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The Screaming Donkeys played two festive gigs in December ’25, one at the Victoria Rooms in Milverton, Somerset, and the other in St Leonard’s Church, Eynsham, Oxon. Both were great gigs, enjoyed by all and only slightly hindered by David having shut his thumb in the car door shortly before the Milverton gig!

The Eynsham gig was especially good with about 200 people filling the church and the response from the audience afterwards was really positive with several indicating they would be coming back to the church for other events/services. Sadly, Phil and his mandolin were not able to travel to Eynsham, but we were really pleased to be joined by Alan and his cor anglais for several songs – he played superbly with virtually no time to rehearse with the rest of the Donkeys.

Our favourite comment after the Eynsham gig was that “the Screaming Donkeys have broken the mould for carol services”. We couldn’t agree more and long may it continue!

It’s been a few years, but December ’25 saw the release of a new Christmas album by The Screaming Donkeys called Join The Chorus.

It features a great selection of carols old, very old, and brand new. As ever, the approach is largely unorthodox and a few tracks may take some by surprise. We challenge you to find a version of The Coventry Carol that comes close to this one, and the new sections of a driving rendition of Ding Dong Merrily On High lift it from being a Christmas ditty to a great rock-stomp!

Down In Yon Forest, with it’s lilting refrain of ‘And I love my Lord Jesus above anything’, is certainly one of our favourites and a great album closer. It’s not found in many carol books, but it snuck into The Cambridge Hymnal (1967) while no-one was looking, as did another of our favourites, Chanticleer – a carol about a rooster waking everyone up early on the morning of the Nativity to proclaim that salvation is born among us. Midwinter is a new haunting and beautiful rendering of the popular old carol by Christina Rossetti. Unusually, it’s a carol we’ve recorded before, but then so too is God Rest You Merry Gentlemen which is mostly a new recording, but also lifts a lot of the instrument parts and vocals from our previous recording circa 2010.

The title track of the album is a new song based upon Nicholas Breton’s accounts of olde English Christmas customs and celebrations, as described in his book Fantasticks published in 1627. Some of the games and activities he described are probably not suitable to sing about in a Church Christmas celebration, so we left those out!

The album is available to stream from the usual platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon et al, or you can get the audio-CD by ordering via the Contact Form or coming to one of our festive gigs – if there’s any copies left by then, that is.

In October ’25 we spent a positive and contemplative day at My Father’s House with a local church home group. We worked through a variety of things from considering fundamental questions like ‘Why do we need to be saved?’ (and finding there are several reasons) to creating our own Psalms. We also looked at the Gospels to see how Jesus deals with each person differently, according to who they are and their circumstances. The day was rounded off with an informal service of worship, including Communion.

One person wrote afterwards: “Thankyou so much for your hospitality and the relaxed atmosphere created for us to be able to listen to what God was saying. I found it very helpful.” That’s just what we were hoping for too 🙂

October 2025 saw a reduced line-up of the ‘Donkeys playing for the Pawlett Harvest Supper again where a good time was had by all as we covered songs by Simon & Garfunkel, Van Morrison, Steeleye Span, The Monkeys, Jeff Beck and Fleetwood Mac, amongst others.

Hannah was the unwitting star of the evening with her exemplary Triangle playing – though she might prefer to forget a slight mis-cue at the vital moment.

It was great to have Phil playing upright bass, and particularly entertaining when we get to that part of New York Girls where we perform the only choreographed twirl undertaken by the entire band. Graceful may not be the word.

The evening raised about £900 for the local parish church of St John the Baptist and we’re pleased to have been able to contribute to the success of the evening.

In July 25 we played a special party to celebrate after our bass player, Dan, became a professor for the third time! A live gig in his (large) back garden was thoroughly enjoyed by band and party-goers alike.

This gig took place, of course, where it all began! It was here that The Screaming Donkeys first played under that name. The occasion was the inaugural Milvertonfestbury back in 2018 when Glastonbury enjoyed a fallow year. Rather than appear as ‘The Churchyard Family’ (which was way too Von Trapp), Melanie said we should have a name something like ‘The Screaming Donkeys’ and it stuck. The only 2018 band member missing in 2025 was guitarist Dave Perry :-(. Maybe next time.

We were pleased to be able to hold an evening event at St John the Baptist Church, Pawlett, on Good Friday ’25 , perhaps one of the most significant days in the Christian calendar on which we can quietly contemplate what took place at Calvary, but also to celebrate our great Redeemer for, 2,000 years later, even on Good Friday Jesus is Risen! Great to have Laura with us for an evening of songs, stories and reflections.

In December ’24, the Screaming Donkeys squeezed themselves into St John the Baptist Parish Church, Pawlett, for another festive bash through a repertoire of old and new carols and Christmas favourites. Fuelled by plenty of mince pies and mulled wine, this is most likely our favourite gig of the year and a good time was had by all. We even included our impossible-to-play new rendering of Ding Dong Merrily On High which will hopefully be somewhere on YouTube by Christmas ’25.

If you’re interested in coming to My Father’ House for a church retreat or Bible study get in touch using the Contact Form. We can either provide the theme/subject for the day or will consider something you specifically request.

Pawlett Harvest Supper 2024 saw some of the Donkey’s performing a bunch of sing-a-long hits from the 60’s and 70’s to an appreciative crowd. As usual, we found the song most people sing with the greatest vigour is ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’.

In April ’24 we were interviewed by Simon Ward of Premier Christian Radio for his ever-popular Sunday morning show.

You can listen to an abridged version of our life-stories, squeezed into a convivial 45 minutes, on the About page of this website.