Islington LGBT History Month 2008

Another year, another LGBT History Month. The Pink Singers small group has semi-religiously been a supporter of the celebrations, and this year Charlie has booked us into the commemorative events over in Islington Council. This year's theme is 'Claiming our Past, Celebrating our Present and Creating our Future', and the council's laudable aims are to create an environment where 'LGBT people are seen as positive role models for young people and can live free from hostility and prejudice'. This is broadly in line with the aims of the Pink Singers, even if we haven't really asked to be role models and our celebrating all things LGBT is a somewhat inadvertant side effect of our singing.

Anyway, we'll be performing a few songs from our winter concert including Come What May, Hymne A L'Amour and Abba Pink. So come on down and see us strut our stuff this Friday night at Islington Town Hall. Details are over on the Pink Singers website.

Countdown To Summer And 25!

The timetable for summer 2008 is out on the Pink Singers website, and I am really looking forward to the 25th anniversary ball. Yes, the Pink Singers are a quarter century old - and we are celebrating on the 12th of April 2008. I am always tickled pink (oh ho ho!) when I read Mark Bunyan's diary of 1983 describing that very first meeting of the Pink Singers. I know Liang been in touch with Mark to try find out who the original 15 Pink Singers were, but even our esteemed founder no longer remembers, or has lost contact with them. So, if you are a Pink Singer, from any year really, and would like to join in the festivities, get in touch. Leave a message here, or contact the Pink Singers via the website. And remember, the summer season starts on the 2nd of February - we're counting down now...

Various Voices Is Picking Up Steam!

Things really are picking up pace on the Various Voices front. Adam, the Pink Singers liaison on the committee, has just posted on the resurrected Team London blog over on the Pink Singers website. As he says, although we are at the early stages of planning, things are beginning to take shape, with loads of behind-the-scenes developments in terms of financial and IT structure. Now's the time for members of the stakeholder choirs to get on board though, and the first step is with host accomodation. Also, if you are a choir reading this, then it would be really helpful if you could fill in an indication of initial interest form as well. That will help us with planning for numbers - and I would personally be grateful!

Positive Feedback?

I guess there are people out there more boring than me. I love eBay, as Simon will undoubtedly confirm, and I have an unhealthy obsession with prehistoric gadgets which the on-line auction site unfortunately feeds. Even I, however, do not trawl the nether regions of eBay for amusement value. That said, a mysterious chappie called CapnWacky has compiled a list of the more unusual feedback some buyers have given sellers.

My favourite?

NEUTRAL: Item shipped promptly and in good condition, but I should not have to bid on birthday presents from my parents.

Succint, with just the right amount of pathos!

P.S. Although, since the season ended we have had a bit of a lull, things are actually still happening on the Pink Singers front - we have a gig coming up next Friday for Islington Council. I'll post stuff once we've had a rehearsal.

Register Your Interest!

Things really are proceeding apace over in Team London, the group made up of the Pink Singers, London Gay Men's Chorus and Diversity to organize Various Voices London 2009. I think everyone is now really aware that we have just over a year to get everything in place. I met with Chris D this evening, and we went through a whole load of technical details pertaining, in the main, to setting up and linking databases between the server and the website front end. It involved words like MySQL and ASP.net, neither of which I am familiar with. I have dabbled in HTML and CSS before, so there is a base from which to start, but I fear I am getting relatively lost in the new terminology. I'm continuing to tinker though, and Chris is a patient teacher.

That said, the main development over on the Various Voices London 2009 website is the new initial indication of interest form (or eye-eye-eye form as it is begging to be called). Basically, it lets Team London have an idea how many places to plan for, and the relevant contact details for each of the choirs across Europe. Obviously, since 2005 there are many more new European nations, as well as the rumoured establishment of LGBT groups in the hitherto gay choral wastelands of Italy, Spain and Portugal, so we are expecting the numbers to be even greater than in Paris.

Time to spread the word, especially if you know of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender choirs in farther flung parts of the continent. Get them to fill in the form!

Steampunk + Star Wars + Lego = Magic

Time for another random post, this time about the ultimate combination of three of my favourite things! The first is all things steampunk. If you are into manga cartoons and have ever seen Steamboy or Laputa: Castle In The Sky you'll know exactly the look and feel it refers to. Wikipedia gives a great summary of what this is, but essentially, "steampunk" is

"[a] term [which] denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date."

The second is of course Star Wars - so good I saw it as a child but went back while at university, driving all the way from Oxford to High Wycombe, just so I could see the rerelease in a THX certified cinema.

The last is, of course, Lego, everyone's favourite childhood toy (or at least mine).

Anyway, these three ingredients have all combined into a fantastic competition over on FBTBforums, where contestants are asked to build some of their favourite Star Wars vehicles in steam-punkified Lego. The combination is really far too wonderful to describe here, and I suggest you head over there to see more of these creations.

Who knew you could do such wonderful things with Lego, and who would have thought a site like From Bricks To Bothans could ever exist, except in an internetified age?

Amour And More Album Art

If you are as obsessive-compulsive as me about sorting out your digital music collection, you might want to download my attempt at album art for this season's music.

Feeling The Love - What A Winter Concert!

Well, that is it! What a great climax to nearly four months of rehearsing. Despite some of the tribulations on the way it was really great to see everyone mucking in and turning out what I think was one of the best concerts we have ever done.

The festivities actually began on Friday when a whole lot of the Pinkies went down to St. Pancras station to pick up Equivox. Lynne, in quintessential tour guide mode, was carrying our placard from the last Various Voices. This led to repeated random people coming up to us and saying, "I am with the Pink Singers". Oh ho ho. What hilarity.

Equivox must have been at the Parisian end of the train because it took them an eternity to emerge, and when they did it was en masse. Stéphane, Simon's and my host when we were in Paris, arrived sans his partner, but came with Alain instead, the Pink Singers' guide when we were in Paris in 2005, so there were no strangers. We drove them back to the flat and went for a swift half pint at the local pub.

The next day we had a leisurely breakfast before our French guests had to escape and find a decent espresso. I had been to Monmouth coffee house the day before where I picked up the Colombian medium roast, but for some reason it came out rather dilute from my stove-top espresso pot. Even I found it disappointing. Still, the four of us met up again for lunch at Masala Zone just of Carnaby Street. Unfortunately my tolerance for spiciness exceeds that of my continental friends and I fear the whole dietary excursion was quite an adventure for them...

The warmup started at 4 p.m., and thanks to last weeks' dress rehearsal, everything moved much more smoothly and in an almost leisurely way. All too soon it was 7 p.m. and time for the doors to open! Equivox opened the first half after Philip R's usual laid-back but oh-so-professional introduction. He managed to pick out a few unsuspecting members of the audience, including Anthony's friends who were seated in the front row, for a bit of good-natured banter.

Then Equivox came on stage. They never cease to amaze me with their stage presence - this time they really ran with the idea of the beach party we saw in Paris and there were members of the choir dressed in everything from swimming trunks to hula skirts to scuba gear. Their movements on stage are as dynamic and Babette, their musical director, really led the way in a very relaxed but exciting performance.

The songs I really liked were Aline and Amore. Compared to their performance in Paris, this performance was even better - musically they were much tighter and the space on stage also meant they could go wild. There were several moves which provoked spontaneous laughs in the audience. I couldn't suppress a laugh when some of the women took out sun-tan mirrors in the opening song!

All too soon it was our turn on stage - we opened with Dies Irae, the song I think most of us were worried about because of the difficult lyrics. Perhaps it kept us on our toes because it did sound amazing, even if I say so myself. We are an amateur choir where the majority of people do not read music, but I really do think we sound good by any standard. The performance was punchy and crescendoed beautifully.

One slight difference this season was the involvement of several members of the choir in making announcements. It was fantastic to see how different people took personalized spins on how they would approach introducing their sections. Philip and Hsien were relatively serious for the Latin pieces, Johnathon spoke in French for the French songs, Joey and Susan camped it up for the showtunes and Andrew and Lynne did a bit of bum wiggling for their intros.

I won't go through the songs individually, but the ones which I thought were wonderful were Come What May which had some members of the audience in tears, and Dirait-On which had a wonderful understated elegance about it. I especially loved the tenors' little coloratura. I also want to highlight the sops' ultra high notes in Lacrimosa. You did us proud girls! The other person who deserves special mention is Zane, our sign-language interpreter, who made all the difference with his enthusiastic jumping and jiving to our music.

The after concert passed in a blur. I met up with my friends in the bar of the Royal Academy of Music, then some of us went on to G-A-Y. Simon and I decided we were old fogeys and went to Chinatown for a very late dinner instead. Needless to say none of us made it on time to the post-concert brunch the next day (due to begin at 11.30am apparently). By mid afternoon, however, there was a sizeable number of people there, and it was a chance for the two choirs to mingle and slap each other on the back.

Then it was time for Equivox to leave. Liang, Simon and I saw them off at St. Pancras - I was just a little sad to see them go, but more overwhelmed by exhaustion than anything else. We just collapsed on the sofa when we got home and watched Heroes. Whew!

A couple of highlights of this concert which I haven't yet mentioned:

1) We were sold out! This is the first time it has happened, and I think was a combination of many enthusiastic new members, a January concert (rather than December) and the increased reach via the publicity team, Facebook and MySpace.

2) It was Marina's last concert with the Pink Singers after a decade of membership. We will be very sad to see her go - all the best in Oz! We'll sing with you again. x