, we have also played in schools, festivals, for birthday parties and a wedding!

We are a charity band and have raised well over £30,000 for local charities since we started in 2011. There is no fee, just an invitation to donate to our charity of the year. For 2024, this will be St Faiths Hub, another volunteer run charity helping their local community in Gosport. more details via the link:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/st-faiths-hub-leesland-gosport

We are now taking bookings for 2024 - please PM or e mail me (markvenables996@gmail.com) if you would like to book us or find out more.

18th November 2023

Facebook post by Mark

(2) We don’t normally post pictures from... - The Stokes Bay Strummers | Facebook

31st August 2023

Bridgemary Methodist Church Prideaux-Brune Ave Gosport,

We last played here in June 2023, another fun gig today, a great audience, we had dancing / singing and a conga!

We collected a total 0f £51.22 today for Marvels and Meltdowns.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

16th August 2023

Lee on the Solent Methodist Church High Street

An interactive audience, who danced and sang along with us, a great gig today.

We collected a total £62.72 for Marvels and Meltdowns.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

18th July 2023

Methodist retirement group. Crofton Community centre (room 5) Stubbington Lane, Stubbington

A bigger audience then expected this morning, gig went down well, collected £47.71 for Marvels and Meltdowns.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

13th July 2023

Marvels & Meltdowns cheque

A cheque for £1000 was presented to Michelle at Marvels & Meltdowns today, they were very grateful and thanked everyone at Stokes BayStrummers.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

27th June 2023

Bridgemary Methodist Church Prideaux-Brune Ave Gosport,

A fun gig today, £46.06 collected for Marvels and Meltdowns.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

7th June 2023

Lincoln Court, Sharon road, West End - SO30 3RF

A small strummers group today who produced another good gig, £71 collected, this will be for Marvels and Meltdowns.

Well done Sue on the chatty bits : O )

The Stokes Bay Strummers

24th May 2023

Blackbrook House Care home - Fareham

Our third visit to Blackbrook house, a seven strong team of Strummers today, we all enjoyed the gig today, we were presented a cheque for £50 (for Marvels and Meltdowns).

The Stokes Bay Strummers

Thursday 4th May 2023

Bridgemary Methodist Church

A great interactive audience, who were dancing and singing. The total money from our Gig Today was £88.36p, this will go towards our charity fund Marvels and Meltdowns.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

Thursday 18th April 2023

Tudor Lodge Nursing Home, 229 Newgate Lane

Another good gig today, we got a cheque for £50, this will go towards our charity fund Marvels and Meltdowns.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

Friday 31st March 2023

St Faiths Church, Tribe Road, Gosport

Another enjoyable gig with a good interactive audience, thanks for the tea and chocolate, much appreciated!

We made £78.65p towards our charity fund Marvels and Meltdowns.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

Monday 13th March 2023

Bury Lodge nursing home, Bury Road, Gosport

We had a very good gig today, albeit space was tight, the residents loved the gig, we were invited to come back on Thursday!

£50 towards our charity fund Marvels and Meltdowns.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

Thursday 23rd February 2023

Alverstoke House Nursing home, Somervell Close, Alverstoke

We all enjoyed our gig today, some lovely harmonies from the ladies. We had £40 in the envelope towards our charity fund Marvels and Meltdowns, which is very good as the care home is small. We look forward to our next one.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

Thursday 2nd February 2023

MHA community group. Bridgemary Methodist Church

Today was a very good gig. Around 25 in the audience. There was singing and 🕺too! We raised £50.94, mostly from the bucket so that was good too.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

26th January 2023

W.I. 4th birthday, BRWCA hall, Bridgemary school

Another good Gig today, the ladies at the W.I. donated £96.12 today for Marvels and Meltdowns, thank you : O )

The Stokes Bay Strummers

17th January 2023

Marvels and Meltdowns cheque presentation

The SBS cheque presentation (£1240) at the Marvels and Meltdowns family centre, they made us very welcome, thankyou.

All our remaining 2023 gig contributions will go to the Marvels and Meltdowns family centre.

Bookings are now coming in for 2023 so it should be an even better year!

The Stokes Bay Strummers

13th December 2022

Lee Art Group Christmas party - Lee on the Solent Methodist Church

Another good gig, despite the cold, The audience enjoyed themselves and thanked us for a good performance.
We collected £113 for Marvels and Meltdowns.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

29th November 2022

Friendship group, Columbas church hall, Fareham

Overall it was a good gig. The audience enjoyed themselves with arm waving and generally joining in from early on.
We collected £51.68 for Marvels and Meltdowns.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

21st November 2022

Brendoncare Gosport Monday Club

We had a really good gig today, returning to the Brendoncare group who we last played for 4 years ago.

We played and sang well, the ever increasing variety of instruments coming into play from early on. The audience really enjoyed it and were singing along from the start. Having arrived in torrential rain, the sun came out as we did 'Sunny Afternoon'.

We collected £68 for Marvels and Meltdowns - a good afternoon's work!

The Stokes Bay Strummers

17th November 2022

A lovely gig today at Pilbrow Court. They weren’t a big audience but they certainly enjoyed it and we raised £97.60 for Marvels and Meltdowns!

The gigs are coming thick and fast now with bookings coming in for 2023 too!

The Stokes Bay Strummers

14th December 2022

Women's Institute - Fareham Methodist Church, Kings Road

We collected £114.75 (for Marvels and Meltdowns) from our Gig today.

There was Five of us and we all enjoyed the event, the audience was great, we carried it off in our very energetic & enthusiastic way!

The Stokes Bay Strummers

5th November 2022

We played at 'On the water restaurant', Lee-on-the-Solent on Saturday 5th November.

It was a very good gig at Frank and Wendy's birthday party.

The accoustics were challenging but we persevered, played and sang well, and our audience really enjoyed it.

We were amazed when we checked the bucket - £190 for Marvels and Meltdowns!! Thank you very much to everyone there, this was an amazing contribution to our charity.

The Stokes Bay Strummers

3rd November 2022

Tudor Lodge nursing home, Newgate Lane, Fareham

A really good gig today in every sense! We had an enthusiastic audience helped by the care home staff who encouraged them!

14 played today, which is our biggest number since we came back post Covid. I thought we were very good. The audience joined in with singing and some movement. Well done to those who are new and have got straight into the gigs!

We were given a £50 donation for our charity (Marvels & Meltdowns) and they want us to play there again for Christmas.

21st October 2022

Blackbrook House Care home - 31 Blackbrook house drive - PO14 1NX

We had a very active staff and audience, a good time was had by all.

We have been invited back to play, which is excellent news.

We collected a cheque for £45, thank you,

this will be paid into our new local charity Marvels and Meltdowns

Marvels & Meltdowns (marvelsandmeltdowns.org.uk)

25th August 2022

HEDCA, Coombe Road Hardway Gosport

This gig was fun, a great audience of around 30.

Despite a very humid day / room, we played for about 45 minutes.

We collected £72.92 in the bucket, this will be paid into DEC Ukraine.

12th July 2022

Friendship group, Columbas church hall, Hillson Dr, Fareham

This gig was a blast.

A lovely audience of 25-30 in a nice room (although vvv 🥵 hot). They enjoyed our performance and many sang along and a few danced!

We collected £64.09 in the bucket and this will be added to the £18.10 from Saturday. Will be paid into DEC Ukraine.

They said they will invite us back and we should definitely go again!

9th July 2022

Crofton Anne Dale school summer festival (indoors) - Cuckoo lane Stubbington

£18.10 in the bucket (from a dwindling audience), we had a lot of competition from an outside band playing at the same time.

This will be combined with the takings from the next gig, to be paid into our charity, the DEC for Ukraine.

11th June 2022

Summer fete- St Faiths church

Well done Strummers, really good feedback and dancing, £8 in the bucket (plus an old £1 coin..),

We will pay £160 into our charity, the DEC for Ukraine ( including the money from the last gig)

9th June 2022

Stubbington garden party

Well done Strummers, another outdoor Gig, we contended with strong head winds (we were trying to catch our music in the wind) and our voices disappearing into the fence behind us!

We Made £151:83 from the lovely ladies from Stubbington Village W.I. The Lady in charge said she will be inviting us back.

5th June 2022

Alverstoke Street Party

Well done the strummers, they collected £69.95 in the bucket, for our charity, the DEC for Ukraine.

Some short movies of the afternoon: O )

20220605_130753.mp4

20220605_131131.mp4

1st June 2022

Crofton court - Stubbington

After a ‘tricky’ gig at the Halo lunch club last week we took the form we showed at last night’s practice into today’s gig - it was great!

A lively crowd really enjoyed themselves. It was Ada’s first gig (well done!) and we also played some first time songs - all went well!

They had prepared for the gig by collecting £55 for our charity, now paid in to the DEC for Ukraine.

24th May 2022

Halo lunch club - Kings Community church, Hedge End

Despite our small numbers and a large hall, we made the audience dance : O )

We collected £115 for the Ukraine appeal.

15th May 2022

Garden party for care home residents & families Catisfield Lane

A good gig today the audience enjoyed themselves.

£55 was collected in the Mexican hat for the Ukraine appeal, adverse weather prevented the outdoor performance.

16th April 2022

We had our second Stokes Bay Strummers Gig at Catisfield Memorial hall.

We had a good time, we were well recieved and looked after, a great crowd, we raised £160 for the Ukraine appeal !

29th February - Victory Court Gig - Gosport

Good Morning All

Hope you're all home from church Last night we made £101 80 in total. I was quite surprised when I opened the bucket. A very generous crowd I thought - if you can call twenty or so people a crowd. Well done everybody.

25th February - Halo Lunch Club Gig - Hedge end

Hello All

To let you know we have a total of £99.70 going into the coffers of our new charity. So off we go again!

8th February 2022

On Tuesday 8th February, we had our first Stokes Bay Strummers Gig at the Halo Lunch Club - Kings Community Church in Hedge End.

We had a good time entertaining the Halo Lunch Club, I believe we were well recieved, some got up to dance : O )

We have been practicing every Tuesday since last Autumn, it has been a challenge for everyone, to get over the lockdown and learn to play as one again.

Looking forward to our next gig!

19th December 2021 - Age Concern Locks Heath

Hello All,

We have had some enthusiastic audiences before, but this was a first to have them up and dancing half way through our very first song and then to stay on their feet for the majority of the rest of the Gig, we raised a total of £67.10.

17th December 2021 - Topsy's Christmas do

Hello All,

Topsy raised a total of £116.91.

A sterling result from her magnificent effort and time spent with the organising of what was a very successful "bash".

16th December 2021 - Castle View W.I Porchester

Hello All,

Strummers raised £65.71 in total today.

12th December 2021- Crofton Ladies Luncheon Club

Hello all,

The "Ladies wot Lunch" coughed up (pardon!! the pun) (excuse the pun again) £67.49 in the bucket, giving a total of £117.49. We're doing well!!

11th December 2021 - Fareham Flyer W.I. gig

Hello All,

Today we received a total of £105.60. We are doing quite nicely for our charity.

9th December 2021- Macular Christmas lunch gig

Today, including our fee we raised £115.16.

Another good effort.

7th December 2021 - Christmas tree festival

A very enjoyable gig, people commented “it is always lovely to hear The Strummers” "You sounded brilliant today” "I was bouncing around here at the back of the Church” "There was far too much merriment in the Church today with your music!”

3rd December 2021 Hillpark W.I.

There was the £50 fee, and in the bucket was £64.52, a grand total of £114.52. An excellent amount for our charity

26th November 2021 - Memory Cafe gig

Good Evening All

Just to let you know that yesterday we added another £65.84 to our charity total.

15th November 2021 - Thorngate Court, Gosport

Could you please forward this to all the strummers, of how the gig went today.

We had a good and happy gig, the audience joined in and appreciated the music we played. The total money for the charity was £50 fee and £24.30 in the bucket a figure of £74.30, good afternoons work.

Regards Irene

7th November- Fareham W.I.

Hello All

We made a total of £134.40 at our latest W.I. gig. We had 'em dancing in the aisles. (Well! some of 'em any way) and we left in the wake of many positive comments and promises of a return visit. We obviously gave them what they wanted and I think we did it with aplomb. I enjoyed it as much as they did. In fact I think the only omission was that we should have repeated the "Rock and Roll Medley". We stopped when it was just getting really lively which was a shame. Let's make the next ones as good.

Regards Roger

30th October - We were Young Once Club. Methodist Church Hall.

Evening All

Just to let you know we raised a total of £60.50 as a result of yesterday's efforts.

Regards

Roger

24th October - Lockswood Day Centre, Locksheath

Good Afternoon All

The bucket collected £6.33 today and we have the £50.00 fee.

Regards to All

Roger

8th October - The Halo Club - Hedge End

Hi strummers

This e mail is to inform you that the money we have received today at the Halo Club, Hedge End was £50 fee and in the bucket was £57, a grand total of £107.00. A good afternoons work and good gig with a very enjoyable audience.

Regards Irene

14th September Beer festival

Subject: Today’s GIG AT BEER FESTIVAL

Hi Roger,

Just to let you know that we had a successful gig today, but unfortunately due to us being on first the crowd was not at its height, so we had Fifty pound fee, and In the bucket we had £16.30 making a total of £66.30p. So if you could pass this onto all the strummers I would be grateful.

Regards Irene

https://www.facebook.com/nd/?groups%2F1911660358921452%2Fpermalink%2F2419719708115512%2F&aref=1568483352976150&medium=email&mid=59286b3811844G5af55a67b4c8G59286fd171b16G96&bcode=2.1568490555.Abxf2Qladce5O8OdK4Q&n_m=paulray22%40hotmail.com

13th September- Retirement Home. Thorngate Court

Good Evening All

Our total contributions today amounted to £72.50 from a very upbeat and appreciative audience. A good gig including and in spite of our deliberate

mistake(s).

Regards to All

Roger

7th September 2019 gig at Victoria Court, Gosport

Hi strummers,

Another good gig, the audience joined in with the singing, and some danced, and we had Fifty pound fee which was raised by them having a raffle, and in the bucket was £31.90p, in total £81.90. A good evening was had by all.

Regards Irene

1st June - Alverstoke - CHASE Africa - Quiz Night

I just wanted to say "Many Thanks" to you and The Stokes Bay Strummers for entertaining us last night. It would have been a dull evening without you to liven things up!!!

At the end of the evening several people told me how much they had enjoyed your performance so "Thank You" again.

You may be interested to know that we cleared over £350 which should change the lives of 70 Kenyan families.

Again, Many Thanks.

Best Wishes,

Mike W

10th May 2019 Gosport - Thorngate court.

Evening All

A total of £78.15 today. I thought it was a really good gig. Our audience certainly went away very happy and I received a lot of thankyous and come agains as a know so many of us did and a lady from the adjacent housing complex ( all part of the same group) said to Topsy and myself as we walked to the car that they would also be booking us later on, so-----onward and upward we go.

Regards

Roger

15th March 2019

Good Afternoon All

Just to let you know that we have now broken the £24,000 barrier total to all charities.

Well done to us!

Regards

Roger

12th March - Holy Rood Church Centre - Stubbington

Hello,

We made a total of £104.45 today including the £50.00 fee. I thought they were a lovely crowd and their pleasure was reflected in their generosity.

Roger

8th March - Brendon care centre - Gosport

Hi Strummers,

just a short e mail to inform you that we had £27.08 in the bucket, fee £50.00 a good total of £77.08, another good gig. hope you receive ok.

regards Irene

6th March - Empower Centre - Gosport

Hi Strummers,

This is just to inform you that we received in the bucket £24.84p, plus the Fee of £50.00, making a grand total of £74.84. Another good gig and audience to.

Regards Irene

5th March 2019 - Halo Lunch Club, Hedge End

Hi Strummers

Just to inform you that we had another good gig today, and we obtained £50.00 gig fee, and then in the Bucket we had £58.98, a grand total of £108.98p.

Well Done for our Charity.

Regards Irene

Breaking news

Two Saints, Fareham and Gosport is our new Charity of the Year.

Fareham & Gosport - Two Saints

28th February 2019 - Sunrise retirement home

Hi Strummers,

Just to inform you that it was a good gig today, and we received £50 fee, and £9.95 in the bucket, making a total of £59.95p,

Regards Irene

8th February 2019 - The Abbeyfield Winchester Society

Today's total came to £62.24. Short and sweet

Regards to All

Roger

October 2018

We have just passed the £22,000.00 milestone in the seven years we have been going!!!

Strummers have recently voted to support the Stubbington Memory Cafe for a second year as our chosen charity.

Following our gig at the Stubbington Community Centre on Tuesday 23rd October, Roger and Topsy presented another £1000.00 cheque for the Memory Cafe to Mandy Rowlands, Lockswood Day Centre Manger.