I mentioned to you last week that Ronnie and Christine have moved all the way down from Ayrshire to Driffield simply because they had heard about the choir (and surprisingly, they came back again this week despite Fiona’s best attempts to embarrass them with ‘Swing Low’). Anyway, it seems they are not the only ones because this week, Kay joined us, having moved up from Cornwall for the very same reason! It seems like our fame has spread to every corner of the Kingdom (Queendom?). Welcome to the Madhouse, Kay.
Sometimes, you just have to laugh don’t you? For example, being made to face the wall like naughty schoolchildren so that we couldn’t see our beloved leader’s lame attempts to sing, count and wave at the same time. Well, what ‘Miss Fiona’ didn’t realise was that I could see her every movement in the reflection of the window directly in front of me and I have to report, that it wasn’t an inspiring sight. You’ve gotta laugh.
However, we did fare much better with Susie’s suggestion of ‘Down the River’, where we actually looked at Fiona and put in some dynamics. How impressive is that?
‘Rhythm of Life’ was progressing nicely until the bass section ploughed in about two notes flat, but in true fashion, carried on regardless, despite the strange looks from others in the room. You gotta laugh.
Or how about the mandibular machinations that accompanied our attempts at Italian pronunciation in ‘The Prayer’? It felt a bit like one of Fiona’s imaginary toffee chewing warm ups. And I’m not sure what language Ced and I were coming out with, but Italian it wasn’t! You gotta laugh. Although, I must say it did sound pretty good in parts and I do have to congratulate this week’s ‘teacher’s pets’, the altos, for a quite magnificent effort. You could certainly tell that they had been doing their homework and the Sunday ‘Masterclass’ was well worth it.
‘I’m Still Standing’ was met with “I’m not sure we’re hitting the right note there” from our erstwhile leader - understatement or what? You gotta laugh. But it did improve - slightly.
‘Perfect’ wasn’t.
On to an attempt at ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’. Well, what can I say apart from ‘You gotta laugh’. Some of us old lags thought we could remember it and were all geared up for giving it big licks. Those that hadn’t sung it before were looking forward, for the most part, to belting out an absolute classic. The problem is, in parts, it’s just like the Simon and Garfunkel version, but elsewhere, it is substantially different. The result was that we lurched from full volume to stuttering gamely on to almost total silence and back again. I thought someone was turning the volume button up and down for a laugh. Never mind, I am sure with a little work it will regain it’s former glory.
However, once again, all was recovered with a cracking rendition of ‘Sing,Sing,Sing’ as we tidied away. At one point, I found myself standing behind Matthew as he crashed away at the keyboard. Can’t help thinking that he bore an uncanny resemblance to Rowlf from The Muppets. You gotta laugh.
So another dull and uninspiring evening was had by all and we were forced to drown our sorrows in the bar. Thank Goodness for Speckled Hen.
In harmony
Haz