Chingford Festival - Swunderful!

6.13.34pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 28th Jun 2009

Geoff Seeff and his Wheezards

Geoff Seeff, the Liberal Democrat's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green, reckoned that Chingford folk have had quite enough of politics in recent weeks and deserved at least one day of the year when they would not be reminded of the credit crunch, duck ponds, speakers and elections. He put on his saxophonist hat and brought his band, the Chingford Wheezards, to entertain the crowd at the Festival held on 27th June . In keeping with the glorious weather and his intention to "lighten up", they performed a suitable selection of upbeat jazz standards including favourites such as, "Swunderful", "Give Me the Simple Life", "In a Mellow Tone" and "Things are Looking Up".

The Wheezards in full swing

The Tories also had a stand at the Festival but were not so constrained. Despite there being a prohibition against political campaigning by the organisers, their representatives were openly bombarding passers by with recruitment material. Geoff remarked that "to try sign up members on a day such as this indicates desperation on their part - it is also exceedingly bad form". He did concede, however, that it was possible to read a political message into at least one of numbers he played - he says he would be delighted if voters responded positively to his rendition of "All of me, why not take all of me?"