Voicelab - We're All (Pink) Singers!

Although I haven't been posting much of late - I tend not to when we are out of season, and we don't officially start until this Sunday - the Pink Singers have already been hard at work. Yesterday a large group of us spent the afternoon serenading member sof the public down in the Clore Ballroom of the Southbank Centre, and getting them to join us too!

We haven't had much time to practise either. What with the winter concert still in recent memory, we really only had a couple of weeks before the gig. I get the impression that Mladen was particularly stressed about it. After all, he has particularly high musical standards, and this was a very, very public performance, in a a really rather prestigious musical venue. With the compressed rehearsal schedule it was necessary to resurrect some of our old music. But even with several Pinkies who had sung and danced the pieces before, the majority had not, so it was asking quite a lot of us.

The two pieces we did were the Best of Bond and Forever Motown. Neither are particularly short, and having to remember the moves was a difficult exercise, but over the lasty two Sundays we've been rehearsing it and trying to look like we do this all the time.

In the end I have to say the results surpassed all my expectations. For one we sounded really good, especially in such a difficult space. The choreography also seemed to come together, and even when we forgot a move, at least we forgot it all together so it looked fine (I'm looking at you tenors and basses!)

The biggest challenge though, was getting people to join us on stage for a reprise of Forever Motown. There I think we have Tanya to thank for being such a wonderful, relaxed and entertaining host. Philip R as usual got the crowd warmed up, and they were raring to go. This is not the usual group of people we perform to. I would guess that the majority have never heard of the Pink Singers before, let alone the fact that we're a gay and lesbian group. But there was no suspicion and when called at I would say about half the people got up and danced and sang along with us. With a bit of guidance from Rachel and Hsien with the choreoraphy, and the rest of the choir with words and music, we soon doubled our numbers. There were many honorary Pink Singers made that day!

All in all I would say it was a great change for us and we proved up to the challenge. And what a way to start summer 2009!

Songsmith - I Must Have This Program!

This is totally hilarious and got me laughing. basically Microsoft is releasing a new piece of software called Songsmith, which automatically fills in background music to any tune you sing. To see what I'm talking about, have a look at this utterly dreadful video (one in a chain of so horribly self-aware ads).
If that hasn't put you off yet, then you have to see what some people have done with it! If you feed the vocals of a well known song into the program, you can see what a machine would do to some of the classic music of the last century. I especially like Roxanne!

Roxanne:


I Heard It Through The Grapevine:


Even more!

Are they now?

Because all that hairiness causes a sore bottom when you're kickin' that football 'round.

What? Oh... riiiiiight....

Des Voix Contre Le Sida 2009

In Paris this April? Well, the Pink Singers will be too! We've are very honoured to have been invited to join our great friends from the city of lights: Les Caramels fous, Equivox, Mélo'Men and Podium Paris in a joint concert to raise awareness and funds for all those touched by AIDS. The event is called Des Voix Contre Le Sida, and while the website still shows last year's event, I can tell you that it is all happening on Thursday 9 April 2009 at the Trianon theatre. Previous events started at 2030h and a ticket costs just 20€ for a chance to hear all five choirs, and of course it is all for a good cause too. This is the first year a non-French choir has been invited, so we are really thrilled to have been chosen. More details when the Pink Insider gets them!