The 12 months of service to which any Mayor of Bolton Metropolitan Borough must commit is presumably a very busy schedule of civic duties. So it was that, at our Tuesday evening rehearsal on 24th September 2024, Cottontown was delighted and extremely honoured to be able to welcome the current Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Andrew Morgan JP, Lady Mayoress Karen Holdsworth, Bromley Cross Councillor Samantha Connor, and other accompanying town councillors and officials.

Our esteemed visitors got a front seat view of how we warm up and rehearse our repertoire, and were then treated to a performance of our full setlist for the concert at Trinity Methodist Church on Saturday 28th September.

The original expectation was that the party of civic dignitaries couldn’t stay for more than an hour but, as the roller-coaster of up-tunes and more reflective songs quickly explored the full range of our visitors’ emotions, time seemed to become less of a factor for them and they were clearly keen to stay for more, with the Lady Mayoress admitting to shedding a few tears during some of the ballads.

The next Mayor’s Charity Ball (February 2025) is planned to be a bigger, more wide-ranging event than has happened before and, who knows, Cottontown is hoping that we entertained our visitors well enough to be considered for an invitation to it. We'd certainly love to be there!