and so to Kegworth

Okay, so 'a day or two' means a week in my language okay? I'm a busy man me, what with singing, working AND my OU study starting this week! So here we are again for 'A Nightingale Sang..'s look back at last Saturday's concert by the Loughborough Male Voice Choir, at Saint Andrew's Church, Kegworth.

After Thursday's final rehearsal I was slightly concerned about this one as things seemed to be a bit untidy. One or two songs that we have sung well in the recent past suddenly seemed  a touch ragged. Oh well, it'll be alright on the night I suppose? We all arrived at the church in good time to start the warm up and the painful process of sorting out who stands where. Due to a lack of steps, shorter members were needed to stand in front - much to Jim Lacey's disgust. Jim you see, just does not do 'front row', so well done mate! I know it is a bit of a shock to the system when one first ventures out front. You do feel a tad exposed to say the least, so thumbs up for going with it.

Particular emphasis was placed this time on trying to look professional. We were to walk on formally, burgundy folders (more of them later!) under right arm, assume positions and DO not open folders until Mr Hill gives the signal. Then when returning to our seats DO NOT sit down until Lyndon gives the signal.

Oh dear! First song was Stout Hearted Men and good ol' Chris forgets to give the signal. Bless him! Some waited, some didn't. I felt a bit of a plonker waiting there with mine closed while others opened theirs.  This set the tone for the rest of the evening with no-one waiting for a signal at all by the end. As for the sitting down, I confess to being guilty (twice!) of sitting down before Lyndon's signal, leading Derrick to mutter behind me about what a useless bunch we all were! Well maybe so, but good habits aren't going to be instilled in us overnight. These things need to become second nature and they will in time.

The second song was Saints, one song we've sung very well, but like Thusday's rehearsal, was a bit untidy I thought. In truth we hadn't rehearsed it much on the run-up and that was a mistake I think. Following that was Speed your Journey which I love.

Time then for the 'Guest Soloist', a Loughborough Soprano called Caroline Sharpe. She is "a singer and singing teacher" and "has a special gift of enabling people to sing when they tell her they can't" according to  the programme notes. Well, I can vouch for that! Caroline sang O Had I Jubal's Lyre by Handel and then something else which I have will ask her about later, sorry. She said that she made a lot up during the course of the evening and that's another of her 'gifts' - the ability to sing gibberish without anyone noticing! Brilliant!

Michael Dukes and Gerry Brennan then did their Flanders and Allen stuff, but I'm afraid I couldn't hear them well enough to get the benefit of the humour. The audience seemed to enjoy the guys anyway. To wrap up the first half it was folk song time with Pleasant & Delightful, which was I think our best ever rendition. I think I've said that the last couple of times we've performed it so I guess that means we're getting better and better. Caroline noted afterwards the expression I at least tried to add to my bit while Ruth still thinks I need to let myself go a bit and she is right. That's definitely the next aim - to visibly enjoy it more!

I don't normally talk about the 'Interval' much, but this one was particularly enjoyable given the amount of wine that flowed. I enjoyed a very nice glass of 'red' and I wasn't alone. Not sure what the purists would say about the effect of red wine on the vocal cords, but frankly, who cares? ;-)

Part Two kicked off with Viva l'amour and thanks to our new member Miguel who was watching in the audience, we were trying to ensure we pronounced the word 'amour' as in 'love' rather than 'death'. What was the verdict Miguel? Following that was Moon River (don't like it!) and He Ain't Heavy (love it!)  before those Shanty Folk nipped off to do a surprisingly quick costume chaKge. Their first was a new one to me, but I recognised Roll Alabama Roll which was fun! The Shanty Folk are always entertaining and go down well, so bravo I say!

Maria and Tonight followed with Lyndon Gardner staring in the former. Then Caroline performed her second solo set in her usual stunning fashion. First was the appropriately titled September Song by Curt Weill and then Adele's Laughing Song from Die Fledermaus by Johan Strauss. Marvellous stuff again. One can't get enough of the Caz-meister in my humble opinion!

That just left the lads to finish off the evening with Every Time We Say Goodbye, Amarillo and You'll Never Walk Alone. Caroline joined us for the latter, singing the first verse and blowing us all off the stage with the closing 'alone'!

So that was that. A good concert I think but with a few things to think about. Yes, we need to brush up on the professionalism somewhat, but there is also the issue of singing without copies to grapple with. The point was raised at the AGM as to why we should sing without copies at all. Well in answer to that, one only needs to ask the audience. They say that we look better, sound better and actually engage with them when we are not forever gawping down at our burgundy folders. In this concert we were gazing at copies to sing even Saints, Amarillo, He ain't Heavy, all of which have been sung without copies before. We even won a competition singing He Ain't Heavy without copies, so why the backward step?

I know that new members have joined and can't be expected to learn everything instantly, but why not have the new guys on the back row where folders would be less noticable? The sad fact is, however well you know a song, if the folder is there you will look at it. Take it away and see what happens. Invariably you know more of a song than you think you do. Amarillo simply must be sung without copies. Chris Hill once took mine off me in a rehearsal, leaving me to just manage - and I did. We can all then clap with ease and get the audience joining in, which is the whole point of singing Amarillo anyway!

One other piece of feedback I received was that there seemed to be some songs that were a bit 'samey', with too much 'ooh-ing' and 'arrr-ing'. Well, I can remember saying to Terry a while ago during a rehearsal "have we actually sung a proper word yet this evening"? Added to that feedback was another comment that there should be more old fashioned Male Voice Choir songs like Speed Your Journey and Deus Salutis to provide those 'hairs on the back of the neck' moments. So I guess there is a balance to be struck between attracting younger audiences and members by adding more modern songs to our repertoire while maintaining enough of the traditional material to keep the older member and audiences happy. No worries - in Chris Hill we trust!

So no rest for the wicked. Next Saturday is another away fixture as we make our trip to The Valleys as guests of the Merthyr Tydfil Ladies Choir. You may well have the benefit of a 'guest blogger' for this trip as Ruth has offered to record the weekend's events from the perspective a supporting wife. I will leave you with a selection of photographs from Saturday taken by Ruth. She has also put together a short video/soundtrack featuring an excerpt from the the finale which you can view by clicking here 

See you next time!

Alyn

 The Shanty Folk at Kegworth

The Loughborough Male Voice Choir warming up

.

 The Shanty Folk at Saint Andrew's Church, Kegworth

 Caroline Sharpe, our guest soloist.

Musical Director Chris Hill, encourages the audience

during Pleasant & Delightful

LMVC performing Pleasant & Delightful with one soloist looking particularly focussed!

 Chairman Chris Higgins trying to catch a moth during

during Pleasant & Delightful!

 Tenor soloist Lyndon Gardner performs Maria

Caroline Sharpes joins us to sing the first verse

of You'll Never Walk Alone

Signing on!

No, that's not a typo. I really have been signing on!

Crikey, what a couple of weeks! A busy Easter break taking in Drayton Manor and then a trip to Manchester to see Phantom of the Opera at the Palace Theatre. The former was fun and the latter was spectacular! John Owen Jones, who played the Phantom while not quite surpassing Mr Boe, was certainly pretty awesome.

That was then followed by three final days of work on the A46 before I joined the vast ranks of the unemployed. Oh joy! Are we down-hearted? Oh no, not when there's concerts to sing in and solos to be sung! Barely having a millisecond to feel sorry for myself, Saturday was the Loughborough Male Voice Choir's second concert of 2012, entitiled 'All in the April Evening', this time from St Helena's Church, West Leake. Publicity for this concert didn't go entirely to plan as the 'Publicity Secretary', (err, me!) was blissfully unaware of the late programme change that saw the phenomenally talented local soprano, sister-in-law and singing teacher, Caroline Sharpe added to the programme. Doh! Notification came way too late to inform the media, but it mattered not. A packed audience were treated to a slightly longer concert than originally anticipated I think.

And a splendid evening it was too. Perhaps the most varied, relaxed and 'fun' concert yet. Maybe not quite as polished as the Long Eaton concert in January, but pretty darn good.  Us chaps were all warned that it was likely to be a very cold church so some took the precaution of wearing white T-shirts or vests under the shirts as well  as the jackets. In fact, the church had a vast array of very effective heaters which certainly kept one's upper torso warm. To be honest, I felt at one stage like a sausage under a grill, but no matter.

To start proceedings, it was a couple of traditional numbers from the choir with us bereft of music. Despite initial resistance to this move, the chaps are now recognising how much better we look and sound with our heads up and (heaven forbid!) actually looking at Mr Hill! Certainly interval feedback from the audience was strongly in favour of us singing more songs without copies.

Next came something very different - Chris Higgins, playing a guitar he actually made himself, sang the Eric Clapton song Wonderful Tonight, accompanied by Mike Godwin on harmonica. This was truly brilliant and Chris' voice really suited the song. Ruth was very impressed, saying that he has a 'voice like velvet'. Well done indeed chaps!

Two more copy-less  traditional pieces followed from the choir before Caroline Sharpe gave her first selection. Firstly she sang the classic aria O mio Babbino Caro, followed by a song called Little Brown Bird. I don't know anything about this one as I missed Caz's explanation - wasn't paying attention. Sorry! Anyway, she sang beautifully as usual.

I must mention the less than ideal standing arrangements at this point. The frequent movements from seat to the restricted standing area meant I found myself leaning against a pillar on occasions in a desperate attempt to actually see our conductor. But such is live performing I guess. One just has to go with the flow and improvise. The choir then sang Danny Boy and one of my favourites, Eriskay Love Lilt. Strangely, I've always loathed Danny Boy, but I actually like singing it now.

The choir's top tenor Lyndon Gardner then presented a couple of arias with his usual professionalism. These were not songs that I recognised so will need to check with him again to get the titles of them, but again the man sat down to warm applause! Then to finish off the first half, the choir presented the classic welsh choir number Llanfair followed by the evening's title track, All in the April Evening, as requested by St. Helena's Church.

So a really good first half I thought. It seemed to me to be very polished, but it was as is often the case, difficult to gauge how good the overall sound was from within the choir. During the interval nibbles (including wine and PORK PIE!) was provided. Now with my solo spot coming up in part 2, my stomach was starting to do the hokey-cokey, so couldn't face any food. I fancied a glass of wine, but could forsee potential disaster with my brand new white shirt on. This presumably didn't cross the mind of a certain Jim Lacey, who somehow managed to spill what seemed to be the majority of a glass of RED wine down his Persil white shirt. Classic! I wished to catch this on Ruth's i-phone camera to share with you all on this blog, but Jim was having none of it. Spoil-sport!

Part 2 commenced with the choir's very own Michael Dukes and Gerry Brennan reviving the songs of  the legendary artistes Flanders and Swann. Now to be totally honest, this was a little lost on me being so young, it was a tad before my time (LOL) but the more 'mature' members of the audience loved it!

The second half proceeded with some more modern pieces such as the Hollies' He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother, Carole Bayer Sager's That's What Friends Are For and the rapidly improving Is This the Way to Amarillo? It was Amarillo's third concert airing and our best effort yet.

Caroline then treated the audience to a Gilbert and Sullivan piece followed by the beautiful Someone to Watch Over Me. Caroline later confessed to completely forgetting the words at one point of the first piece and proceeded to sing complete goggledy-gook that wasn't from any known language on this planet! Did anyone notice? I sure didn't and I don't think anyone else did either. I reckon it's because Caroline's voice is so beautiful that she could sing complete gibberish and it would still sound great! If the voice is good enough, the words become irrelevant perhaps?

Next was the slot that I was looking forward to and dreading the most with equal measure. The now established songs ThankYou for the Music and Chanson d'amour were followed by a newly introduced and well known folk song Pleasant and Delightful. The song is comprised of four verses sung solo by four choir members with the last line of each verse making up the chorus. The 'Fab Four' were given the moniker 'Euphoria' by George. You-Four-ia? Geddit? Anyway, Chris Higgins sang the first, Dave Weston the second, yours truly the third and David Booth the fourth. Midway through the previous song, the realisation that my bit was coming next hit home and a minor panic ensued, but I quickly got it under control and felt okay as I stepped up with the other three guys. I think it was Caroline that had suggested writing the first word of each line on my hand. The simple knowledge that it was there would be sufficient to ensure I wouldn't need it. Well, it worked a treat. I felt a bit tense when I started my verse but mid way through I realised that I knew it, relaxed and apparently even smiled during the last line! I thought the song was a brilliant addition to the repertoire and like Amarillo, it gets the audience involved which has got to be a good thing.

Following that waas another stint form Lyndon and again, he sang songs that I'm not familiar with. I will add the titles later if possible. But he was in fine voice again and the audience certainly enjoyed his three songs. Then to wrap up another fine evening the choir sang Every Time We Say Goodbye and the traditional concert closer, You'll Never Walk Alone.

So another excellent night. Very varied with something in there for just about everyone and the audience seemed to really enjoy it all. So, do I now get the chance to chill out for a while? No chance! Caroline Sharpe Singers oncert coming up this next Friday in Kegworth. Better wrap up now and get over to Caroline's place for another run though of On the Street Where You Live.

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

ABRSM music theory, singing exams and humming in one's sleep!

I think that this week we have seen evidence to suggest that (as many of you have probably already suspected), I am now in urgent need of some sort of therapy. Why so? Well, several days ago, my wife reported strange events during the course of the previous night! In the early hours, Ruth was woken by a strange humming. A passing aeroplane? A car outside the house with the engine running (we get a lot of those - really annoying)? No, it was nothing like that. This was apparently quite tuneful. No dear friends, t'was I. Yours truly was actually humming in his sleep! Ruth sadly, was unable to 'Name That Tune', but if I was a betting man, I'd put money on it being one of the songs I need to learn for an event in March (to be exclusively revealed below). Whatever it was, I am at least reassured that it was reasonably melodic. Ruth actually asked me whether I was awake and I apparently responded with "Yes". Alas, I have no recollection of this at all. Nurse, the straight-jacket!?!

Anyway, not to worry. New Year means a new set of goals.  After the hectic run-up to the festive period, it would be tempting to put my feet up for a while, at least until the next concert at the Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton on January 28th?  Not a chance mate!

Ms Sharpe suggested over the Chrimbo break that I have a stab at an ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal School of Music) exam, some time in the summer maybe? She suggests leaping straight in at Grade 4!?! I suppose it is a huge compliment that she doesn't think I need to bother with Grades 1 to 3, but it will inevitably mean a lot of 'catch up', music theory wise. Therefore, music theory workbooks 1-4 plus 'The AB Guide to Music Theory -Part 1', were duly ordered and they arrived rapid style courtesy of good ol' Amazon. Then I find that the exam is likely to be a bit earlier in the year.

"Err, how much earlier", I ask?

"Arr, erm, . . . . . . . .  March"?

"The tail end of March I hope", says I.

So mid March it is then? That gives me about two months to learn to sing one song from each of three sets of pieces, plus my own choice of traditional/folk song. In the first group, the obvious choice had to be Caro mio Ben, as I'm already there or thereabouts with that one. In the next group Caroline picked out an interesting Schubert piece called An die Laute. As step-daughter Anna-Ruth is quick to confirm, I've never been the biggest fan of the german language in song, but I think that stems from a loathing I have for some Kiri Te Kanawa pieces on a CD set I have! Not good, but then, I don't care much for Ms Te Kanawa in truth. Anyway, it seems like a nice little song, so I'll give it a crack.

From the third group of songs from musicals, Caroline suggested a charming piece from Cinderella called Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?  Orr, how sweet! One to be practiced in front of my wife I think!


Finally, I need to choose a traditional folk song to sing unaccompanied (Yikes!?!). I hadn't a clue what to choose for this but thankfully Caroline suggested a song called Barb'ra Allen. Now, I immediately recognised this one as it features in one of my all time favourite films - Scrooge, the 1950's classic starring Alistair Sim. As a reformed Scrooge visits his nephew (I think?) after his meetings with the three ghosts, the family are all around the piano on Christmas Day, singing this song. An odd choice to feature in a Christmas film as it's actually quite a depressing tale. A quick 'Google' of the title reveals that there are about 600 versions of this song dating from the late 1600's. Some have only a few verses, others with over ten. Thankfully, I'm only expected to sing two, but the whole tale of Barb'ra Allen is quite an interesting one. I might just reveal the whole story in a later blog!

Meanwhile, the LMVC are on the run-up to the next concert at the Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton and I have my LMVC publicity duties to attend to - a task not helped by the fact that Long Eaton has neither a newspaper nor a radio station! Strange but true, so I'll need to investigate other avenues to try to ensure we have an audience in excess of one man and his wife! Nottingham? Or Derby? Or both?

Anyway, this gig will also feature the marvellous Enchanted. So with us chaps belting out some favourite classics plus a few newbies like Amarillo and Chris Hill's personal fave, the Carole Bayer Sager penned song, That's What Friends Are For, plus Enchanted's usual mix of gems, PLUS solo spots from the choir's own Lyndon Gardner, it is going to be cracking concert I think. Get your tickets NOW ladies and gents. It'll be worth the ticket price just to see the guys sporting brand new bow-ties and cummerbunds for part of the concert!

Blimey, I've not even mentioned the Caroline Sharpe Singers and our first rehearsal of the new year. Sorry, I've waffled on for long enough this time, so I'll fill you in on that next time - later this week, I promise!

Cheers for now,

Alyn.