Fellow chanteurs, grandes cantantes, tolle Sänger,

Fabulous turnout last night - 24 of us plus Jon!!! But winter is on its way - out of all of us it was only Dave E who was brave enough to still show his knees - (just saying Michael R!!!) - with only one singing week to go before November is finally upon us, my fiver seems safe for now😊😂👍🏼

Which reminds me, we’re having a well deserved mid term break on the 25th October so don’t turn up then!!!! But we ARE still singing next Wednesday.

So what did we sing last night - well we all went together to pick/pull/pluck Wild Mountain Thyme (Tyne😂!) - don’t forget that 2 second gap in the penultimate chorus chaps!!! - no doubt Paul will be sending us the recording this morning. How about we sing it with a reggae beat next week 🎉🎶👍🏼🥳. And where has this year gone - we’re already singing Logs to Burn 🔥 🪵 - and judging by the ground frost in Upper Coquetdale this morning it’s actually quite appropriate!!! The central heating is back on 😳😳 and the log burner has already had quite a few excursions this autumn 🔥🪵.

By the way can we all club together to put Jon on a marketing course. He valiantly tried to interest us in a concert 🎵🎻🪕🎸🎼, held in the dark with his mates, in a tunnel, in Newcastle, in October, with no heating or seats, spooky songs, cobwebs, running, dripping water and plenty of rats…..Now call me old fashioned but I have to say that did not quite float my boat. As the senior member in the choir, George, could you take Jon to one side and explain why that might not be the best sales pitch for a gig this year😂.  On the other hand Pete made a good fist of selling his band who are playing at the Alnwick Brewery this Saturday afternoon - in the dry, with heating and an endless supply of beer🍺, with seats and guaranteed rat free….methinks, a no brainer!!!!

You might have picked up that the choir is applying for a grant from Morpeth Council. As part of that you’ll be aware Paul has sent out an anonymous survey to all members to get our opinions on the benefits of the choir. I have to say the results are very heart warming. Here’s an example of some of the responses:
- 100% of the responses said it gave them friendship and camaraderie
- Almost half said they wanted to join a group of men in a shared activity
- someone said “Very fulfilling to be part of a group of like minded men”.

There are many more, invariably, positive comments. Thanks for responding to Paul.

In putting together the application for a subsidy from Morpeth David M found an interesting bit of historical information. In 2001 when the choir was formed, membership fees were £60 a term - 22 years later our current fees are £70 a term - I’m not a mathematician but I’d say with an inflation level like that we should be pushing for David to be our next Chancellor of the Exchequer!!😂👍🏼😊🥸. Big thanks to Paul and Gez for pulling the application documents together. It gets submitted next week. Fingers crossed 🤞 that it’s successful. It will help us big time!!!

Any way enough rambling on. Gentlemen, have a great weekend!!!

Onwards and upwards VoiceMale👆 🚀 👍🏼🍺🎵🎶🎼.

See you all next Wednesday.

Chris

My VoiceMale chums, mes braves, gode venner
On the 25th October 1415, 6,000 plucky Geordie archers taught 25,000 of France’s finest men a lesson and hammered them in the Battle of Agincourt -  fast forward roughly 608 years to 4th October 2023 and a similar result occurred at St James Park when the Toon took the French to pieces with a 4 - 1 win in front of 52,000 delirious fans . HWTL. (In the interests of inclusivity note Sunderland also won 2-0 ).
On this day HS2 was cancelled and the dualling  of the A1 north of Morpeth (for a whole 13 miles) was confirmed - on balance it was arguably a canny night for the north east albeit the dualling of the A1 will probably take 10 years!!
Meanwhile in downtown Morpeth, 23 dedicated members of VoiceMale were singing their hearts out with The Song Goes On. It’s a fabulous song - but I must admit I personally found it a real test of stamina for my voice - maybe I needed some Honest Malt Liquor or a Tyneside Blond to help my throat cope . We went back to experimenting with Will You Go Lassie Go but as the recording Paul sent out today showed we need a bit more practice on that one!!! Meanwhile I confess concentration may have occasionally lapsed amongst some of us as the latest score, with mobiles on silent, rippled round the throng - apologies Jon - but it was indeed a happy outcome. 

And then the evening culminated in a visit to the Tap & Spile for some liquid relaxation and catching up on the weeks craic - a really good night. 

On a none related matter, today was wor lasses birthday - and in a completely unselfish manner () I booked a tour and tasting for us both round the Ad Gefrin distillery in Wooler followed by a meal in their bistro. I can highly recommend it for a visit - really nice people, great modern architecture (for an industrial building) and excellent food and drink to consume. Thankfully wor lass loved it - specially when it came to the tasting part of the day!!! The distillery would be a fabulous location for VoiceMale to sing in - and who knows we may get a chance to do that sometime!!!

Anyway, nuff for now. Dave was still showing his knees last night (as was Michael R!) - both hardy souls. I reckon my fiver is safe with Dave (ie no long trousers worn till November) - don’t let me down Dave!!!

Have a great weekend guys - onwards and upwards VoiceMale

See you next week. 

Cheers 
Chris