The Joy of Singing

If anyone needs to know why myself and others like me sing in a choir they needed only to be in the audience at the Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton last Saturday night.

The Loughborough Male Voice Choir performed with Enchanted at the same venue in January last year and jumped at the opportunity to return in 2013. This time, as well as the Caroline Sharpe led Enchanted, we would share the stage with the staff and pupils of Stanton Vale School.

The programme for the concert entitled 'Sing Away the Winter Blues', looked to be packed with a varied mix of musical styles. Too packed as it turned out, but more about that later.

The drive over to Long Eaton was err, interesting? On arriving in Long Eaton, my i-phone satnav threw something of a 'wobbler' and directed us in completely the wrong direction. She gradually got herself together, albeit after having to stop twice at a level crossing. Maybe the humble road map would be a good idea?

On arrival at the theatre, Ruth, Anna-Ruth, Amy, Olivia Thornber and myself were met by a somewhat stressed Chris Higgins who had had a struggle or two getting the stage set-up organised. Anyway, Stanton Vale were up there rehearsing as we got in and at least we weren't subjected to the sub-zero temperatures of last year.

Again, attempts to organise a large bunch of men to get from two rows of seats backstage to two rows on stage bordered on the down-right comical. Mr Hill's instructions regarding standing up, turning, walking to our places, opening music folders and then the reverse was straight forward, but it all went 'out the window' come performance time!

Now this concert was to be my first on the front row of the choir. There are good and bad sides to this. The good is that you can hear your fellow second tenors behind you and get more help, providing John and Jim get it right of course! No worries there eh gents? The down side is that one can be seen by the audience more easily as can one's embarrassing habit of tapping one's foot in time to the music. However, up there on stage you can barely see the audience for the penetrating glare of the spot lights. Blimey, they were blinding me!

This time last year you may recall was the debut of the bow-tie, handkerchief and cummerbund combo. It seems after variable feedback, the cummerbunds have been confined to history, but the bow-tie and hanky would appear again in the second half, much to John Holt's delight I'm sure!

Sitting at the back of the stage I could see a pretty good audience assembled which was great and it was us blokes who started the programme with Stout Hearted Men. No George to compere this time as he was unwell, but in stood Gerry with a suitably witty 'performance'.

This turned out to  be a concert to warm the heart on a cold winter day with some great performances. Enchanted performed with the new 'core 6' for the first time and sounded beautifully well balanced. 

A great contrast to us and Enchanted were the Staff and pupils of Stanton Vale School. The sheer of joy of singing simply oozed out of all of them and their penultimate
 song Be Happy was magical and brought a tear to my eye. Sometimes we singers (especially me) get caught up in the stress of performing and of having to get it 'just right'. These kids showed that the simple joy of singing is all that really matters. They were wonderful and provided a lesson to us all I think.

What else? Well our Lyndon did his stuff with his usual panache and Dave Weston again accompanied him on guitar for one delightful piece which is a great contrast to his more serious operatic arias. Gerry and The Duke then did their stuff and the piece of political satire was just brilliant.

At half time it became apparent that the concert was likely to seriously over-run so we cut Let it Be Me from our second half set but managed a brief run thru as the audience began to re-take their seats. Enchanted also cut one of theirs and I think Lyndon too which was a shame for all really. Such was the quality and entertainment, time wasn't dragging and I for one hadn't noticed the time at all. Mind you, I didn't have a watch on!

As for highlights - for the male voice choir, personally it was Pleasant and Delightful. I had taken a piece of advice from Anna-Ruth regarding learning words. She suggested reading the words through and understand the story first, which enables you to better remember the words as well as sing them with meaning and expression. So I took a step back and read through this one and realised that I needed a slight pause between Nancy asking 'Saying may I go along with you'? and William's dismissive response 'Oh no my love, farewell'. The result in practice was a laugh from some in the audience which was what I as looking for. Result! Additionally I thought Gwahoddiad was absolutely superb. I think the traditional welsh male voice choir pieces are by far my favourites.

For Enchanted I thought The Rose sounded just beautiful and the overall sound of the girls seemed even better with the new line-up. Special mention must be made here of the stirling efforts of my wife Ruth for working through the pain barrier to organise the Enchanted girls. A dodgy left knee was to finally give up the ghost on Sunday morning requiring the emergency acquisition of a pair of crutches from a Facebook friend. Torn ligament it seems, requiring weeks of rest. Nasty!

I think it pointless to single out one highlight of Stanton Vale School Choir's performances as they were the highlight of the night. Just the look on the kids faces was priceless. Their rendition of Be Happy was something that will stay in the memory for many a year. Fantastic!

There now follows a relatively quiet period, concert-wise for the LMVC so this will enable us to get to grips with the revised core repertoire. Also, me and Terry Jones will have some time to get to grips with our new Caroline Sharpe Singers songs, Masquerade and Locus Iste, after a somewhat traumatic rehearsal last Saturday morning. 

And then, there's the small matter of a Grade 5 singing exam in March? No rest for the wicked!

Cheers for now,

Alyn.

And we're off!

Fear ye not, the title of this post is not a warning of impending horse puns following the Tesco burger outrage. No, I simply refer to the fact that 2013 is off and running, naay galloping towards our first singing engagement of the new year.

But whoa! What else has happened since Christmas? Well, changes are afoot with regard to Loughborough Male Voice Choir publicity. After about four years of producing the choir's website, Jeff Berrisford has asked me if I would like to take up the reins. He rather feels it needs a fresh pair of eyes and with a bit of web-design behind me during my days as a reflexologist I thought I would give it a go. But, handling that as well as publicity might prove too much. So into the saddle steps Ruth!

In truth, Ruth (struth?) has already written one or two concert reviews for the Echo when I  have been too busy, so it shouldn't prove too difficult a transition. Indeed websites and publicity do go hand-in-hand so the two of us working together should work quite well. I am now on a steep web-design learning curve but hope to have the new look LMVC website up in a few weeks in some shape or form.

As for actual singing, we are rapidly approaching our first concert of the year with a return visit to the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton, where Enchanted will again be our guests with the addition of the Stanton Vale School Choir. It should be great providing the somewhat iffy weather relents a bit, allowing Joe Public to tear himself away from Dancing on Ice! 

We chaps are making a slow transition to a different repertoire for 2012-13 which will bring a few songs from the back catalogue back to the fore. For example a song called Swansea Town was apparently sung by the choir quite a few years ago and has been reintroduced for the next season or two. Be warned though - if you are apt to suffer from sea-sickness, you may be well advised to leave the hall for this one ;-) You will know what I mean when you hear it.

Meanwhile, the choir continues to enjoy an extraordinary surge in membership with Derrick, Peter, Jeff, Barry, Dai and Tim all hopping aboard the good ship LMVC. I'm not entirely sure why it is happening but long may it continue. Peter's addition has been particularly welcome as it must have slashed the choir's average age by about 20 years! Hopefully it will encourage other younger guys to come along and have a go too.

And so to the Caroline Sharpe Singers. This eclectic mix of souls goes from strength to strength and following the triumph of the Woodhouse Eaves concert, the Caz-meister has lined up some exciting new stuff for us such as the wonderful Masquerade from Phantom of the Opera. In the stage show it requires a big choir to give it plenty of 'welly' (technical singing term), but given our magnificent rendition of I Believe, I think we will be fabulous. And masks are a must I think!

Saturdays first rehearsal of 2013 also saw us have a crack at a piece called Locus Iste by Anton Bruckner. This couldn't be more different from Masquerade that's for sure so I'm looking forward to seeing how this one develops over the next few weeks.

But what plans for Al the soloist I hear you cry? Well, in March I have ABRSM Grade 5 to 'look forward to'. At least I now know what to expect after last year. Fingers crossed I don't get Mr Grumpy this time. I'm fortunate in that in two of the categories I am able to sing songs that I've covered before: Where e're You Walk and On the Street Where You Live. This takes away some of the donkey work out of learning words. I could also try Pleasant and Delightful for the unaccompanied folk song, but the jury is still out on that one. The one song that is completely new to me is Like to a Linden Tree Am I by Dvorak, which is a lovely little song. So I have about eight weeks to perfect that little lot, plus the dreaded aural questions. Eeeeeck!?!

So it's busy, busy, busy at Chateau Knightthorpe right now. See y'all in Long Eaton next Saturday? Miss it if you dare!

Cheers for now,

Alyn.

Loughborough Male Voice Choir and Enchanted in Long Eaton

There is something great about getting up on the day of a concert. No real nerves these days, just a wonderful excitement. Prior to previous concerts I've felt somewhat under prepared, but for this one I felt pretty confident, provided my post cold voice would hold out.

The night would see the debut of the new bow-ties and cummerbunds. Some within the choir have been reluctant to embrace the idea of a change from the traditional blazer and tie, while others are keen to add a little variety to our attire. Well, this evening we would find out what the audience thinks.

Get there 'ready to sing at 6.15pm' was the order and I managed it - just. On arrival, it was like stepping into Ice Station Zebra! T'was rather parky as we say up north. The prospect of singing the second half in shirts and bow ties without jackets seemed optimistic in the extreme, but with over an hour to 'kick-off' it would warm up, wouldn't it?

Prior to our 'warm up' (vocally that is), the logistics of getting on and off stage were worked out. Apart from a touch of vertigo standing at the back, things were fine. That left about forty minutes to kill. Much of this time was spent frantically searching for Derek's orange carrier bag which contained his bow-tie and cummerbund, and these were eventually located in his coat pocket. I could laugh, but I've done the same kind of thing myself, so many times!

After our warm-up it was Enchanted's turn, led as usual by Caroline Sharpe. One initially feared for the girls as their attire was definitely not suited to the sub-zero temperatures of the theatre. Actually, all the girls looked stunning. I did tell Anna-Ruth to cover herself up in disapproving step-father type fashion, but I WAS JOKING okay?

Before I knew it, the theatre had warmed up remarkably and it was time to start.  And we did have an audience - not huge but respectable. We started in traditional blazer and ties and sang four pieces without copies. Chris Hill often jokes about the lack of eye contct with us as we all too often remain focussed on the music rather than on him. Well for these four we had no excuse and it felt so much better and I'm sure looks so much better to the watching audience. After With a Voice Of Singing and Stout Hearted Men, George did his usual compere stuff including the mobile phone warning. As I stood on stage, to my horror, I realised I had forgotten to switch mine off and it was in my jacket pocket! So I had to cross my fingers and hope that no-one would phone or text me while I sang Old Time Religion and When the Saints. How embarrassing would that have been?

This was followed by Lyndon Gardner's first set of solo numbers. I'll have to check what these were and add the details later, but the man sounded in fine voice.  Us chaps were then back on stage for the two welsh songs, Myfanwy and Llanfair, which seemed great to me. Real 'Male Voice Choir' songs these and I really like them.

Next up were Enchanted and their first set comprising We'll Gather Lilacs; Soldier, Soldier; The Physician and Fever. Soldier, Soldier is incredibly intricate and complex and I marvel  at how they manage to sing it so well and The Physician is just hillarious! Back stage I couldn't hear as well as I would have liked, but it all sounded fabulous to me.

To round off the first half we then did the gorgeous Let it Be Me (one of my personal faves) and the now legendary Is This the Way to Amarillo. This last piece was a vast improvement on its first airing but, for me, we simply have to sing this without copies in future! As I have said before, this is a great opportunity to let our hair down and get the audience singing and clapping with us. If we have our hands free we can clap along and really get the audience into it! It's gotta happen!

The interval required a costume change on the part of the choir. Off with the jackets and ties and on with the bow-tie and cummerbund! Despite the protestations of one or two, it was done and we walked back onstage to wolf-whistles, most notably from my wife Ruth, but she was not alone! I will address the subject of attire later but, suffice to say, it was met with universal approval. We continued with Danny Boy and Eriskay Love Lilt which was followed by the Quartet's (for 8?) rendition of Always Look on the Bright Side, which seemed to go well. After that came a new piece, a Chris Hill arrangement of That's what Friends are For. This starred Chris Higgins as soloist and Mike Godwin on Harmonica. This piece was only introduced by Chris Hill quite recently, but the two guys rose to the occasion superbly. "Hasn't Chris Higgins got a lovely voice", to quote Ruth! Mike too, gave his best harmonica solo yet. He had been struggling a bit in rehearsals, but came good on the night. Well done guys!

I then made a bit of a mess of Viva l'amour, mainly because I was trying to look more at our conductor throughout this concert rather than our copies  and thought I knew this one well enough. Sadly I forgot a bit and then couldn't find my place and got flustered a bit and 'goldfished' for a line or two!

Lyndon then did his second slot which concluded with a bit of a sing-a-long. I only vaguely knew the piece but almost everybody else backstage was singing along.  The choir followed it with two modernish pieces  Thankyou for the Music and Chanson d'amour, with the latter 'sexy and breathy' like never before and the former only slightly affected by another attack of the second tenor doo-doos! Messed them up in the first verse but got it about right in the second. Sigh!

That left Enchanted to do their final set which incuded Some Enchanted Evening and the Oklahoma Medley  which was utterly brilliant and had half the MVC singing along backstage, again. To wrap up this excellent concert the MVC sang Everytime We Say Goodbye and You'll Never Walk Alone. And that was that. Without doubt the best male voice choir concert that I have been involved in so far.

Why was it so good? I'm finding it difficult to define really. It just felt 'right'. I think the variety of  traditional, modern and the humourous was spot on and expertly put together by Mr Hill. One big hit on the night was the new attire. Despite the scepticism of some, it was certainly a big hit with the audience. I have heard no negative comments other than it might look better with black trousers rather than grey. The change in clothing complimented the difference in the material that we presented in each half. One comment made the point that we immediately looked 'so much less like a bunch of old men'.

Secondly, I think the more singing we do without copies the better. I tried to minimise the time I spent looking down and I realised how much more following of Chris we all need to do. An obvious point I suppose, but it makes a huge difference and it looks better to the audience too I think. One day, a whole concert without copies, perhaps a la Fron? It's gotta come!

A negative comment albeit minor - I found the venue a little 'dead' acoustically to sing in. Sis-in-law Julia said she didn't get the usual 'hair on the back of the neck' thing after the big crescendos. That small point aside, it was a great night and well done to all.

Finally, please feel free to post any comments you'd like to make about the gig below as it would be nice to receive some feedback, particularly about the new 'gear'. Just click on where it says 'x' comments below and let me know what you thought, good or bad. That goes for anything I post on here too.

Cheers for now,

Alyn

One night to Long Eaton

There is now less than twenty-four hours before our first concert of 2012. Tomorrow night the LMVC will go just a few miles over to Long Eaton's Duchess Theatre where we will present a concert entitled 'Thank You for the Music' with our extra special guests,  Enchanted. The question on everyone's lips (well mine actually), is: Will I manage to rid myself of 'the lurg' sufficiently to enable me to sing the whole concert?

Thursday's final rehearsal did not bode well. The lurg had finished its work in the nasal region and by Thursday evening was concentrating its attention on the chest. Several coughing fits ensued mid-song and the voice finally fell apart altogether during When the Saints. Mind you, I've never got that one right yet, so a coughing fit might prove something of an improvement! Whatever state my fragile voice is in it will probably be better than nowt. You see bailing out is not an option as we currently have something of a Second Tenor crisis.

Gwyn left at Christmas,  Ray Walker is off on yet another holiday (a six week epic this time!), Peter Bateman is currently indisposed due to having his knees done (get well soon Peter!) and Jim Lacey is simply unavailable for this one. So that leaves just Reg Winning, John Holt and me. Chris Hill has even mentioned the outrageous possibility of granting a baritone or two a 'free transfer' over to us second tenors! What is the man thinking? Only joking boys! You'll be very welcome and it would restore a bit of balance to the choir I think.

Now, the last week also saw an extra committee meeting at Chairman Higgins' house, this time to discuss one topic - recruitment. It's a tricky one this and seems a problem that is not exclusive to our choir. I believe one or two choirs locally are in danger of folding and others are, contemplating amalgamation.  So we tried to  suggest some ideas of how to get in contact with those people out there that want to sing but like me, for whatever reason have not done anything about it.  I won't download all the meeting now, but suffice to say, one avenue to explore is to increase our presence on the 'wibbly-wobbly-way' - the internet. So without further ado, we now have a Facebook page, hastily thrown together by 'yours truly'.

So when you finish reading this post, I expect you all to immediately click on the link button on the  right-hand column of this blog (see 'The Choir on Facebook') and go take a look. It's in its infancy obviously, and more stuff will appear as I get to grips with it. But please make sure you 'Like' the page and leave comments, suggestions, photos, reviews, in fact whatever you like - good or bad. Constructive criticism is always welcome and I promise to respond to anything asked as quickly as I am able.

Meanwhile, Chris Hill is looking into Twitter too and maybe we will get everything linked up in time.

So that's your lot for now. Time for my beauty sleep in readiness for tomorrow night's cultural extravaganza! It's a great venue - not a duff seat in the house and a mere £6 each. How can you refuse?

See y'all in Long Eaton?

Cheers,

Alyn.