Busy Weekend

Yes, indeed, what a lot we did the weekend 13-15 December 2024.

Brockholes  

 

Several of us trooped up to the wild-life centre, Brockholes, near Preston to join Blackburn People’s Choir and Gathered Voices to sing at the Winter Fayre and for the lighting of the Christmas tree on Friday 13 December. .

We entered the Fayre through a tunnel of lights and a barrel organ played Christmas tunes.  We even managed to sign along to a couple of them on the way out: Feliz Navidad and Oh Come All Ye Faithful.   

As usual we enjoyed singing with other choirs.

The Fayre was full of artisan stalls selling all sorts of carefully crafted handmade items. Not that we had much time to look: we had a whole repertoire to get through, including all the old favourites.

The wild-life trusts do much important work in looking after nature and confronting climate change so it was good to be able to support them   

 

Memorial Service Manchester Crematorium

This was the first time a service like that had been held at Manchester Crematorium. There have been similar events at other venues in the past. People, who have lost a loved one recently and in some cases longer ago, are invited to attend and during the service leave a message on the Christmas tree.

We sang the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City and then the congregation joined us on the other verses. We sang along with the congregation on the other hymns. We ‘performed’ Silent Night and, at the organisers’ request, Holly Jolly. The latter perhaps serves to remind us that this was a celebration of life as well as a service of remembrance.

The service was just the right length and touching without being heavy. 

 

Singing on the Bee Network 

 

Oh, yes, there we were singing on the Metrolink trams. We mainly circled round between Deansgate  and Cornbrook. Note the lovely yellow Santa hats.  

Our repertoire consisted of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, White Christmas (not the four voices version – we sang in unison), The Twelve Days of Christmas, Holly Jolly and Carol of the Bells. We did manage to sing the latter two in parts.  

“They must have rehearsed that for days,” we heard someone say of Carol of the Bells. Yes and no. Most of us in the group have been singing that for several years but probably have to relearn it every Christmas.

We had a welcome pit-stop at the Costa at Media City where we enjoyed our favourite beverages, mince pies and other cakes and pastries. It gave us the opportunity to get to know the organisers a little better.

Could we tempt them to join?

“We work hard but we have a lot of fun,” we explained. “See you 7 pm on 7 January at Go Church?”         

As we got out of the tram at St Peter’s Square at one point someone who had been at the memorial service the day before recognised us. Fame at last?

Our finale was on Platform B at Piccadilly where we gave our final rendition of Holly Jolly.    

 

                      

 

Festive singalong with Stan, Manchester Museum

 

 Now then, what is this picture all about? To make any sense of it you need to refer back to our Facebook post about what we did ten years ago. See our post on 16 November this year.

The picture below is perhaps more what you were expecting. 

 

What a lovely time we had.

Manchester Museum is a glorious building, even if it does involve a circuitous route to get to dinosaur Stan.

A few of us arrived early and indulged in some of the lovely cake served in the café.

It’s a busy time of year but we were managed to put together a well-balanced group of just sixteen. The acoustics are so fantastic there that we sounded like more and we could hear each other well.

We offered a mixture of our Christmas songs and our normal repertoire.  Then we asked our audience to join in as we sang some of everyone’s favourites, including The Twelve Days of Christmas, along with actions, of course.

We had a fifteen minute interval which gave us some time to have a quick look at the museum and to chat to some of our audience. I’d shared my copy of the ‘singalong’ numbers with one young woman earlier and I made a point of talking to her in the break. She had been so enthusiastic.

“I suppose you’re auditioned, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Not at all,” I replied.

Of course we invited her and her partner to join us.  The invitation naturally went out to everyone.

We had a small but every appreciative audience. I’m sure I spotted Stan nodding along to the music.

We can’t wait to be invited back again.        

      

A Great Afternoon at Victoria Baths

 

Victoria Baths again

There was a real buzz at the Victoria Baths where we were invited to sing on Sunday at their Winter Festival.

And what a festival it was. There were over fifty stalls selling all sorts of wonderful handmade crafts. The tea room was open and doing a roaring trade. Footfall was heavy: lots of people coming to buy for Christmas and to listen to the various choirs performing that day.

We go there early and took a very circuitous route form Bury. We managed to dodge most of the football traffic: Manchester United was playing Everton at home, whilst City fans traipsed off to Liverpool. A lot of coming and going on the motorways and public transport then. That certainly has an effect on traffic in the Salford area.

But once you got to the baths it was clear that there are many people somewhat less interested in football.

This gave us the opportunity to listen to a variety of other choirs. The Bath certainly contributes to a great sound.

It was our turn to sing at 2.00 p.m. We mixed some of out normal repertoire with our Christmas titles. It was all Christmassy enough for us to don the purple Santa hats, tinsel and fairy lights.

“It’s so obvious you really enjoy what you’re doing,” said one observer.

Well, yes we do. Especially in this place where the sound works so well.

Many of us enjoyed a meal together afterwards.

It’s the beginning of a busy season. We have a few more events planned. Watch our Facebook page for details.         

 

Listen to one of our songs here.  

Buxton Aftermath

It was good to find a large stiff envelope waiting for me when I returned from holiday. And in it was this delightful certificate. The Buxton FestivalFringe just keeps on giving. 

 

Every year the festival attracts 150 -200 entries which leads to about 500 performances. Acts come from all over the world and it was quite sad to read a note pinned to the door of our first venue saying that the performer was stuck at the airport. He was due the day after the big IT outage. We of course, offer two of those performances or maybe this year it was 2.5. Sinning in the Well was magical.

Work for this festival goes on all year round. The committee meets ten to eleven times annually. Volunteers review, conduct market research, and man the information desk. 

The people of Buxton are so welcoming to the festival. We now have a regular audience there and there are always some new faces as well. Lots of businesses allow performers to leave information with them.  Many families offer accommodation to performers.

Reviewers are asked to be positive but also to give constructive criticism. They are given a good deal of advice and training. The reviews are generally 200 to 500 words so are in fact very similar to the length of these blog posts.

It’s a well organised operation and extremely positive. We’re already looking forward to next year

Three Concerts, One Day, Buxton Fringe 2024

 

Now we have added something new to our repertoire.  We are accustomed to singing in the bath and have frequently done so at one of our favourite venues Victoria Baths, Manchester. Now we have upstaged ourselves: on Saturday we sang in the well.

Yes, we had the privilege of singing in Buxton’s beautiful Pump Room. This recently restored Grade II listed building was initially used for locals and visitors to “take the waters”.  It now houses a small café and gift shop and, of course, the well.

The acoustics there are quite magical and we sang around the well, facing each other which was also a little different.

The water in is still much of the time but every so often bubbles up. Charmingly it did so as we reached the tenth bar of Why Walk if You Can Fly.  Almost as if it too was enjoying the music.

We had our normal two concerts at the United Reformed Church in the morning and St Mary’s in the afternoon.  At both churches we were looked after kindly. We couldn’t offer tea and cakes in the morning as we had to leave promptly because there was another booking straight afterwards. Anyway, we probably wouldn’t have been able to go to the Pump Room if we had. But there was plenty of cake at St Mary’s later. 

 

Our audiences were lovely too: so receptive and welcoming. We always enjoy chatting to them after our concerts.   

We did something a little different this year. Choir members introduced blocks of songs: ones that create a calm atmosphere, some that offer peace, others that celebrate nature and finally love songs, each about a different sort of love.  

For the final ten minutes in each concert we sang favourite songs from our repertoire.

As ever, it was a lovely day out and socialising with fellow choir members over lunch, over a drink after our final concert or over a meal on the way home all adds to the fun.

The icing on the cake has to be the warm-hearted review by Jean Ball: https://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk/reviews2024mus.html. And naturally we are delighted about being nominated for an award.     

Inner Space, 15 July 2024

 

We are excited at the moment and really looking forward to our two concerts as part of the Buxton Festival Fringe, so it’s probably quite appropriate that we took part in the Inner Space event held at the Friends Meeting House, Mount Street on Monday 15 July. It brought us some focus.

We sang two sets: one at the beginning of the evening and one at the end as the participants came forward to receive a gift of sweets and a small card with a message of affirmation. We received such gifts, too.  

For the rest of the evening we were actual participants of the main event. We were invited to listen to the gentle and wise words of Sister Jayanti, participate in two meditations and calm that inner space which is the most effective starting point for change. This is something rare and strange for most of us. And yet, the next evening at our regular rehearsal, several choir members who’d attended commented on how well they’d slept the night before and how mentally and emotionally refreshed they felt.

Sister Jayanti had the measure of us. “It’s the way you work together and the way you support each other that counts.” Is that what makes the magic work? Yes we must sing the right words,  in the right order, open our mouths,  and know when to look at our MD and when to look at others in the choir or in the audience and even know how to recover from a mistake but it is that intuitive cooperation that brings an extra dimension. That harmony with each other and with Jeff, and not just in musical terms, though that is naturally important.   

Two days later I would discuss with a fellow committee member what our USP (unique selling point) might be. Our strap line is “Singing form the Heart of Salford”. “Heart” is emphasised in the graphic. Does this need a tweak? Should it be “Singing from the heart in Salford”? 

 

We’re singing a few songs at the moment that might be very appropriate for the troubled times we live in: Grant Us Peace, Deep Peace, Oh Earth Loving Mother, Colours of the Wind, Cool Moon, Deep in the Night and even some covers of popular songs bring the sort of affirmation that Inner Space offer: Love is the Sweetest Thing, Make You Feel My Love, Why Walk When You Can Fly and   Everything I Do. Several featured on Monday evening – including some of the covers.      

And is this a good omen? The photo of us that Inner Space used to advertise the event shows us outside St Mary’s church another time at Buxton

It was a magical evening and as ever good to perform together. Inner Space, thank you for having us.                     

Friends and Family Concert 23 June 2024

 

And didn’t we have fun.

“So we have an audience?”

We’re in the car park and it’s warm enough for us to get out of our cars and chat.

A few choir members and a few of our audience have arrived early because there was a little worry that the carnival at Prestwich might have held up the traffic. It didn’t. By 2.45 pm a solid choir and a very respectable audience have already assembled.

And there is plenty of cake. There is a mountain of cake. Making and eating cake is our second best activity after enjoying our singing.

This so reminds me of the Koffikonzerts I used to attend when we lived in Holland. You paid the price of a coffee and a slice of cake – usually apple cake in that case – and you got the coffee and cake as well as a very good concert.

So, £5.00 not bad for a brew, some cake and a concert?

The emphasis is on “friends and family” and it is all very relaxed.

We work through our repertoire which contains some old favourites like The Water is Wide, I Say a Little Prayer and Love is the Sweetest Thing. And there are also newer items such as Why Walk if You Can Fly, Make You Feel My love and O Earth Loving Mother. Of course we also think of nature with Cool Moon and Colours of the Wind.

Jeff tells our audience that we’re going to sing a couple of songs that might touch our troubled world.  “It probably won’t make any difference to what you hear on the news,” he says. “But we hope it will do something.” 

So, we also sing Deep Peace and Grant Us Peace. Both the door to the Studio and the outer door are open. Are these songs going out into the world? Will they make a difference?  

An hour slips by without us noticing.

Our audience is lovely. It’s good to chat to them afterwards. Some of us are curious about how much people might enjoy listening to a choir like ours. We enjoy singing and I do like watching and listening to other choirs but part of the enjoyment of that comes from knowing what the process is.

“You get better every time,” says one of our visitors.  We hope we do; it’s what we aim for.

Their daughter, one of our altos, rolls her eyes and says “They say that every time.”

“I think they mean it though,” I reply.

We are very pleased with the GoChurch studio as a place to rehearse and perform. It was such a fun concert.

And so what’s up next?

Buxton of course. Shall we see you there?