A rose for Ronnie,

David woke me with sad news this morning.  

He'd had a call from our friend Andy to let him know that another friend Ronnie, had passed away this morning.  It came as a huge shock as we hadn't known he'd been ill.  He had only shared his terminal diagnosis with his close family.  

I first met Ronnie way back in 1979 when he was a young music teacher at my High School.  I remember being insanely jealous of my friend who was in his music class as they were getting to sing the songs from Grease whilst my class was studying the Marriage of Figaro.  Boring by comparison in the eyes of an almost-teen with a massive crush on John Travolta.

Our school music dept had a Junior Choir (S1-3) and a Senior Choir (S4-6) both of which were under the control of another of our great music teachers, John Seggie.  
In addition to this, Ronnie took the cream of the senior choir and set up The Madrigal Group, four lads and four girls who sang unaccompanied and sounded absolutely amazing.  I can remember sitting at school concerts, prize giving etc and being astounded very time I heard these eight unaccompanied voices singing together.  It was goose bump inducing and they became well known and were invited to sing all over the region.

Of course good things must come to an end, but this was too good to end, and when the 8 individuals left school, they wanted to carry on singing together so Ronnie agreed to keep the group going in his own time and New Day was born; a vocal harmony group with him as musical director and a gradually increasing membership.  David joined when he was 20 and celebrated his 33rd anniversary of being in the group just two weeks ago.

So Ronnie has been a friend and been in our lives for a very long time.   David more than mine as he attended rehearsals every Tuesday evening, as well as the concerts of course.   

In our twenties a fair bit of our social life centred round the group and the after concert parties.  So many fun and happy memories.  A large number of our circle of friends today are group members. 

Of course the group has grown and changed over the years with members leaving as their lives took them in different directions and away from the area, and many returning at later stages of their lives.  Through it all there are a number of core of members, David being one, who have been there for many years, including a few who were in the original madrigal group.  It says so much about how highly thought of Ronnie is, that the group has gone on for so long.

During lockdown Tuesday night rehearsals have been taken over by zoom meetings.  Not much chance to sing but a way to keep in touch and discuss plans for next year's 40th anniversary of the group.  How incredibly sad to know that Ronnie was taking part in these discussions whilst knowing he wouldn't be around to join in the celebrations.   

So we are all very shocked and saddened tonight, especially as due to covid restrictions, we won't be able to say goodbye properly or give Ronnie the send off he so deserves.  

A man dedicated to music and people, he will be sorely missed.

Thank you Ronnie.  Sleep tight  x