THE indomitable British spirit shone through the storm clouds and squally showers for the fifth Concert on the Hill at YMCA Rugby Union Club's Salendine Nook headquarters on Saturday night.

The hoped-for balmy summer evening never materialised - but people braved all that to have a seriously good time.

The several hundreds of people who still turned up at Laund Hill were determined not to let a little thing like water put them off what has become an important musical event in the social calendar.

And mercifully the rain held off during the concert with only a short shower following the final chorus of You'll Never Walk Alone, which signalled the official end to the festivities.

Bride and groom Rachel and Richard Garrety linked their wedding day to the event - and as a result could boast probably the biggest-ever wedding reception in Huddersfield with 150 official guests and about 1,000 `evening' guests to round off their big day.

The happy couple were serenaded by two male voice choirs, a brass band and the entire crowd in the hymn Love Divine to open the main part of the proceedings, while John Pashley's New Orleans Parade Band had put the revellers in the mood early in the evening as the picnic hampers, folding tables, garden chairs arrived by the car load.

Around the outskirts was the `tented village' dominated by the massive wedding marquee, while the corporate hospitality gazebos were doing a roaring trade.

The YM's own master of all ceremonies David Roebuck kept the party atmosphere ticking along nicely, while the wedding theme continued through the concert with Honley Male Voice choir and guest soprano Nemone Wilman performing a selection from My Fair Lady, which of course included I'm Getting Married in the Morning.

Along with Lindley Band and Colne Valley Male Voice choir the audience were encouraged to wave their union jacks and join in the songs made popular during the Second World war to commemorate the D-Day landings.

And national fervour came to fever pitch in that traditional Last Night of the Proms finale, singing Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory complete with a fabulous firework finish.