Did anyone else find that popping a piccolo was a bit tough on the dentures? Thought I was going to lose mine on more than one occasion. Must remember to keep my lips a bit tighter together next time. Anyway, after we had duly marched the Grand Old Duke up and down a few times, in pretty good order, I might add, we sashayed on to the main event.
I think it’s fair to say that ‘I’m Still Standing’ hasn’t quite hit the spot so far and, as it might be seen as somewhat disrespectful to sing at the Queen’s Platinum celebrations (although I think it is totally suitable) it may not hang around too long. It’s probably not helped by Matthew’s confession that he can’t play the same thing twice, which is just as well because we don’t seem to be able to sing the same thing twice either! The altos managed to hide their non appearance at one point by saying that they were ‘waiting for the sopranos’ - might be waiting a long time there ladies! All in all, it’s a bit tepid and would benefit, as Fiona said, from a bit of ‘attitude’.
‘WWIDWMM’ came and went pretty quickly with no great dramas, but possibly just needs a tad more belief.
As usual, ‘The Prayer’ suffered from one of our customary breakdowns once it had reached the ear splitting, glass shattering, cat squealing finale - and that was just the basses! To be fair, up until that point, it was sounding pretty good and as we hadn’t yet learnt the last couple of pages, I reckon it wasn’t too bad. Once we had broken it down, it really started to sound good with some lovely harmonies coming through. Special mention must go to the tenors who struggled manfully and womanfully through their very tricky part. The obviously benefitted from attending the Tenors Masterclass on Sunday. It feels to me as if we are right on the verge of cracking this one and I reckon it will become one of our favourites.
The final two numbers for the evening would both fall into that category as well. First up was ‘BOTW’, the old Simon and Garfunkel classic. Beautiful harmonies once again, and although we are only progressing at a gentle pace with this one, we are slowly but surely moving forward.
And so to our beautiful finale with ‘Fields of Gold’. We didn’t want to waste this by tidying up around it so sang from our seats and our hearts before retiring to Ced’s Bar for a little nightcap.
Good job, everyone. See you next week.
In harmony
Haz