It was, weatherwise, the most appalling night of the winter so far so I can imagine many people deciding to opt for a Saturday night in front of the telly.  However those who did make the effort to come to the Comm to see and hear The Jiveoholics seemed to be glad they had, judging by the enthusiastic dance-floor action and the warm applause the band received.
As usual, the Comm's catering was impressive and as delicious "snacks" were ferried one after another to the tables there must have been many who worried whether they'd be physically able to get up and dance.
But once Steve from Cool Moves Dance urged us onto the dance floor to receive some jive instruction almost everyone was up and ready to give it a go.  Afterwards Steve was full of praise for the enthusiasm of the Knighton crowd, and by the time the band came on even the least talented dancers in the hall (ie me) could manage a jive move or two.
The Jiveoholics themselves were an entertaining loudly-dressed bunch of top-class musicians who stamped their own character on two hours' worth of jive and swing classics.
At the end both the Cool Moves Dance team and The Jiveoholics themselves had nothing but praise for the hall and the organisation and though the low attendance meant that the Community Centre barely met its costs and though the setting up of the hall after the Food and Craft Market, the preparation of all the food and the promotional work of producing posters, flyers press releases left the organisers  exhausted, in terms of satisfied gig goers the night must be judged a great success.
Let's just hope that next time a few more Knightonians make the effort to support their local venue and experience for themselves great live music on their own doorstep.

PS  Once again, thanks to the good people at the Arts Council of Wales Night Out scheme, without whose financial support events like this would simply not be possible in Knighton.

If you've been hesitant about buying tickets to the Jiveoholics gig on November 24th because of concern that your jiving skills may not be up to public appraisal, fear not because experts from Cool Moves Dance have offered to do a 30 minutes jive basics training session at the start.  Whether it'll get you to the standard of the couples in the video cannot be guaranteed but hey, come along and have a go.  It should be a laugh as long as your partner doesn't mind a few bruises.  And if you discover a previously undiscovered skill you could just win a £20 cash prize for best jiving couple courtesy of an anonymous donor.  
See you there.

With just three more Knighton Saturday markets to Christmas, it's time to give thought to the environment, your nerves and where to buy interesting, individual, hand-crafted Christmas gifts.   Not only will the market be featuring an impressive range of crafts from knitted items to beautiful turned wood, coopered tankards, jewellery, collages and floral displays but also books, eco-house-ware, home-made chutneys, jams, pates and more.  Plus of course the fresh veg and meats that are going to be such a big part of Christmas Day. All in a warm, dry hall complete with great cafe and in December we will have mulled wine, mince-pies and live music to make Christmas shopping locally as enjoyable as possible.  On December 8th Menna Breeze will be returning with her Welsh harp and on December 22nd there will be the  Llanfair Singers, raising the roof with the sound of a choir of as many as forty leading the carol singing. 
Suddenly braving icy roads to get to the big shopping destinations with crowded high streets and the predictable gift choices offered by the big chain stores doesn't seem like such a great idea.  

The November 24th gig with the Jiveoholics can now be promoted as an educational experience as well as a great fun night.  The very nice people at Cool Moves Dance, who currently hold regular jive classes at Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Leominster and around the Hereford area, have agreed to send along one of their jive experts to launch the gig with a 30 minute jiving lesson.  So those who have some jiving hours under their belts can brush up their cool moves - and those like me can avoid looking quite so useless when hitting the dance floor later in the evening.  
It promises to be a very interesting night.