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!