HAPPY NEW (CHOIR) YEAR

Thanks this month to Paul for  as fine summary of September's events.  

 

After a 5 week break we are back on Tuesday evenings in Ordsall. The first rehearsal was great with only a few cries of ‘how does this one go?’ and ‘what are the words in this one?’ All in all a successful return and preparation for our first performance of the year at the Victoria Baths.

Sunday 11^th September saw us return to The Victoria Baths to help in their 110 year anniversary celebrations. The Gala Pool bath  was filled with water thus presenting many temptations to play ‘Dunk the MD’! There was a good audience for both performances, around 50 people each session, and we made a good sound with the water in the pool making for a nice acoustic.

Tuesday 13^th brought the news that Mel and Sue had left. No not two of our ladies but the Bake-Off version and this clearly was the cause of the apocalyptic weather! Indeed, the weather delayed some people, caused others not to be able to get there and left some looking like they had swum to rehearsal! In view of the weather, it was deemed not politic to sing Blue Skies, I Think It’s Going To Rain or Deep River!! Nonetheless, it was a good rehearsal preparation for the weekend events and we did in fact welcome some new members to choir.

Sunday 18^th saw us perform twice in the morning at the Victoria Warehouse Wedding Show and in the afternoon at the Ordsall Allotments Society. We were expertly directed by Daisy, as Flipper was swimming 8 miles at Windermere! It was a good performance with just the oddity of singing Holly Jolly Christmas for a lady who is likely to book us for her wedding in Dec 2017!

In the afternoon we headed just down the road to our spiritual home in Ordsall. We were here to see the ornamental pond which we have sponsored and to help inaugurate the bench in the gardens in memory of Roy, one of our founding members. Tea and coffee were provided as well as a buffet lunch and the bench was dedicated by the Mayor of Salford. We then performed a short set which was very well received in the warm sunshine.

And finally, congratulations to Alto’d Images who came 3^rd if the quiz at Victoria Baths. Well done ladies!

Buxton again – 16 July 2016

It was lovely to be again in this pleasant historic town in the High Peak. The people in Buxton really do get behind both the main festival and the fringe. Ten days before our concerts (United Reformed Church at 11.00 a.m. and St Mary’s at 3.00 p.m.) two of us popped over to the town and distributed leaflets.

Theresa had the crafty idea of handing over the bigger posters with the blu-tak already attached.

“Could we put up one of our posters?” she asked in one of the shops we visited.

“Well, you can give it to me and I’ll put it up,” said the shopkeeper a little sternly. The sternness disappeared after he had quickly read through the details. His eyes lit up. “Oh yes. I heard you sing last year at St Mary’s.”

“Come again this year,” we both said.

He grinned. “I’ll try to get there.”  

No-one said no.  Every shop and café or other sort of business took one of our posters or a bunch of flyers. We even put one through the door of a music shop that was closed.  We scribbled a friendly note on the back. We were pleased at lunchtime on Saturday to see that they were displaying it.   

We don’t know of course who came because they saw a flyer. We have a vague idea who were family members and friends. There were certainly strangers in both venues though some familiar faces too. We took about £400 on the doors and sold twenty tickets electronically. The United Reformed Church only had seven spare seats. If people hadn’t been sitting in the lounge area at the back the main area would have been full. The main part of St Mary’s was full and a dozen or so people had to sit in the aisles. We made gallons of tea and we and our audiences consumed pounds of cake.

“Do they come for the music or the cake?” I asked another tenor.

“Both I should think,” he replied.   

Who are all these people, we wondered. It’s always a little nerve-racking, not knowing whether or not you’ll get a decent audience. We got two delightful audiences, in fact.  

“The acoustic is different here,” Jeff warned us as we started our warm-up at St Mary’s. “Feel it now.”

At both places we sang a variety of new material and well-established repertoire. I noted some enthusiastic applause for both Royals and One Day Like This. Several people closed their eyes as they listened to the lullabies and the silly love songs. There were tears from a few as we sang In Remembrance. We finished with Kiss the Girl and Build me Up Buttercup each time. I thought we gave these two a lot of energy.

And what did our audience think? Well, it says in the Guest Book “A Cappella and Cake – What a lot of fun! Hugely enjoyable.” Perhaps my fellow tenor was right then.

We were helped enormously by Mary from the United Reformed Church and Eric and Eric from St Mary’s. Yes, the people of Buxton really do get behind this vibrant festival. We love being part of it.    

And here's what the Buxton Fringe reviewer, Carol Bowns said.                

                                  

Singing in the Rain aka Swinton Grove Park Family Fun Day

Wise old owl says plan for  rain in Rainy City and hope for A Cappella singing

“Come along,” we said. “It’s a great day out. We’re always lucky with the weather.”

Ah. By 11.30 we weren’t so sure. The ground was sodden. It was still raining, raining, raining. There were puddles everywhere. “Bring an umbrella and some wellies. We'll be singing in the rain at 12pm at Swinton Grove Park Family Fun Day!” we’d been warned earlier.

We did. We squelched along. 

We met under a gazebo and tried to remember all those ones we know that feature rain. Oh yes. Lines and titles: Torrents in summer, I think it’s going to rain today, Full rain full rain, Soon it’s gonna rain   And others. Enough people had umbrellas. Could we improvise Singing in the Rain?

Thank goodness for the excellent tea room in Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.    Seriously. Wonderful cake at £1.00  a shot and beverages, too, at the same price. All those tempting second-hand books. We sheltered there and awaited further instructions. 

The Lord Mayor of Manchester arrived. We were ushered back. And it had stopped raining! Was that some blue sky we saw? Better do Blue Skies, then. We did. 

We did a set including I Got Rhythm, Blue Skies, Build Me up Buttercup, Deep River, Can’t Help Falling in Love and  Kiss the Girl,  We were invited to eat. It was warm though still overcast. People began to arrive. The atmosphere we’re used to there began to grow.

There was a falconry display team there and quite a few of us spent the time admiring these magnificent birds. We were invited to touch them. Their feathers are surprisingly soft and they are very tame.

Some brave souls risked an ice-cream and some dressed up in items provide by the Elizabeth Gaskill House.   

We decided to busk for the second set of songs which included One Day Like This, Buttercup (again) Viva La Musica! and the Here, There, Everywhere /  Long Riding Road medley. We were quite close to one of our favourite spots in the park: a grassy knoll near a big tree.

“Do you realise,” I said to another of the tenors, “we first performed Long Winding Road here?”  It was actually a little too muddy for us to stand in the exact spot where we’d sung it the first time we were here.       

Jeff wasn’t with us this time but assistant musical director Daisy guided us well. Hoorah! 

“It’s great folks,” said Kerry. “They’ve already asked can we come again next year.” Course we can. Come rain or shine.

The birds flew for us just afterwards and the Elizabeth Gaskill House was open free of charge. Hey, they have a Broadwood Boudoir Grand and you’re allowed to play it if you can. The park seemed as full as folk as even despite the dampness. No such thing as bad weather, then, only bad clothing. It was all fine with wellies.

Manchester is Here 15 June 2016

The Green Room is actually wood-panelled and sports a three-dimensional frieze. There is old furniture that you’re asked not to sit on. We have a quick walk on and sing a few extracts in the main event room. Most of our rehearsal is in this lovely room, used most of the time as a committee room, I believe. It sounds and feels good; and so it should – this building is after all part of Chetam’s School of Music, and accustomed to music. 

This music school, situated on Long Millgate, one the oldest parts of Manchester and very near to the cathedral, says Manchester loud and clear. So it’s a fitting place for this event, Manchester is Here,  that remembers the bombing of the Arndale Centre exactly twenty years ago. It follows on from a day-long symposium that celebrates Manchester’s survival and regrowth after the bomb and looks towards devolution.     

So, we feel very privileged to be part of this event. We’re just a little nervous. This is so important. We have to keep quiet in the Oak-Panelled Room – noise travels easily. We whisper like mice.

Those nerves are useful. Just enough to keep us on form but not enough to cripple. We open with Wonderful World, then sing a closing set – Can You Feel the Love, Here There Everywhere, Over the Rainbow, Somewhere and of course On a Day like This. It all goes smoothly. Of course it does. This building cherishes music.

The audience is appreciative and one young lady is particularly enthusiastic. “I used to lead a choir,” she says, later as we meet in the hospitality area, “so I know what you’re up to.”

“Aren’t you in a choir now?” we ask.

She isn’t. We recommend that she should change that situation. She agrees to do something about it.

We leave with a delightful souvenir. We’re each given a copy of  ANew Manchester Alphabet, a snapshot of Manchester in 2015. This has been put together by The Manchester Writing School, part of Manchester Metropolitan University, who also arranged the symposium. The volume also includes Roger Oldham’s original A Manchester Alphabet.     

A lovely evening all told.         

Victoria Baths 5 June 2016

The summer has come. The sun shines even in Rainy City. Bright light casts teasing patterns on the smooth surfaces. A few open windows and the beautiful old tiles keep us cool. 

We always like signing here. The acoustics are kind. We come twice a year to sing in the bath. Just how much can we make Viva la Musica jump around?

This time there are chairs in the pool area and they are almost all taken both times we perform. People also listen from the balconies, from the edge of the pool and from the back of the basin. Several people approach us between performances and tell us that they’ve  enjoyed listening to us. Well, we aim to please.  It’s nice to know we’re succeeding some of the time at least.

We now have a visitors’ book. We invite our audience to comment and also to sign up for our newsletter. Here are some of the comments we get this time:

“Thank you, great.”

“Thank you – very harmonious.”

“Sent shivers up my arm – in a good way.”  

We’ve now more or less brought I know him so well into our repertoire. Royals is becoming more solid. For the first time we perform a special arrangement of Somewhere over the Rainbow. We include, of course, a lot of our normal repertoire. It’s well received and as ever we have a ball.

We’re never quite sure exactly how many performers we’ll have. We won’t agree to a performance unless we know we have enough in each part but then sometimes life happens – illness, traffic, family problems … and it can become a little skewed. This time we have just one bass, and for once more tenors than altos. We have to work with that and it is up to everyone present to adjust accordingly.   

Of course, we  are also able to enjoy another passion of ours. We eat cake. The cake at the Victoria Baths is lovely. And so is their chocolate shortbread.

We look forward to returning many times in the future.