I have to confess that it is not often that I can claim to be left speechless following a choir rehearsal, but such was the case following Monday night’s epic. I am not sure if it was because the glorious sunshine was beaming down on the righteous as we gathered to perform, before subsiding into torrential rain half way through (good news for the water butts – if you have one, Lynne!). Or maybe it was the impressive quality of our bottle popping and cake eating at the very opening of the evening, following a rush of sweet swapping on the back row (the basses do come well prepared).No, no, I don’t think that was it. Maybe it was the confidence that was oozing through us as we cheerfully and gloriously serenaded Grace as being amazing. Huge smiles all round and a little jig of delight from our leader, not for the only time during the evening.With our confidence sky high and with such positivity, what could possibly go wrong????I know we have a little mental block when it comes to BTS, but we really are working hard to sort it out. Perhaps it was the 25 attempts that put paid to my vocal chords. As an aside, it also never fails to amuse me that every time we finish butchering this particular song, we are rewarded with the comment ‘perfect’. Either very clever juxtaposition from our musical maestro or just a quirky coincidence.With such booming numbers to follow as ‘Anthem’ and ‘Jerusalem’, to say nothing of ‘GSTQ’, plus the tongue twisting duo of ‘ROL’ and ‘Sing x 3’, there was a lot of singing done. And then there was ‘The Prayer’! We are so close to getting this one absolutely spot on, but for some reason, the odd bar here and there trips us up. Hence the incredible effort we all put in to try and sort it out. We are sooooooooo close. Two more weeks to get it right. If we work as hard as we did on Monday, it’s in the bag. I don’t think we have ever had a rehearsal where we have gone into so much detail and tried so hard to perfect a couple of songs. The rest of the programme is sounding absolutely fantastic, so one last big push. We can do it!So, speechless I was, as I was unable to manage much more than a croak. Rarely, if ever has a Speckled Hen been greeted with such enthusiasm and judging by the very healthy crowd who stayed behind afterwards, I wasn’t the only one who needed reviving.An absolutely brilliant rehearsal and a massive well done to everyone for a tremendous effort. I bet Matthew’s fingers were aching the next day!So, altogether now “ and dontcha know I know…….”In harmony Haz
