Mine kære sangerinder, mes chers collègues chanteurs, mis queridos compañeros cantantes🥳🎶🎵🥰😊
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On arrival at the Meth haaalI last night I was a bit confused by the Slimming World sign in reception pointing to our singing venue. Was this something arranged by Gez who was worried about our growing waistlines or was this a ploy by Slimming World to recruit new members??? Thankfully it turned out to be neither. A good turnout despite the lurgy 🤢 a visit to another boy band (other than VoiceMale - Gez🧚🏻♂️!!) and some of our more affluent members (who shall be nameless) preferring to sun themselves in hot climates 🍸 🏖️ - Seville and Greece respectively. Well all I can say is you missed a good nights singing in perishing conditions - just as well the majority of us ignored the divvent cast a cloot till May is oot - it was marginally warmer outside than in!! However while the rest of us were shivering and clustering together for warmth, Dave E seemed impervious to cold 🥶. He wins the prize for exhibiting the first naked knees of the season. As Jimmy Nail would say they built em strong, they built to last in Blyth!!!🏋🏾♂️🏋🏾♂️. While we’re on singers, the turnout was, as Meatloaf would have said “22 out of 33 ain’t bad!!!” - or was it 2 out of 3 ain’t bad? (RIP Meatloaf - can we please add one of his songs to the repertoire Jon??). I learnt something about 5:4 timing last night - takkity takita tay and stamping your feet 👣 was it Jon?? Any way Ye mariners all sounded better for that explanation 😂 - more words to learn for our gig!!! We wended our way through the chorus of a new one from Jon - Time has made a change in me. Very nice, before finishing on a high with a few hearty renditions of This train 🚂…….Jon’s programme for next week looks really upbeat. Jon and his band Northern Assembly are playing at the Cumberland Arms in the toon tonight if anyone is free - sadly I’ve got to go to The Importance of being earnest in Alnwick tonight otherwise I’d have been there. I’m hoping for a flurry of ticket sales from you for our Rothbury gig next week ! Have a great weekend. Onwards and upwards as always 🏖️👍🏼🍺🚀🎶🎵 Chris. Good morning fellow songsters.
In Chris's absence it has been left it to me to give a summary of last nights practice. Firstly, welcome to newest recruit to Paul who, after we softened him up over a pint or two expressed an interest in joining us, I quickly got his phone No & email address before he could change his mind. Welcome Paul. Well, how was it for you? I ask this because Jon, after the warmup, launched us into his new song "Black Gold" which immediately prompted some searching questions as to whether we should be singing a "quite jolly" song relating to the slave trade, obviously quite a contentious subject. Jon explained that it was in fact a relatively recent song written to cynically pour scorn on the practise, not to glorify it. However not everyone was convinced that the audience would see it that way and Jon decided to go with the flow so we shelved it. Sorry Jon, we know you put in quite a lot of work on that one. Whew..... then on to lighter matters thank goodness; We then launched into perfecting Ye Mariners All, Going to the Mine, Shenandoa, The Song Goes On, ending up with a fine rendition of John Ball. (not necessarily in that order - memory failing). And a good night was had by all, retiring to the T&S to sample the latest edition to Margot's pumps, "Black Sheep Blonde"
Over and out for now, happy Easter, remember NO meeting next Wednesday - we return on Wed 10th. Martin Good morning marras de chanson And very good luck to Trio Los Paralyticos (David M, Paul and John) aka the Shower 🚿 Boy 🧒 Baritones on their venture to represent VoiceMale at Singing in the Shed in Shrewsbury this weekend - we’ll miss your dulcet tones in Longframlington on Friday lads😊😳🎵🎶. Break a leg and enjoy ☺️ ……
Well the lurgy seems to have caught up with the choir at last as a number of us were laid low last night - we wish you all a speedy recovery ❤️🩹 - get well soon we need you back asap!!!! Dr Chris recommends the standard medication 💊 🥃🍺🍷. On the plus side we’re hoping our ranks will be swelled on Friday by the return of Mike J, Brian, Nigel, Dave E and a hopefully fit again Gez!! The evening went well - Jon reckons we’re match ready 🏉 🏉🏉🏋🏾♀️🏋🏾♀️🏂🤺 and concentrated on the finer points of our delivery - so we’ll be in fine voice come Friday 🥳🤠 to wow the natives of Longframlington🎶🎵🥳. By the year end Jon’s knowledge of the villages of Northumberland will know no bounds - this year it’ll be Hebron, Longfram, Netherwitton, Longhorsley and Bellingham - last year Thropton, Harbottle and Alwinton - a veritable Northumbrian world tour 🐑 🦌 🐄 !!!! Nuff said - just another last minute plea for all of us to cajole, pressurise, persuade and encourage our friends and families to support us and, more importantly, to enable us to financially support research into prostate cancer via Prostate Cancer UK. You will all know a friend, choir member or relation who has succumbed - you know it makes sense!!! Let’s make Friday a financial success to help out🙏. It’s full dress 👗 👗 uniform and we meet up at 1800 on Friday - see yous aaalll then. Blue skies, onwards and upwards lads - here’s to an enjoyable night in Longframlington 🎶🎵🙏🍺☘️ 🚀 Cheers Chris Mes chers amis
Vroom vroom vroom 🏎️ 🏎️ 🏎️ - like a cavalcade of finely honed F1 cars, VoiceMale limbered up last night in preparation for an entertaining Saturday night in Hebron - our first gig of the season. A marathon session showed that all the hours of pre match preparation with burpees, press ups and squats had paid off as the choir launched in to Saturdays set list with gusto - methinks we sounded in fine voice 🎶🎵🥳🥰. The Boss was however not his usual self suffering 😤🤕🤒 with an uncharacteristic croaky voice and he was clearly a tad under the weather ☔️ - needless to say his spirits revived when he heard Pit Bull Soldiers being sung with reverence and harmony 😊👍🏼 - sounded good to me. We managed to get through most of the set list without too many blips albeit, honestly, we were a bit weak on the last two verses of the Song goes on - a bit of rapid word learning and timing needed there by the tunes. Last night we were glad to welcome a potential new member in Alan Hardiman - Alan is from Morpeth and didn’t seem too phased by you lot of reprobates - hoping you liked it Alan - it’s a daunting task to join a new choir but I’m sure you’ll have great fun with us and you are most welcome. On Saturday we’re going to see a lot of guys doing only their first or second gig with us - good luck to you all - it’ll be great fun in a convivial atmosphere, so just relax and make sure you enjoy the occasion - the audience and your fellow choir members want nothing more than to share a good time with you😊😊👍🏼. Relax and enjoy🎶🎵😊!!! One thing to take away from last night was Jon’s message that if you can’t hear what the guy next to you is singing then you’re probably singing too loud 😵💫🤮🤯 - on Saturday, although we’re expecting a good turn out of members, we will be missing quite a few of our stronger tunes and our bass’s are down to two - so it’s down to you middles to ensure we keep a good balance on the night - I’m sure Jon will make sure that happens!!!! Great practice yesterday - let’s hope the boss recovers well for Saturday and is back to crowing like a cock 🐓 whilst the rest of us are carolling like larks 🐦 🦅 🐦 (let’s be the light that is coming in the evening to Hebron😂🥳🍺). Onwards and upwards VoiceMale 👍🏼😊🎵🎶🥰🥳🍺👏 🚀 - howay the toon 🏁🏴🏳️ and whichever nation you’re supporting in the rugby this weekend 🏴🏴 🏴 🇫🇷 🇮🇪 🇮🇹!!! Cheers Chris Ok - so on to last nights singing 🎵 🎶. Well the cocks were certainly crowing, the larks were carolling and the blue birds were hiding us under their wings while we had a cold shave. The peat bog soldiers were still on the march and we all rolled on that day as we went doon the mine!!!! Twas a lovely night of harmony 🙏🎶. Nick recorded Going Down the Mine last night and you can find the recording on the VoiceMale WhatsApp site - sounds pretty good for a first outing for a while. I was slightly disappointed that no one thought my idea of Gez teaching us how to do Daydream Believer in sign language 🙌🤘🏼👋was a good idea 👍🏼👌👎🏼 and was further disappointed that our fade out plans for Daydream was rejected 🙅!!! Tant pis!
So our gigs are shortly upon us - just two more practices before Hebron. Jon gave us a heads up on what we might sing - so we all need to make an effort to learn as many of the words as possible. Rolling Down the River Only Remembered Rap her to Bank May you Never Water of Tyne Working on the new Railroad Shenandoah The Song Goes On This Train is Bound for Glory John Ball Peat Bog Soldiers Roll on that day Going to the Mine Rio Grande Daydream Believer For Hebron (Saturday 16th March) we currently have 25 tickets available for friends and family. The remaining tickets will be sold to members of the Hebron Community Association. Tickets are priced at £12.50 each and will include a delicious snack as well as our lovely singing. The choir will get a share of the ticket sale “profits” for choir funds. Could you please let me know asap who would like tickets and if possible pay me in advance. Thanks. I’ve enclosed a poster but please don’t spread this outside the choir yet as I understand it’s likely the gig will be sold out. Tickets for the Longframlington gig (Friday 22nd March) will cost £7. The venue is much bigger than Hebron so there are currently no capacity limits - feel free to circulate this poster to all your social media and friends. I have tickets 1 to 40 for anyone who wants to buy them from me. We have agreed that ALL the proceeds for this concert will go to the Prostate Cancer UK charity so please get everyone to support this gig - for obvious reasons this charity is close to our hearts!♥️ Crikey - if you’re still with me and haven’t lost the will to live - well done!!! All that’s left to say is see you next week, larn yer words and have a brilliant weekend👍🏼🙏😊 Onwards and upwards VoiceMale🎶🎵😊✔️⛷️ 🚀 ⬆️ - blue skies tout le monde. Chris Dear fellow warblers
Well, rather surprisingly, despite it being Valentine’s💘Day yesterday, we had an unexpectedly good turnout last night!!! A couple of members had succumbed to winter ailments🤒😷🤕, a similar number were having 💐romantic 🥰 dinners with loved ones, one or two were resting after strenuous journeys back from sunny climes 🏖️ and another was rescuing his distressed damsel in a broken down car 🚗 (mega brownie points there Alan!!!) - but amazingly we still had 25 of us there happily warbling away!!! Did this pre session WhatsApp message from one of our younger members sum up the general feeling??….“I’ll be there this week. What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with you chaps 😂” - spoken like a true VoiceMaler 🥇 🥇🥇 - don’t you just love him 😍!!! Perhaps the magnetising force was the return of Jon - to be fair Jon did get us thinking about Valentine’s Day - the round at the beginning of the evening wasn’t the usual one about beer but was that one about Roses🌹and weddings and stuff - does that count as a nod to our (deeply!!) hidden (?) romantic 💕 sides??? We got through no less than 5 songs last night - there was Pit Bull Soldiers, John Bull 🐂, Never Forgotten (aka Always Remembered), Rolling Down the River* and that great John Martyn classic, May you never - doo doo - lovely. [*Note there’s no doubt we could have got through another 5 songs last night but progress was delayed by a long discussion on the meaning of TEU - for the avoidance of doubt a TEU is not a STI 🤕 but is a twenty foot equivalent unit, a general unit of cargo capacity used in container ships 🚢 and ports]. Well you asked!!!! In all seriousness it was a very successful singing session and it was very pleasing (is that the right word?) to know so many of us were prepared to voluntarily risk our partners wrath by tipping up on Valentine’s Day!!!! I hope it was worth it. So - next week is the annual dinner 🍻🍾🥩🍟🥗🍷🥂. There’s NO session at the church - the next session there is the 28th February. So onwards and upwards VoiceMale 🎵🎶👍🏼🍻 🚀- thanks for your continued great singing - let’s try hard to learn those words off by heart as VoiceMale choirs of the past have - have a great weekend everyone. Blue skies!!!! Cheers Chris Gentlemen
Our Christmas gig in the Sanderson Arcade on Saturday afternoon brought our singing year to a very successful conclusion! I thought I’d reflect a bit on what we have collectively achieved this year.
On behalf of the choir I’d like to thank Jon for his inspirational leadership, encouragement and enthusiasm (and for halving the average age of the choir!!!) and both Sandra and Janice who have kindly stepped in at various times when Jon has been pursuing his day job as a professional musician . I’d like to thank all those who have arranged gigs on our behalf this year. Concerts are the life blood and raison d’etre of the choir - to me there is no point in practicing if we don’t have gigs to perform in. I’d like to thank the committee for their quietly diligent work and to all members who, to a man, have provided such a positive feeling within the choir - it’s been such a pleasure coming to our Wednesday night sessions - we really do have a special camaraderie!!! Please pass my sincere thanks to all your families who have supported us through out the year and have let us go out to enjoy ourselves on Wednesday nights. And finally I’d like to thank all members - but most especially the newer members for their considerable efforts to learn our repertoire (including the Christmas repertoire!!). We’ve all been through that learning curve in our time and it isn’t always a comfortable feeling. With everything else going on in our lives it’s not easy and we really do appreciate your time and dedication. So last Saturday our singing succeeded in bringing two ladies to tears and David M swore he saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in the audience - what was in that mulled cider David??? What a way to finish the year!!! Thank you friends - love and best wishes to you and your families. Wishing you all the best for Christmas and 2024 Onwards and upwards brilliant VoiceMale - see you all on the 17th January. Chris Good day fellow choristers.
A good session last night. A bit of a hairy journey for the Rothbury lads from Coquetdale to Morpeth (I think the gritters must’ve been on their tea break!!) but no problem getting back home. Chris P mentioned that he had similar difficulties getting down from Embleton - winter is upon us. This morning the skies are full of snow and it’s being deposited quite generously on the ground - quite appropriate then that we’re entering the festive season. With Jon and Sandra we had a well needed run through what we are doing for the Warkworth gig and we have another chance to practice those songs at our regular practice next Wednesday. It’s a bit different getting used to singing with Sandra’s squeeze box for accompaniment - but I think we got used to it in the end and hopefully didn’t sound too bad. However our first challenge is our gig for the Christmas Tree Festival at Blyth next Tuesday. The venue is St Cuthberts Church, Plessey Road, Blyth NE 24 3BE - I’m sure Jon will be providing the set list and arrival time in due course (soon!!) - then we’ll all need to get back to learning the words as best we can and practice our warbling in the shower so that we’re all match fit for the concerts ! I’m sure we’ll be allowed our (discreet) black folders but my suggestion would be that if you’re fairly sure of the words then stand in the front row and if you’re less sure of the words then as normal stand in the back row - looks more professional Have a great weekend guys - let’s hope the weather doesn’t interfere too much with your sporting () activities - and anyway, if you’re stuck for something to do why not spend an extra hour in the shower learning all those words and harmonies??? You know it’s good for you Onwards and upwards VoiceMale With best wishes from a snowy Upper Coquetdale - see yous all on Tuesday in sunny Blyth. Cheers Chris
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AuthorChris Trinder, our august chairman writes this regular email roundup of the choir's activities - enjoy! Archives
April 2024
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