There’s something about
a Sunday afternoon in Manchester in the rain. It’s special when you’re holed up
in smart cocktail bar and taking part in what is rapidly becoming a quite
prestigious arts festival. So yes, there we were, at Proof in Chorlton, taking part
in the Chorlton Festival.
We were one of
three acts. First we were treated to another a cappella performance by the Melodico Ensemble. Fabulous voices and a really impressive version of the James Bond theme.
And what a surprise! They also did Let’s
Do It, quite a similar version to ours, and Joshsua, a considerably different one from ours.
They were followed
by Paul Twine who played Spanish guitar for about forty minutes. The chat in
the bar soon subsided and everyone listened carefully to the gentle tones that somehow
went so well with the soft summer rain flowing down the window.
Then it was our turn.
All eyes were now upon us. Okay, so we probably at that point outnumbered our
audience. The bar is small. The weather prevented us from spilling outside, yet
because we were there and the other performers and their audiences, the place
was full and the atmosphere was energetic.
It was an intimate
performance. It had to be. Space was limited. We almost had to stand in a circle
so eye contact was mainly with each other.
“I like the fact
that you performed in the middle of us,” said one young lady. I gave her one of
our cards.
“Oh, I can’t sing,”
she said.
“You’d be
surprised,” I replied. “Besides, you might want to hear us again.”
This same young
lady caused trouble by asking for an African song. Well, we haven’t done one of
those for a while. It turned out not to be a problem: everyone still knew Wasma. It also meant we did two encores.
We performed a
varied selection – including Kiss the
Girl, Deep River, Kum Ba Yah, The Way We Were, Deep River, Wonderful World, our
Here, There and Everywhere / The Long and
Winding Road medley and Love is the
Sweetest Thing. Of course we also
had to include Let’s Do It and Joshua.
The audience was
warm and friendly.
It was a fantastic
afternoon. We hope we can come again.
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