£600 for ‘Raise The Roof!’
In 2024, we received some upsetting news that no one wants to hear about their local church. The roof was unfortunately deteriorating to the point where it was starting to leak and crumble. Not good!
As you can imagine, it was an expensive repair job—one that couldn’t be covered right away. So, the Upton St. Leonards Parish Council, along with the amazing community within our village, all came together to help raise funds for the cost!
The Barn Dance
Several events were held to help raise funds. One was a barn dance hosted at the local Portway Farm shop in August, and another was our performance at the church itself. We were invited to perform at the barn dance as a form of live advertising for our upcoming event at the church, which was only a few weeks later. The barn dance was a huge success, raising an impressive £9,507.00! We performed in a smaller barn beside the main venue, playing for everyone as they arrived. Although our style of music was quite different from the barn dance, it was a lot of fun playing outdoors and giving people a preview of what was to come!
The Church Gig
Now, the gig itself! Since Upton St. Leonards is where we live, we wanted to make this event truly special for our local community. However, we faced a challenge we don’t often encounter—one that's especially difficult for drumming: we had to keep the noise down! As crazy as that sounds, we managed it quite well. Trust me, it’s not easy to play these huge drums quietly, especially when the very nature of taiko involves high energy and movement. We practiced hard for this gig, aiming to perfect our performance while adding the challenge of keeping the noise to a minimum.
We tried using soft sticks (drumsticks with felt beaters on the end), but we found they didn’t work as well as the proper bachi (traditional drumsticks). One Saturday morning, we took our drums to the church for a rehearsal to really focus on this. It was incredibly beneficial as it gave us firsthand experience of the acoustics and allowed us to pinpoint the right amount of force needed to maintain the impactful sound of taiko—without risking bringing the roof down!
We also brought in quite a few old rugs the day before the show to help dampen the volume, and they worked remarkably well!
The night finally arrives, and everyone is both excited and a little nervous—especially the members of the group who live in the village! It was so heartwarming to see our local community come out to support both us and the church. There were a few who seemed a bit apprehensive, as you might expect when there’s a concert of big drums beneath a crumbling church roof. Maybe we should have handed out hard hats!
All jokes aside, the performance went better than any of us had imagined. We put on the best show we could and kept the volume at a comfortable level, which definitely surprised several members of the audience. The show featured our full repertoire, audience interaction, and solos by myself, Oliver, and Theo. We also gained four new members from the village, all of whom joined the group after that performance!
Most importantly of all, we helped raise £600 for the church roof fund. We hope to perform at the church again and couldn’t be happier with the results!
