NOTE: TICKETS WILL BE ON SALE ON THE DOOR FROM 7PM - £3 EACH.

Join us for an evening of acoustic Christmas music with singer/songwriter Gareth Davies-Jones.

It is late in the evening and in the year…

A last whispered greeting is conveyed by one neighbour to another. People are hushed except for the odd cough, splutter or soft shuffle as clothing riffles over cold, old oak. The only light rises and falls from flickering candlelight. Amongst the gathered there is expectancy, longing and anticipation.

Six men rise (for it was men in those days) and clear their throats. They begin to sing in a low drone like way, almost a chant. It would not be musical to some ears but yet the words they bring carry meaning, passion and devotion like on no other night in no other month of the year.

It is The Darkest Midnight in December and for nearly three hundred years the Kilmore Carols have been sung like this across the twelve days of Christmas in the Kilmore Parish of County Wexford, South East Ireland.

Gareth tells us the inspiration behind his two Christmas albums and his annual Christmas Acoustic Tour:

"I am constantly inspired by the many different ways that all round the world, the Christmas story is drawn down into the local tradition. Its message of new birth, hope and reconciliation understood by setting it against the backdrop of our everyday, our landscape, our seasons, our weather! This December, drawing upon the experience of nearly ten years of performing on the Nine Lessons Christmas Acoustic Tour, I’ll be travelling around the country trying to create a simple musical retreat - a space away from the hustle, bustle and busy of what Christmas might have become, but what it was never meant to be.

So, armed with a variety of instruments and a selection of stories and anecdotes, you’ll be taken on a journey through some of my favourite songs and carols of Advent and Christmas. Listen, sing along, remember, look to the future, lose yourself in the music. Whatever you do, the aim is to transport you, rather like that dark night in Kilmore, into the wonder and simplicity of the story that has only just begun.

"Every year, I’ve been putting aside time in December to do special gigs on the theme of Advent and Christmas. Music has always been an integral part of the Christmas season for me, yet often the carols and songs drift by on a high street wave of over‐familiarity that takes away the original potency and impact their writers intended.

"With fresh interpretations, arrangements, melodies, and with a little background on the writers themselves, I hit the road with some of the best known seasonal works intent on helping people to look again. Year on year people have said to me how they appreciated some time away from the inevitable hustle and bustle, to sit back and re‐engage with the wonder of Advent and Christmas.

"The gigs are usually intimate, cosy events in atmospheric venues. The aim is to enjoy the music, hear the stories, relax in good company and reconnect with a story that has often been buried too deeply amongst our headlong rush to December 25th."

Ticket Prices / Free Tickets

We have tried to keep the admission cost as low as possible. If the face value of the ticket remains too high for your current circumstances and would prevent you and/or your family attending, we would like to offer you a free ticket(s). Please contact us in confidence through www.sjr150.org.uk for details of how you can obtain one or more complimentary ticket(s).