Sunday 26 March 2017

The Purple Angel Singers Tour - 2017 : Part Three


Newton Abbot Methodist Church and back home!
 
Okay, hands up those of you who slept okay! No, me neither. Ruth and I woke up several times and I think I had been performing Fat Bottomed Girls throughout the night to huge audiences the world over. In fact I think at some point I was even doing encores of Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are the Champions! Then I woke up and at least remembered that the real performance the day before had actually gone rather well, as had the whole gig for us Purple Angels. At around three o’clock, I put the kettle on and made us both a brew and we listened to our complete set from the Community Radio broadcast. Blimey, didn’t we sound good? There were a few bits where we went a tad flat, but hey it was pretty darn good overall. I know Caroline cringes at the thought of her attempts at doing the compere bit sometimes and while this time she did make a bizarre welcome to ‘Lords, Ladies’, other than that, she really sounded impressively slick and professional in her intros. Nice one MD!
One note to self: The radio recording emphasised as clear as day, that ‘yours truly’ needs serious work on his diction. The ‘lancy twang’ works okay with FBG, but I really need to work on eradicating the ‘Fred Dibner’ from the rest of my singing.
After a few hours sleep me and Ruth got up for breakers. And what a breakfast it was. Excellent in every way. I had the works: Sausage, two eggs, two rashers of bacon, mushrooms, two hash browns, fried bread, a grilled tomato and beans. And lots of toast, orange juice and coffee. Sigh!
After that little feast we had to bid farewell to The Palace Hotel and head for Newton Abbot Methodist Church where we were to join in the usual Sunday service and sing a couple of additional songs. This was a really nice thing to be involved in with a really welcoming congregation. The vicar was a farmer who really looked like a farmer and proceeded to tell us all just how thick sheep are! He was quite funny and engaging - the kind of vicar I can relate to! As well as join in with the congregational hymns, the choir was to sing two songs: I Will Sing with the Spirit and Make Me a Channel of your Peace. During a brief rehearsal, I completely forgot the men’s verse, so I wrote ‘despair’, ‘darkness’ and ‘sadness’ on my hand. Consequently, when it came to it, I remembered the whole verse without having to look at my hand. You see, it works!
Following the service we were invited to stay for lunch and what a fabulous spread there was! Food, glorious food and loads of it! Good old Granville gave on behalf of the choir a vote of thanks for the hospitality and Chris Hill was then primed to get to the far end of the hall to play the piano as we sang May It Be from pretty where we were sitting. Not quite a ‘flashmob’ but not far off!
That proved to be the final performance of the tour as we returned to our vehicles for the long trip back to Loughborough. And that was that, the end of a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.
Special mentions must be given to the following:-
Ruth and Caroline for organising the whole darn thing.
Chris Hill for his usual faultless accompaniment.
Charlie King and Granville Mercy for their van driving.
 
Amy Sharpe for having the guts to join us on stage to sing with the choir for WRAD! Bravo!!!
Penni Vincent for her hospitality and astonishing catering of the masses at her abode in Blakeney.
The congregations at Viney Hill and Newton Abbot the audience at WRAD who all seemed to enjoy themselves and made the whole trip worthwhile.
So until next time. See y’all next year?
Cheers, Alyn.
 
Me, Anna-Ruth and Ruth in pre-performance 'selfie'!



Motorway service break!
Chris Hill and MD Caroline in prep!


Carol & Sid and Gilly and Chris.
 

 
 

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