A school choir and a specially-written Christmas EP will give an extra sense of occasion to an annual charity concert

The ’Lesh Shee as Graih’ concert, which is set to take place next week at the St Ninian’s Church, Douglas, on Friday, December 11, from 7pm, will feature three new songs Christmas songs, written and recorded by songwriters Simon Rea, from Truman Falls, and Jeff Jepson, and will feature the Ballacottier School Choir and singer Ruth Keggin Gell.

The songs have been made available to download and will be available to buy as a CD at the concert.

The Ballacottier School choir have recorded ’Once upon a Wondrous Night’, which will be released along with ’Please Don’t Get me Anything’, recorded by the Jeff Jepson band and ’Oie Sheeoil’, the Manx Gaelic version of ’Silent Night’, sung by Ruth Keggin-Gell and Simon.

’In February this year myself and Jeff decided to write a Christmas song, which we were going to sing at the Graih concert,’ said Simon.

’But, as is the way of these things, it just seemed to escalate.

’I approached Katie Lawrence, who runs the Ballacottier school choir, which loved the song and thought it was a great idea.

’Then we ended up in the studio with Dave Armstrong and the song took on a life of its own.

’I think what we have done is something pretty special,’ he added.

’It is our fifth year of hosting the Graih concert at St Ninians and we wanted to do something to make it an extra special night.

’We are delighted to have Ballacottier school back again, as the last time they played, two years ago, they absolutely brought the house down. They had many people, including myself, in tears.’

The ’Lesh Shee as Graih’ concert, which translates as ’With Peace and Love’ in Manx Gaelic, is held to raise funds for the Manx homeless charity Graih.

Simon estimates that, over the course of the five concerts, they have raised more than £6,000 for the charity.

’The irony hit me during the lockdown that, even though we weren’t allowed to do much and were advised to stay inside, we still had homes to be locked down in,’ he said.

’There are people who didn’t even have that during that time.’

The Christmas EP single, produced with help by the Isle of Man Arts Council and Canada Life, will be available for £5 at the concert.

More information and tickets for the concert are £10, available by emailing [email protected]