Welcome To The Family!

Well, the first three weeks of term are out of the way, and the new members have now formally joined the Pinkies. As I mentioned previously, it has been a bit of an odd season already, particularly since the interest this year has been so strong that we couldn't really accomodate everyone who wanted to join. The final tally came to 35 people who expressed an interest, 29 people who actually came to the rehearsals and 2 people who decided that the choir was not for them (it is a huge commitment!) So of the 27 who were voice-checked we could offer places to 21, as that takes us to the full complement of 18 per section, or 72 in total.

On Sunday I just couldn't believe how large the choir looked. On that day alone the tenors occupied three rows, and the number of newbies nearly outnumbered the oldies in that section. And they were all incredibly talented as well. I sat next to a young bloke called Oliver who quite easily sang through Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day without problems, and some of the new tenors like Gareth, Simon and Tom have outstanding voices.

This does have significant implications for our voice checks of course. As Michael De says, our voice checks are just that - they check whether you can hit a note and what your range is. They also reveal whether you have insight into any errors you may make, and whether you can learn to correct them. These are the basics of being in a choir which are essential to all singing members. However, we are not a pro choir, and we do not have auditions where traits such as vocal quality are assessed. That said, even based on the simple criteria we do use it is possible to see who has a better range and who learns the music faster and is more self-aware, and in the situation facing us this season, with a limited number of places, these things do count.

I am very happy for the newbies who made it through to the singing group, and I am sure they are elated about it - I know I was. However, I think my heart really goes to those whose vocal range was just that little bit too narrow, or whose notes were just that tiny bit off, to join the choir. In no way does this reflect on them; it is just a result of the overall higher standards this season.

The other thing to reiterate as well is that while one would assume that the choir is just about singing it is not. We have a very active social scene which encompasses the non-singing members of our choir as well. This includes all those people who help with staging the concerts and organizing events, the 'choir camels', as Martin (Philip R's other half) refers to them. And who is to say that next season there won't be more opportunities for the non-singing members to join the singing group?

Welcome, singing and non-singing members to the Pink Singers family! We are very pleased to have you here.

Dancing Day: Extended Remix Edition

Gardner's Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day was not the total massacre I thought it would be on Sunday. It actually sounded like it was coming together, despite it being the first time we had properly rehearsed it, and in the absence of any rehearsal tracks. I'm still finding it difficult, particularly getting the rhythms of the second lines of each of the verses. And when it has been sped up to 180 beats per minute (as is annotated) then really, I have no hope in hell.

Anyway, in an attempt to try to learn the lyrics I searched and discovered that the carol actually goes on for several verses beyond what we have in our sheet music.

This is where it stands at present.

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day;
I would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play,
To call my true love to my dance;

Chorus
Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

Then was I born of a virgin pure,
Of her I took fleshly substance
Thus was I knit to man's nature
To call my true love to my dance.

In a manger laid, and wrapped I was
So very poor, this was my chance
Betwixt an ox and a silly poor ass
To call my true love to my dance.

Then afterwards baptized I was;
The Holy Ghost on me did glance,
My Father’s voice heard from above,
To call my true love to my dance.

That's where it ends in our music, but the song actually goes on!

Into the desert I was led,
Where I fasted without substance;
The Devil bade me make stones my bread,
To have me break my true love's dance.

The Jews on me they made great suit,
And with me made great variance,
Because they loved darkness rather than light,
To call my true love to my dance.

For thirty pence Judas me sold,
His covetousness for to advance:
Mark whom I kiss, the same do hold!
The same is he shall lead the dance.

Before Pilate the Jews me brought,
Where Barabbas had deliverance;
They scourged me and set me at nought,
Judged me to die to lead the dance.

Then on the cross hanged I was,
Where a spear my heart did glance;
There issued forth both water and blood,
To call my true love to my dance.

Then down to hell I took my way
For my true love's deliverance,
And rose again on the third day,
Up to my true love and the dance.

Then up to heaven I did ascend,
Where now I dwell in sure substance
On the right hand of God, that man
May come unto the general dance.

I guess you can see why the subsequent verses are generally left out of the canon, much like the extra verses of God Save The Queen which could be quite offensive to the rebellious Scots.

And what does any of this have to do with Alesha Dixon? Nothing really, apart from the fact that (a) she is so pretty, (b) the picture is from the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special last year, so it is vaguely seasonal and (c) Strictly has started again. Yay!

Very Happy Sheep

Here's a funny little article courtesy of the BBC. Basically, farmers in North Tyneside dye the undersides of their rams blue before releasing them into a field with ewes. By seeing which of the ewes have blue dye transferred to their backs, they can then tell which ones are likely to have had intercourse. Unexpectedly, however, all the rams turned blue instead.

The official explanation is that the rams have been fighting each other. My explanation (and clearly I am not the only one), is that they found each other a bit too distracting, and enjoyed a bit of ram on ram friskiness...

New Members' Representative

It is week two of the winter season and things are going really well. We have pretty much covered the Britten carols - it certainly helps that half of us have sung it before - and will be polishing the music from here on in.

The first three weeks are also all about welcoming new members, and it has been a hectic time. Much of the congratulations goes to Liang who has been a very proactive new members' rep. In the past few seasons we have seen something of the order of a dozen would-be Pinkies coming along at the start of the season. Since Liang took over, however, we have had that many coming each week. This is not a surprise really, as Liang has gone out of his way to keep newbies up to date about the joining process, and put a more personal touch to making sure the new members are orientated.

I've had a chance to speak to many of the would-be new members and the overwhelming response is that they think we are a friendly bunch. Of course we are, but I also think that it helps that the section leaders are very keen to get to know the new members, and that the general Pinkies are also putting much more effort into it. After the rehearsal yesterday all bar one of the new members joined us in the pub for drinks, and they weren't all seated together either, but spread out amongst the regulars.

When I first joined, the Pink Singers were nowhere near as convivial and it took a couple of seasons to find my groove. I've noticed in the last couple of years that the atmosphere is changing though, and certainly for the better. It is counterintuituve, but as the choir gets bigger, there seems to be fewer and fewer factions, and more and more cohesiveness. It could be that the music is now our common focus, but I do think it reflects well on us as a community.

I have, for a long time, been worried about what will happen to that community as our group grows. At present we are 16 per section, or a total of 64 members. With the huge influx of new members and our relatively low turnover of existing members, Mladen mentioned that we could take on up to 15 newbies this season, and are now exploring going up to 18 per section, or a total of 72 members. That is more than twice the size of the choir I joined in 2002. At present, everyone still knows everyone else and we are all good friends. I imagine that 72 is probably the top end of what it is possible to cope with and still keep that great Pinkie vibe.

Proposition 8

And in world news... The state of California may strike down the right of gay people to get married, if Proposition 8 gets passed. Surely there are things which are enshrined in human rights and which shold be protected from the tyranny of the majority. Hell, who are we to talk - we Brits are barely over a decade from recovering from the evils of Section 28. Anyway, here is a short video on voting 'no' to Proposition 8.

A Busy Weekend - Sunday

Saturday's description was posted just before this, so read that one first. this is about Sunday which was really important because it was also the proper start of the new season. In a way, the seasons are starting to bleed into one another, partly because we have gigs throughout the breaks. Still, not having rehearsals is a welcome change to the weekends, even if after a while I start to itch to get back into the swing of things.Liang, our new members' rep., has been a super busy-bee in the break. Who knows whether it is because of the promotion of choral singing by Sing London, or shows like Last Choir Standing or The Choir on TV, but there has been huge interest in joining this year. On Sunday we had nine new attendees. They all seem really friendly and according to Mladen and Michael De had good voices. It can be hard for new members to feel at home, but I think that the Pinkies generally do a good job of welcoming them. On my part I think I have to rein the friendliness in just a tad to avoid sounding a bit too leery.

This season we are singing Christmas songs which makes a significant departure for us from the usual. I know many of the pieces already, at least by ear, but singing them is quite a different story. We began with Britten's Ceremony of Carols, and I can recall when we last did this two years ago how long it took to learn the timing and notes of This Little Babe. This time everything seemed to fall into place beautifully. I'm not sure whether this causes consternation to the new members who may feel that this is how the choir always sings.

Thankfully we put that impression right by our total massacre of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day. There was no hope in hell of us getting this right first time, especially at the pace at which it has been written, and for once the tenor line is not particularly melodic. I'd not heard the carol before, which helps in a way because I don't have a tune to forget.

Mark, our new chair, is currently away on holiday, so Ben P, the new U.K. concerts co-ordinator, gave us a little talk in the break, as did Simon our new treasurer. The atmosphere of the choir is changing because of the change in the executive committee, and I can see many Pinkies wanting to participate in how it is run. This can only be good for the choir. We're still looking for a secretary, which should hopefully be filled soon.After that it was off to the pub. As usual, we had the upstairs area to ourselves and there was a great buzz. There were many members of the choir I hadn't seen in the last two months, so there was loads of catching up to do. I also had a chance to chat with Karen, a new alto this season who is also going to be in charge of publicity for the Pinkies. I can only admire someone who we unfortunately had to space for last season, yet who stuck around till there was. Some of the newbies stayed right to the end, which is either a sign that they like being in our group, or that they're alcoholic, or both! There are allegedly another ten newbies coming next week, and the week after that. Good luck to them all!

A Busy Weekend - Saturday

Damn! I just typed out a whole blog post using this new Live Writer tool from Microsoft, and just as I was about to upload it, the whole thing got deleted! What follows is my frustrated abbreviated version, and please don't say that this should happen more often!

This weekend was the start of a lot of things, and I am now more tired coming out this end than I was going in. Saturday morning saw the Various Voices volunteer rally, basically a way for members of the choirs to get involved. I was doing a promotional spiel for the Frontrunners, so had to go there at 10am, give my talk, then rush back for the actual presentation at the Southbank Centre at 11am.

As I was a floater (a.k.a. odd job labourer) I started out with Roger (from Diversity) and Regis (from LGMC) at the welcome desk, before taking on my now-traditional role as photographer. I'll leave the actual description of the event to Hsien (what a great writer!) on the Team London blog, but will add that we had about 40 members show up, pretty good for a Saturday morning, and a good start.

There was hardly any time to breathe after that as the next event was at the Royal Albert Hall. Under the auspices of Sing London and with a chance to promote Various Voices we were going due to be part of a flash mob. Yes, I was thinking the same thing, what? The idea was that we were to infiltrate the queues at the last night of the Proms, start singing spontaneously, and get people to sing along as well.  As it turns out, the Union Jack clad members of the public were highly territorial and we decided it best not to risk assault by jumping the queue, even in pretence, and got together by the statue on the south side of the Hall.

The rehearsal prior to this was held at the Royal College of Music and led by the MDs of Diversity (singing) and LGMC (on the piano), and when we finally emerged into the sunlight we were raring to go. I've never seen so many weirdos (in the kindest possible sense) and I think they probably thought the same of us when we started with Take A Chance On Me. But the people around us gamely joined in, and by the time we got to Jerusalem the crowd was singing along with gusto, tongue firmly planted in cheek or not.

All too soon it was over. The audience wanted more, and we certainly could have sung a few more songs, but the time we were allocated was limited. There was, however, ample opportunity for the Pink Singers to be interviewed on camera by a member of Sing London, so keep an eye out for it on their website. Hooray for our fifteen seconds of internet fame.

After that it was off to the Poland club where Diversity bought us all a round of drinks. Thanks a bunch guys and gals! people often make out that there is competition between our three choirs, but the reality is that we all get along very well, and have such different niches that we really don't overlap much at all. It takes events like this to foster a closer relationship between us though, and I'm glad we were part of it.

Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day

Looks like it is YouTube to the rescue. Here is King's College choir performing Tomorrow Shall Be... unlike our slaughter of the song in our first rehearsal yesterday.

Winter Season 2008 Album Art

I rip all my rehearsal tracks to my PC, and then listen to them on my phone or mp3 player. It just doesn't look right if there isn't any album art, and over the last few years I've been creating "covers" for the music. Here is my attempt for this season. Make the yuletide gay!

Gratuitous Friday

One of my favourite blogs is Jockohomo Datapanic, and it is firmly in my top 10 list of personal blogs in my RSS reader. It covers everything from American politics to upcoming art shows, and often has some glorious photography (as noted above), so is worth a peek now and then. The story of how I came across it is rather odd though. I am obsessed with personal technology and technology doesn't get more personal than the mobile phone, so another site I frequent is Phone Scoop. I was watching one of their video reviews about text entry in a phone when Jockohomo's web address came up on the screen, only to be deleted and replaced with the Phone Scoop URL (I suspect is Eric gay). With a name like Jockohomo, it is impossible to mistake the contents of the blog, and so off I went, and I've been hooked since!

Who's That Guy?

Guess who? Well our new Pink Singers' chair of course! Here he is looking particularly grizzly (and sexy, but don't tell him I said that). In fact, Mark's pic appears on our website where he introduces the Pinkies. Several of the pages have been revamped in advance of the new season, kudos to our new webmaster Michael Da. Michael's also the one responsible for spawning a whole slew of new Pink Singers' mailing lists, including the section-only lists. As the choir gets bigger it is the best way of keeping us all in touch without overloading our inboxes with email. Anyway, enough rambling, what are you waiting for? Go check out the Pink Singers' website.

Various Voices - We Need Your Help

There's been a bit of a flurry of posts from me today, but mainly because so much is happening this weekend. in addition to the flash mobbing we will be doing at the Royal Albert Hall, this Saturday lunchtime is also when Various Voices will be hosting a volunteer rally. As you know, this is the largest LGBT choir festival in Europe, and we are expecting over 4,000 participants. Over 2,000 delegates have already signed up!

Basically, this is larger than even all three London LGBT choirs put together, and we are reaching out to the larger community for some help. There is loads to do, from stewarding to hosting, and so many ways to lend a hand. If you need more information, check out the Various Voices website and download a volunteer form.

Better yet, if you are free this Saturday, why not come along and see what's available? The Pinkies (and the Pink Insider) will be there - hope to see you there too!

Various Voices Rally
Saturday 13th September
Welcome by Jude Kelly and members of the Southbank Team

When: Saturday 13th September 11am – 1pm

Where: Level 5 Function Room, Southbank Centre - near waterloo / embankment stations

What: A Various Voices Rally for all new volunteers to re-introduction you to Various Voices London, getting to know each other, working together and exploring volunteering opportunities during and around the festival next year.

Who: All choir members, friends, loved ones, family, acquaintances and anyone passing by.

Why: The success of the festival is based on the involvement of a wide range of volunteers; this will be our first chance to bring all potential volunteers together in the festival venue to talk about how the festival will work

We will explore how everyone will be able to both enjoy the festival and support through volunteering the choirs and the LGBT community of London .

Once we have introduced you to the festival we will talk about the kind of volunteering work that we need and sign you up to a specific area.

All volunteers will need a degree of training dependant on the job and volunteers will work in teams with team leaders under the guise of the VVL Volunteer Coordinator.

VVL will be looking to recruit you into one of the 6 main areas of volunteering

* Choir Support
* Registrations
* Information
* Front of House
* Back Stage
* Team London Support

We need team members, leaders and a coordinator and would love to hear from you now if you would like to do more by joining Team London, we are keen to recruit a Lead for Marketing and the Volunteers Coordinator

The more volunteers we get the less we will all have to do, please don't be shy about coming forward, this is your festival and building towards its success will be our communal achievement.

What can you help right now? So what about helping out some delegates to come and enjoy the festival by joining the Host Accommodation Register - we are asking anyone with a guest room in their home to volunteer to become hosts to one or more of the out of town visitors. From such an offer of hospitality, long term international friendships can grow. And hosts should receive a modest monetary offering as suggested in our hosting charter - see the website for more details and to register on-line.

Flash Singing

I must say that as a choir we seem to be doing more and more, and occa- sionally it is hard to tell when one season finishes and one season begins. Yes, we start officially again on Sunday, but we also gave a concert just last week. To top it off, this Saturday, several of the Pinkies will be participating in an event courtesy of Sing London.

In fact, we are organizing the event, in collaboration with the London Gay Mens' Chorus and Diversity, as part of the promotional run-up to Various Voices 2009. This time, we will be wowing the crowds in front of the Royal Albert Hall as they queue up for the last night of the proms. This Pink Insider did not participate in last year's event at the Naitonal Portrait Gallery, but having seen Lynne and Maia lead the befuddled gallery visitors in an impromptou rendition of Hey Big Spender, I think it will prove to be quite an experience.

Of course we will be flash mobbing, not just flashing...

New Season, New Repertoire, New Pinkies!

If you hadn't noticed, I figure you had better realise that the Winter 2008/2009 season will be starting this Sunday. Welcome back returning Pinkies, and an even warmer welcome to those who are thinking of joining too. Get in touch with Liang if you are intending to give singing a shot!

We also have this season's repertoire, which, as I alluded to before, is the first one where we are actually learning proper Christmas music. Most of our winter concerts are not particularly seasonal, so this makes a welcome, if slightly conventional departure. As usual though, we're not just trying out boring old carols. No, we have a bit of classical, a bit of pop and a bit of rock, and to top it all off, Michael De's magic Christmas megamix.

A Ceremony Of Carols, Op.28
Wolcum Yole!, As Dew in Aprille, This Little Babe, Deo Gracias
Music by Bejamin Britten, Arranged by Julius Harrison

Carols
Angel's Carol, Candlelight Carol, Star Carol
Words and Music by John Rutter

In The Bleak Midwinter
Composer Gustav Holst, arranger John Bertalot & Lyricist Christina Rosseti

Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
composed by John Gardner

Good King Wenceslas and Maoz Tsur

Merry Christmas Darling
Lyrics by Frank Pooler, and music by Richard Carpenter
Arranged for choir and piano by Harry Simeone

About Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
By Johnny Marks
Arranged by Kirby Shaw

Christmas Medley
Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is coming to town, I saw Daddy kissing Santa Claus, I'm dreaming of a White Christmas& We Wish You A Merry Christmas.
Arranged by Michael Derrick

Christian & Olli

I was introduced to this series by one of my friends in the Front- runners, a lovely guy called David who is not-so-secretly in love with one of the actors. The soap opera is called "Verbotene Liebe" or "Forbidden Love" in English and is a long-running series on German telly. Mixed in amongst the storyline, however, is a rather sweet and very positive story of two men who meet and fall in love. Of course, this being a soap opera, the odds of the course of true love running smooth are next to nil, and at first they really hate each other. Olli, is a ship steward who is on shore leave, but who decides to stay in Düsseldorf with his aunt, whereupon he meets Christian, an initially gay-hating (we know where is this going) "straight" guy going out with a girl called Coco. Much of the excitement in this series is watching their relationship unfold, and Christian's own process of coming out.

Naturally, this being a German show we would never have seen it were it not for the wonders of YouTube and the generosity of a guy (I'm assuming a male here) called ichglotzutube who has devotedly and devotionally extracted the Christian und Olli storyline from every episode, translated and subititled them, and uploaded them to the internet. He has created a playlist of all the episodes in sequence, meaning you have, bar the 30 episode preamble, over 10 hours of homosexual love without any of the boring straight bits. Now if only British soaps didn't have gay men who weren't also psychopaths. I'm looking at you Hollyoaks!

Edit: OMG! Someone actually reads these posts, and leaves comments! I stand corrected - it turns out that ichglotzutube is actually a straight woman. Geil!

The John Rutter Christmas Album: An Impression

I would make a very bad straight man. I mean, when I get a new mp3 player or mobile phone what are the three albums I load onto it straight away? Well, the sad answer is Dreamgirls: The Original Motion Picture Sountrack, Hairspray: The Musical and The John Rutter Christmas Album. Yes, I fully admit that I am conforming to stereotype when it comes to my choice in listening music, and all three albums are about as gay as you can possibly get, short of a combined Juday Garland/ Barabara Streisand/ Cher medley. However, while the first two are pretty damn obvious, the John Rutter Christmas Album is, arguably, the gayest of the three.

I'm not sure many people are acquainted with Rutter's music, but if you are then you will realise that he really can out-Disney Disney. There is no holding back on the sheer emotional "manipulativeness" of his music; he is quite glad to use a solo oboe to denote sadness, or sleigh bells in abundance to bring forth the Christmas spirit. Every tune is simple but melodic, and even I, who grew up with Christmases in the tropics and the damp festivities of London, listen to the songs and dream of sitting by a roaring fire with egg nog, a decorated Chistmas tree and snow drifts outside.

The album is really two in one. The first thirteen or so songs consist of Christmas carols written by Rutter to traditional or medieval lyrics. The second half consists of his arrangements of well known Christmas carols. Both work really well, and I especially love the second half's slight irreverance of taking Joy To The World and reinterpreting it as a pseudo-Handellian orgy of trumpets. However, if I had to choose I would go with the first half as the one which I am most in love with.

This Christmas, in what I envisage as a one-time only occurence, the Pink Singers will be performing three songs from it: Angels' Carol, Star Carol and Candlelight Carol. All are exquisite, and have Rutter's trademark interplay between the loftier tones of the sopranos and altos, and the earthier tones of the tenors and basses. My favourite of the three, however, has got to be Candlelight Carol with it's beautiful lyrics and it's spine tingling crescendos and decrescendos.

If it were up to me, I would have also loved to have performed Nativity Carol, Christmas Lullaby and the sublime Dormi Jesu. The latter is particularly difficult to perform as it calls for several moments when the music drops away and the choir sings a capella. Keeping the pitch with the changes in pitch and volume is an extremely difficult skill.

Trippy Video

I chanced across this video while reading about the new visualization in itunes. I can't remember the last time I actually used a visualization when listening to music, but then again, I don't listen to this kind of electronica anyway, and random dots and colours don't really seem to fit with choral music. Even so, I find it rather soothing, and if you are interested there are loads more where this came from!

Of Latter Days

I've been on a bit of a retro roll this fortnight, what with watching Queer As Folk all over again, so it isn't too much of a surprise that I am revisiting the past, this time catching a film I saw back in 2004 called Latter Days. It was the height of summer, and the time of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; Simon and I were seeing each other without actually dating yet, and we went with a bunch of Pink Singers of yore (I seem to recall Stefan and John H being there) to watch what was, if memory serves me correctly, the opening film of the festival.

Now, normally I don't expect much of independent films, much less gay independent films. There is typically very little semblance of a plot, the pacing is sketchy and the acting (if one can call it that) is only slightly better than in porn, with the added disadvantage that the actors are even less enthusiastic about the "rewards" of a well-performed scene. So it was with some surprise that I emerged from the National Film Theatre with damp eyes.

I'm not going to bother with a synopsis of the film, since there are ample reviews of it out there on the web, but suffice to say it is about a young Mormon who loves to L.A. and falls for a fluffy gym bunny, and how both their lives are changed. Given the religious overtones of the film, it is unsurprising that the ending is about salvation of both the protagonists, both literally and figureatively.

Quite apart from the electric chemistry between the two young men, and a remarkable performance by the gorgeous Steven Sandvoss who plays the role of Aaron the Mormon with just the right combination of bashful naiveté and barely bridled sexiness, the film touched many cords in me at the time, dealing as it does with issues of coming out, family and friendships and purpose in life. In one sequence Aaron asks Christian, who is sitting on a sheepskin bed throw dressed in a jockstrap (the manoeuvring Christian does to achieve this situation is quite far fetched!), what he truly believes in, and whether he can build his life around it. The implication is that at least Aaron believes in something worthwhile, while Christian (oh ironic naming conventions!) is skin deep and shallow.

I remember that at the time I was reading a book called Life On The Outside by Michaelangelo Signorile which detailed his disaffection with the emptiness of the gay party circuit. It was primarily a description of the scene in the States in the late 90s and the empty body fascistic quality of being out and proud then. Having worked for a while in Florida it jibed exactly with my experience, and while it was great that there were people willing and able to be out and proud, the uniform of tight white tee, dark denim and Timberland boots, and the lack of individualism it embodied certainly did not appeal to me in the least. I mean, I fought to come out of the closet for this? A wolrd in which I felt even more of an outsider?

Thankfully, the U.K. scene is signficantly more diverse than the American one, and friendlier and more approachable for it. You may certainly fit into a stereotype if you so choose, but you don't have to, and there is certainly no pressure to conform. The point of this preamble is that Latter Days resonated with me at the time because it challenged the notion that one had to adopt muscles, hedonism and promiscuity as a mantra to truly be "gay". Heaven knows you get enough stereotyping from the straight world without the gay world also wanting to apply a label to you.

Latter Days also explores a subject dear to me: the juxtaposition of a religious belief system with being gay, two spheres of influence in my own life which are not mutally exclusive, but which are far from comfortable bedfellows. I am certainly not Mormon, but can see how it can be difficult to reconcile the ideological purity/straitjacket of a spiritual belief with the occasionally gritty and tawdry but always stimulating reality of a human, gay existence.

That said, it has now been five years since I saw the film, and I am a slightly less idealistic person for it. For one, that all-defining "belief" as a guiding principle for building your existence is a bit of a sham. What you believe in is not fixed: it changes with time and place and there is no constancy to it. In the context of the film, Aaron's original beliefs in his religion and his family, ultimately gives way to one in his newfound friends. This is not to deny that the principles set out early on have threads which run through the rest of your life, but it is possible to change the founding core without disrupting who you are too much.

Latter Days is, as you might imagine, one of my defining gay films and one I strongly recommend. Sure some of the lines are cheesy, some of the emotion is overwrought and some of the plot requires a suspension of disbelief, but with great eye-candy, superb music and sympathetic characters it makes for a very pleasant and thought provoking hour or so. Track down a copy if you can!

Football And The Pink Singers

At first glance, it really doesn't seem all that likely that a sport like football has anything to do with the Pinkies. I mean, sport, what is that? Indeed, as part of the build up to Various Voices 2009, the original plan was for all three main LGBT choirs in London to put together a joint team to actually compete in the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association World Championship 2008, held here in London this last week. To be honest, even with a combined total of nearly 300 members we couldn't find a group of ten willing to kick a ball around the pitch. That said, even if we didn't compete, we were invited to perform for their closing ceremony on Saturday, and took it as a great opportunity to promote both the Pink Singers and Various Voices at the same time.

I realise that in the last five years or so, the area under the arches the rail bridge at Vauxhall has become quite the gay mecca of south London, but this was my first actual excursion there, and I was really amazed at how much the area has developed. We were performing at a club called Area which at first glance looked quite small, but held two or three cavernous extensions, including several bar areas and a large dance floor. We were all especially impressed with the disco lighting system on the ceiling - a series of bright LEDs arranged in a grid which could produce more hallucinogenic patterns than a Pokémon cartoon. I want one for my living room!

Sadly, the room in which we were supposed to warm up was not quite so brightly lit. In fact, there was hardly any lighting at all apart from a few tiny red and blue bulbs dotted in the corners. Thankfully David retrieved a torch from his car which allowed Michael De to see the sheet music. The real worry was that there was no general lighting to speak of in that area, which makes you wonder what exactly they use that room for normally, and for hygeine freaks like me, how often they clean and/or inspect the surfaces...

Saturday was one of those really hot days (possibly the last of the summer) which meant it was perfect for a party. The football teams were clearly in a good mood, and I have to say that there were more than a few good looking guys there. The ladies had a somewhat more limited selection, but the winning girls team was there in force. Everyone congregated outside in a marquee on the pavement to enjoy the evening breeze and hear both cheesy 80s pop and the trains rumbling by.

The Pinkies were called in just before eight to get ready, which meant that for a surreal five minutes we had the dance floor to ourselves. The music was blasting a very dance-worthy Boogie Wonderland and we all took the opportunity to shake our stuff. It was all very strange, and the few onlookers must have thought we were mad, but it was all great fun, and just goes to show that we don't really even need an audience to have a great time!

As for the gig itself, we were buoyed by the incredible support of the crowd. Sure, there were loads of people chattering away, but by and large they did listen to us. We had to sing at a volume somewhat louder than normal, but subtely would have been lost in the venue, and appropriately all our pieces ended up sounding just a little like football songs anyway! We performed just over 20 minutes, kicking off with Your Song, following with Love Song For A Vampire and Forever Motown before ending with Come What May. By the end we had the audience singing along with us!

The whole choir was really relaxed in the performance, in the main I think because we have, by now, performed the set so many times before. We also fed off the great vibe from the audience, and the Pinkies who were there that evening are also perhaps the ones who are most disinhibited in the whole choir. They are therefore also the ones who respond the most exuberently to each other and the crowd. It also helped that we had some of the best voices from each section there, and with just fifteen of us on stage the sections could actually tune to each other, so musically it just sounded really tight. I often view these small group gigs with some trepidation, with some justificaiton as past experience shows, but this was a particularly good one. We had a good time, and I am sure the audience did too!