Following the success of last year’s ‘Big Jubilee Sing’ for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee (see photos above, here and on The Chiswick Calendar), St Michael & All Angels Church and The Tabard pub are inviting Chiswick residents to celebrate the Coronation with ‘The Big Sing for the King’.
The event will take place on the afternoon of Saturday May 6th 2023 – Coronation Day – on the piazza and lawn outside St Michael & All Angels Parish Hall. Singers will be provided with song sheets and there will be a lead singer and an outdoor bar.
Download the Song Sheet here:
THE BIG SING FOR THE KING song sheet FINAL
Fr Kevin Morris, the vicar of St Michael & All Angels, and John Higginson, landlord of The Tabard, said: “We were delighted so many people came and sang last year – and many told us they wanted to do it again. We’ll be singing some of last year’s favourites and some new ones, including several by performers and songwriters who lived in Chiswick or Ealing.”
‘The Big Sing for the King’ has been scheduled to run from 4.30 to 5.45pm on Saturday May 6th so as not to clash with any ‘Big Lunch’ street parties taking place on the Saturday and Sunday of the Coronation weekend. The bar will open at 4pm.
The songs will be published shortly and the singing will be led by Piers (right), a young musician who performs locally at a range of pubs and bars in Chiswick including George IV, The Tabard and The Pilot. Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, Piers is inspired by a wide range of music from seventies rock to modern pop music resulting in a unique style. Always enthusiastic to get the party going, Piers sings the songs people want to sing along to, from the old classics to today’s hits.
The first time St Michael’s and The Tabard came together for a royal event was in 2011 for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Over 40 couples took part in a service reaffirming their wedding vows, followed by drinks at the Tabard. Ten of the couples had been married for over 40 years, and seven for over 20 – helping celebrate more than 800 years of marriage in total.
The Arts & Crafts church and pub face each other on Bath Road W4, two minutes’ walk from Turnham Green tube station. They were designed in the late 1870s by the influential architect Richard Norman Shaw, as focal points of Bedford Park, the world’s first garden suburb.
Both buildings were praised by John Betjeman, who was the first patron of the Bedford Park Society. You can read more about the history of the area here – and here.
The Tabard is a Greene King pub. Read more.
