Christmas Comes Early

I am not a particularly religious person - I approach most belief systems from a utilitarian perspective - but I do love the Christmas season, mainly for the opportunity to stuff yourself silly with mince pies and pudding, and the chance to sing jolly Christmas carols. However, much as I enjoy this time of the year, I also think that the way an end-of-December event starts to creep into the middle of November is a worrying trend.

So it was with a little sigh that I found out we were due to sing Away In A Manger and other Christmas Carols in Victoria Station two Saturdays ago. Then again, the Pink Singers have a tradition of carolling at this time of the year (even if we've not done it so early before) and we also always perform for charity. This time it was for Marie Curie Cancer Care, so the motivation was good. Carolling in mid-November is more a reflection on how charities function in this holiday period, especially in a year when pockets are tight and charity fatigue sets in early.

A bunch of about twenty of us, accompanied by Cilla on guitar, ran through our song sheet of six carols. As last year, the music starts off in unison, and as the cycle progresses, the harmonies become more and more complex as ther various Pinkies improvise their own line. By the time we got to the end of a two hour stint we were back to singing like a regular choir again! Michael De's sleigh bells certainly helped add a touch of Christmas cheer to the proceedings.

Of course, with the Manchester competition looming it was also a chance for us to perform a few of our competition pieces to the unsuspecting public. The irony of singing Now Is The Month Of Maying on the freezing wind-swept Victoria train station concourse was not lost on the audience, and they seemed to appreciate it all the more.

Do we make a difference? I think we do: an informal chat with the collectors suggested that when we are around they tend to collect up to three times as much as if they were standing there jangling their buckets alone. If that is true, then Christmas in November is entirely justified, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Edit: Bonus! Check out Oskar's photos of us in Victoria Station!

Summer Lovin' With The Pink Singers

I can't believe what a hectic season it has been, but it was all about to culminate in our summer concert. There was a little trepidation as our home venue, the Royal Academy of Music, was closed for refurbishment and we were compelled to try out a new place; but arriving at the rather grand Britten theatre at the Royal College of Music most of our fears were put to rest.
Singing on a new stage always involves sound checks and modifications to choreography. I thought the audibility was improved both on stage (for the choir) and in the audience, so that was great for everyone. However, the risers on stage were lower than we are used to at the Royal Academy (where you can break a hip if you get off them too quickly), and it didn't help that some of the shortest tenors were standing behind the tallest basses and were playing peek-a-boo with Mladen. Overall though I did like the intimacy of the place which meant we were much closer to the audience than usual.
Claire H rejoined the choir to sing the parts from O Fortuna. She has a simply luminous voice, and gave the notes that effortless colour which made my spine tingle. Then there were the incredible solos from Tom, Sally-Ann, Andrew F, Tanya, Cilla and Alex. If I had to pick a favourite I would say it was Alex's Till There Was You which stole the show. Our own run-through went very well, with just a few nervous errors here and there, so it was particularly interesting to hear just how great we sounded in the actual performance. The Pinkies really upped their game!
It certainly helped that we had a great audience. They laughed when we sang America, clapped along when we did the 70s Dance Party, cheered when we looked vaguely revolutionary in One Day More and applauded heartily when we completed the cycle of Carmina Burana. I am not sure that whether it was in relief (Blaaaaaaniflor et Helena!) or admiration, but it was much appreciated!
Photo credit: Alp
All in all I think we put on quite the show and the audience left the auditorium on a high. But there was more to come as the party continued later at the Student Union bar in Imperial College. We'd hired a karaoke machine, which meant Pinkies like Susan, Daniel really had a chance to shine. Like my friends said, it was like a second concert!
The trite and overused phrase is that we "work hard and play hard", but that really is true with the Pink Singers. We do put in a lot of work to get our performances up to the standard they are, and what we create is something I am very impressed with and proud of. And there was tons of work behind the scenes all season to keep the Pinkies running smoothly as a choir. I am really glad that there was an official recognition for this, and for those members who have committed years of their time to the Pink Singers, by way of a presentation of gifts backstage. But we also have huge amounts of fun together too and that is at least as important.

Fa La La La La La La La La!

Is it possible to be sick of Christmas Carols? Until Monday evening, I thought this was a physical impossibility. This was, of course, before I had sung all six verses of The Holly And The Ivy six or seven times in one night, as part of the Pinkies small group. As part of our annual tradition, a bunch of us from the choir volunteers their time to carol for good causes, and Monday night's event was in aid of Crusaid for World AIDS Day.

It was a freezing night, and an intrepid bunch of Pink Singers gathered on the corner of Berwick and Broadwick Street to sing a few songs. We were joined by bucket carrying fund-raisers from Crusaid and a trio of drag queens who looked fabulous darling! It was a rather incongruous bunch, but made rather Christmassy by Michael De's conical hat (concealing a fleece beanie underneath), his sleigh bells, and a tiny Christmas tree. Hey, at least we could rock around it!

It turned out that our start location had perhaps less footfall than anticipated, and so we migrated over to Old Compton Street where there was marginally more traffic. I can't actually remember having been in Soho on a Monday night before, so didn't really know who or what to expect on the street. As it turned out there were commuters rushing home, a few drunken women staggering home from an office party, some tourists, an Italian waiter in his Fonz black leather jacket, quite a few cute gay men and the resident homeless man.

Most of them looked on with incredulity as we stood in the freezing cold, but the majority were quite supportive and stopped for a while to watch us perform before making a donation. The homeless gentleman even came up to us clutching a chopstick and led us with a bit of impromptou conducting. He got a bit too near to Cilla's guitar for comfort but stepped back when she said a stern 'no' to him and shook her head disapprovingly.

We had a short 15 minute break before regrouping for the final half hour at about 9pm. By then the slight drizzle was turning into quite significant rainfall, and the streets were clearing. Michael gave us the chance to call it quits, but as Janet said, only the Pink Singers are crazy enough to say, oh let's just sing a couple of songs and see whether the rain will stop. After a burst of Hark the Herald Angels Sing it actually did, and we closed the evening with our first public performance of Rockin' 'round the Christmas Tree. Thank goodness for Michael's little prop!

That's It! Bonjour Paris!

Yep. The last rehearsal before Paris - we perform on Saturday! - and it was a good one. The harmonies are sounding tight, the dynamics are more or less in place and perhaps most importantly, we are starting to look like we are enjoying being on stage rather than looking terrified. There are some songs like Big Band Bash and ABBA Pink which you almost can't help but dance along to. Of course ABBA has its own choreography, but Big Band Bash, which has no formal moves, is one song which really gets you tapping your feet - and we do!

The other song which, surprisingly, has that foot-tapping quality is Dies Irae with its aggressive vocals and furious rhythm. Unfortunately, as expected, it is incredibly difficult to learn the lyrics, so instead of a looking "evil" (Mladen's words) we look more like we are concentrating on what words are coming next. Mladen tested each of the sections on our knowledge of the lyrics yesterday; thanks to Johnathon's hood, Celso cunningly managed to sing the lyrics with no obvious sheet music (see picture!).

The biggie last evening was the choreography rehearsal for Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. We're not doing this in Paris, but it is going to be in the winter concert on the 19th of January. Some of the moves are sexy, some border on the risqué, but the sops and altos really threw themselves into it. I must say that I was especially impressed with Karin and Cilla for whom the moves seemed to come naturally. The two choreographers were pretty good too and seemed to be aware of the limitations of our choir - especially the inability for us to move legs and arms at the same time! - and steered adroitly around them.

Off to Paris on Friday morning! Phillip, Simon, Liang and I are checking in early and grabbing a champagne breakfast before heading off. Hey you only live once! The next time (most of) the choir meets we will be in L'Open Café. See you there Friday night!

P.S. The sheer number of exclamation marks in this post belies! my! excitement!