A full house at the Melville Theatre last week saw local charity, Love Zimbabwe raise essential funds for their projects in Zimbabwe.

The enthusiastic crowd was treated to a spectacular musical evening.

First on was organiser David Holman’s band – Artificial Intelligence featuring well known local musicians, Matt Watkins, Jim Ramsey, Nick Smith and Dave Williams. They played a set comprising self- penned songs by David Holman himself.

After the band vacated the stage, David then played two solo songs followed by a beautiful rendition of Countryside Princess by Tanaka Holman.

After a brief talk by Samantha Vhazhure from Carnelian Heart Publishing, Tom Ward-Jackson came on to regale the audience with some haunting traditional folk songs. His expressive voice and guitar kept the crowd very attentive and he received much well deserved applause.

After a short break, MC Catrin Cribb introduced Zim Voices, who sported a full six- piece lineup with fabulous interlinking harmonies. A carefully chosen selection of traditional Zimbabwean songs followed, one after the other. Each received with huge enthusiasm. The girls sang and then danced as the tempo increased. By the end of the set some of the audience danced along with the band. To finish off this amazing evening, David Holman returned to sing Torara ma sei with Zim Voices which translates from Shona as – How can we survive. Lastly, everyone sang the anthem of the evening- All you need is love.

The event raised over £1,000 which will go towards a new project that Love Zimbabwe is initiating in Zimbabwe. A portion of land has been identified which will be developed as a conservation project which will focus on self-sufficiency.

David commented. “This event would not have been possible without all of those who contributed. I would like to thank the members of my band who dedicated their own time to support the charity. Also, thanks to the Melville Centre for hosting the evening. Without the fantastic contribution of David Price who worked his wizardry with the sound we would have been completely lost!

“Many thanks to Tom Ward-Jackson and to ZimVoices for giving their all to make it such a memorable event. Big thanks also to Catrin Cribb for keeping things going and to Holly, Jessica, Tanaka and Pauline for organising the raffle. Praise should go to both Glen Edwards and Delwyn Edwards who once again gave their time to film and take photographs. And finally, thanks to Martha for support and huge thanks to those who attended and gave their time and money to help change things in Zimbabwe.”