Concert day – Sit down you’re rocking the Sage

Hi everyone

Hooray we did it! A fantastic day of sunshine, singing and fun, ending in another memorable Inspiration concert.

We’ve had a mountain of difficult words to learn – Tra Las, Oooos, turning, burning, gurning glances and astounding testicles. There’s been difficult decisions to make within the shortest timeframe – When to sing Down on Skid Row? When to punch the air in ‘Oklahoma’? Is it ok to eat a 3rd cupcake? I could go on, and on, and on, and on, good gracious me.

But make a mistake and who would know about it? – except for Andy, Mark, the orchestra and 300 other singers – no one 😉

It’s been difficult this term and we have missed Gary, but Mark and Andy have been great and coached us well throughout. We all wanted to shine like the sun outside for them and we did. We pulled together as one team and had most of the words off Pat (she’s canny), and for the rest of the words we were flying by the seat of our pants. Hey we live on the edge, we’re Inspiration.

It was a lovely surprise on Saturday that the weather was still nice. I was melting in the heat, but it was certainly better than sliding around on ice as I’d done earlier in the year.

 

 

There was a nervousness in the air in the dress rehearsal, which there isn’t normally. I think we were a bit unsettled with things being different and were worried about our words. Aaarrgghhh what happens if we all forget the same words?

 

Around the shores of England that stretch towards the sea. There dwell an ancient people and they labour mightily.

 

Andy was laid back and tried to make us smile. He made quips about us letting our faces know that we were enjoying ourselves, so we must have all looked frightened.

 

Stop and stare at the sea of smiles around you

 

I think we did worry Andy at one point in rehearsal:

Andy: “The singing is great folks, but it’s missing something. What’s the ‘E’ word?”

Choir: “DICTION” (Shouted out and all together)

Andy: “No listen, what’s the ‘E’ word?”

Choir: “DICTION” (Again shouted out and all together)

Andy: (Thinks – they’ll never manage to spell out Oklahoma)

Andy: I meant ‘Energy’ but it doesn’t matter!

 

Once we relaxed, and got our energy and diction sorted we flew through rehearsals with no problems. When it came to ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ it was Mark’s turn to conduct, his very first time. Andy presented him with a new baton as a good luck present which was nice, though there was a bit of delay in him using it as he couldn’t remove it from the packaging. It must have been daunting for Mark, in front of us and the now Royal Northern Sinfonia but he did us all proud.

 

Practising conducting techniques

 

We sang through the whole concert without a break, and then practised the conga line of getting on and off stage. We managed this smoothly, or so we thought until it got to concert time. Then we panicked and couldn’t work out which order we should stand in, so that we end up seated in the correct place on stage. It was like the Krypton Factor – “right you stand there, you there, they come off first, we go on this direction, you’re next etc”. I had to opt out of the conversation as I couldn’t work it out, and ended up dutifully standing where I was told to.

We finished the dress rehearsal and there was time to sit out in the sun, do some last minute word learning, and eat ice cream. Then preparations for the concert began in earnest.

• Change knickers underwear – CHECK
• Stick the words to ‘Masquerade’ on the back of your friend’s head – CHECK
• Drink medicinal Port – CHECK
• Go to the loo five times just in case – CHECK
• Discuss the bad lighting in the toilets and make a face in the mirror whilst applying make up – CHECK
• Step into high heels for 5 seconds (some of the women did this too) – CHECK
• Discard high heels in favour of walking boots or slippers – CHECK
• Apply lippy – CHECK
• Eat 4 jelly lizards – CHECK
• Reapply lipstick  ………. READY

Soon we were lined up and on stage looking at a fully packed house. I tried desperately not to wave to anyone, and resisted the strong urge to flick my hair out of my eyes.

Before we knew it we were rattling through the numbers. I tried to take it all in and not think too far ahead as I wanted to enjoy the moment(s). There were bits where my mind raced, and I didn’t want to anticipate or repeat my past mistakes.

 

Discard any thoughts of dirty laundry ’tis long ago and far away now

 

The ‘Dirty Laundry’ ladies Katherine, Laura and Amy were excellent and sang/acted well in their number. Craig confidently sang and laughed his way through ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat’; he did Superbly Superbly, which is a step up from Nicely Nicely.

Then it was Mark’s turn to conduct ‘Little Shop of Horror’ which he did with gusto and energy, his head bobbing and directing us in the ‘lookout, lookout, lookout, lookout’ part. Well done Mark!

We conga lined off the stage for the break and before we knew it we were back singing ‘Do You Hear the People Sing’. In rehearsals the singers on the risers couldn’t join in with the Le Miz march, because the stage was moving with them. The stage was checked and safe, but just in case only those singers on the stage could march. After all we didn’t want another march induced mishap like the great Le Miz snow splat of earlier this year.

Mark seemed to enjoy his 2nd go at conducting and we all raised our voices for him, sometimes even in the right places. He had raised a sweat early on, but gave us clear signals of the last few lines that we always have a collective hiccup on.

Then we were back with Andy for the remainder of the concert. He grinned, gurned and winked throughout (on purpose, as he was trying to encourage us to smile). We readily took to his signals and there were some we recognised from Gary’s conducting – dangling baton = men only, Ssshh = Ssshhhh and glare = SSSSSssshhhh NOW!

Anne-Marie was clear and confident in ‘The Lusty Month of May’, so I tried really hard not to muck up her excellent performance with an errant tra la la. Sara was fabulous and gave a confident rendition of ‘Somebody to Love’. I’m in awe of all our soloists as I can’t imagine anything more frightening than singing to the whole of the Sage, it can be scary enough for me with 300 others singing.

We ended with ‘One Singular Sensation’ which received great applause. I thought we were heading for an encore and would do ‘One’ again, the audience were up for it and the choir were up for it but there was no encore. Shame, but it meant we were at last able to wave to the audience, and quickly do one from the stage.

 

 

As always it was great to spend the day with my friends and I enjoyed the showmanship of being in another Inspiration concert. This term has been challenging and different, but we survived and got through it splendidly. Our extended family of Leeds Inspiration have enjoyed singing in their concert too, with some of the Newcastle singers joining them on the stage of Leeds Town Hall. It’s great that we are all supporting one another and enjoying being part of the wider Inspiration choir.

A big thanks to Andy for teaching me how to exercise my eyebrows, and of course to sing that marvellous warm up ‘many men’ (which really annoys my work colleagues). Thanks of course to Mark who has worked extremely hard in rehearsals as conductor and motivational speaker; thanks also to Sue and the army of helpers of Mallory, Sheila, Jill and Lindsay. Lots of love to Gary and I think many of us were singing the concert for him (I know I was, but just the good bits where I could remember the words not the other bits) 😉

See you all in September when we start of singing Christmas songs. It’s only 161 sleeps, 2 hours, 5 minutes and 4 seconds to Christmas 2013 just in case you are wondering.

I’m proud to be part of Inspiration and love singing in our concerts, but have to admit it will be nice to listen to some different music over the holidays.

Now what should I put on my iPod for listening to whilst sunbathing?

See you soon.

Lorraine x

The 1st by heart rehearsal

Hi everyone

I’ll make this a short post as I know you will all be sunbathing learning your words.

Wednesday was our first by heart (BH) rehearsal this term. Before doing a full run through we worked on the 4 additional songs. The songs in which we are backing singers for our excellent soloists. I’ve listened to the choir parts over and over, but it was a different thing altogether trying to sing along with the soloists. Wasn’t it difficult to remember all the ‘tra la la’s,  ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah’s, ‘more’s the woe – oh!’ and those swelling ‘oooos’ of ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat’?

It was a scary test but at least now I know what I don’t know, and I also have a big list of things to work on.

 

We all tried to find our inner Freddie Mercury

 

For me these 4 songs are still a work in progress. It’s funny that the words I feel most confident with are ‘and what comes next well heaven only knows’ from ‘Dirty Laundry’. I think that must be the word learning part of my brain playing tricks on me 😉

Then it was a full BH run through, which was another learning experience. I was pleased with myself in some areas, I think I’ve nearly got ‘Masquerade’ and at long last ‘Raise Your Voice’. I’d almost forgotten about ‘The Fishermen of England’ but it was quite rousing, and it is now growing on me.

I feel like I’m on track, but overall there are some definite gaps in my learning.

 

Suddenly Seymour is standing beside you

 

My problem is that I’d been concentrating so much on ‘Masquerade’ that I had let some of the others slip. My plan for this week is to keep listening to all of the songs whilst looking at the sheet music, so that I don’t start making up words along the way. It’ll have to be an intensive brainwashing session, but I want to be as ready as I can for Saturday’s concert.

Poor Mark must have been worn out after the rehearsal, and he ended with a motivational chat to help keep us all on track. Don’t worry Mark we might all be sunbathing, but we have our iPods plugged in as well.

 

 

I missed the rehearsal with Andy on Thursday, but from comments on Facebook/Twitter/Bongo drums/the grapevine/good old-fashioned telephone it sounds like it all went well. Andy is back again on Wednesday to check out our ‘ooo’s and ‘tra-la-la’s. So I look forward to that.

See you all on Wednesday for the last rehearsal before the dress rehearsal. All of which is BH of course.

Happy word learning!

Lorraine x

Words, words, words

Hi everyone

This is just a quick post from my YI pad because I am swotting and trying to learn my words (honestly I am). I’m resisting the urge to surf the Internet for pictures of cats and other rubbish, so I can write this quickly. Although writing itself is another form of procrastination, so perhaps I should just do a Dover and how shall I phrase it – “move your bleeding a***”

Hey I read your mind then. That’s “move you bleeding alto” and not what you were thinking 😉

We’ve had 2 rehearsals this week, and both have been hard work but still fun. We’ve got loads to learn. As we’re always up for a challenge, bring it on choirmaster Mark!

I’ve been brainwashing myself with the CD and writing out words, drawing pictures, and grasping at ways to make the words stick.

But I’ve got a few little sticking points :

– ‘Raise Your Voice’ – Why is this more difficult than Zulu?

– In ‘Long Ago and Far Away’ – I always have children up and down my spine. No wonder my back is sore.

– The ‘Fishermen of England’ always go down to the sea in flames. Making this more like a Seth Lakeman shipwreck song, than a song from a musical.

– My sleepy cat nearly jumped out of her skin when I shouted “yee ow” in ‘Oklahoma’. She can’t believe she has been landed with such a strange pet human, and I’m sure she is planning her escape.

– I think my brain is too full with ‘Raise Your Voice’ to cope with ‘Masquerade’. When I try to sing with the mix CD I can’t remember if I’m ghoul, goose, beast, merry or suddenly Seymour. Can anybody find me somebody to ……… copy?

– Loved the stand up ‘Sit Down’ directions in rehearsals. I’ve had sit down, sit down, rocking the boat going through my head all night. Not sure if it was the alto version, but hoping it is.

– Lastly my Alto rehearsal CD has decided to go on strike and won’t always play in the car. In the house it jumps sometimes, so often I belong to Ok la la la la …..la homa which is a bit annoying (especially if rehearsing in the bath with a glass of wine).

Have I worn out the tracks on my CD by playing them over and over, on and on and on and on. Or are the CDs cheap and scratch easily?

Best get back to some serious study now. Look forward to Wednesday’s rehearsal, though a bit scared at being off the books for most of the songs. Suppose it’s the only way to find out what I really don’t know, and then work on that.

See you soon

Lorraine x

Tra-la-la-la-la

Hi everyone

This week there were no funky warm ups, so that must mean we are funky enough. Although come to think of it there were no weird warm ups either, so I hope that doesn’t mean we’re weird enough too 😉

The warm ups were the usual ‘Oooo, Aaaaahhhh’s and we even chipped in without asking and arranged our own harmonies at one point.

I’d done my homework in ‘Long Ago and Far Away’ which made this a bit easier. I liked this better after hearing the harmonies, and especially the change from straight to swung quavers.

 

Of all the quavers. Cheesy are my favourite (and yes it has to be the 14 pack)

 

The focus of the rehearsal was on note bashing the new numbers, where we provide backing for the soloists. We did Lusty May first, she’s a close friend of Big Norma and June is busting out all over.

For ‘Lusty Month of May’ I hadn’t managed to do my homework, but I had a really good excuse for not doing it. My telephone line and t’internet have been off due to crossed wires (literally). This happened on Monday night when I came home to a man up a pole in my street (wahey), the phone wasn’t working but I thought ‘man + pole = fault’ so it’ll sort itself out. The phone came back on shortly after, but as I was eating my 14 packs of Quavers evening meal the phone rang and I was asked ‘is Ken there?’ Wrong number I thought and got back to my Quavers meal. Two more calls later, both for Ken, I realised I had a fault and the man up the pole had gone. Ken himself eventually rang and we realised the lines had been crossed, so he had my calls and I had his. Hours later I managed to report the fault, but had to wait a week for the man up the pole to come back to fix it. In the meantime I have made a new friend in Ken, and I think I’ll end up being invited over to his on Christmas Day for lunch.

Anyway I digress, sorry about that. The upshot is that I hadn’t been able to download or listen to the new MP3s.

As my ‘tra-la tra-la’s were a bit tentative, I came home and tried to note bash them myself on the piano. However I think my piano must be broken, because it doesn’t play the right notes at the right tempo, AND it sounds nothing like Mark’s. I did this a few nights in a row and it had obviously rubbed off on me. I was sitting in my living room ‘tra- la-la-la-la-ing’ on my own, like you do and I nearly died laughing with what happened next. My neighbour sang ‘tra-la-la-la-la’ back to me through the wall, like a semi-detached cuckoo echoing back to me through a forest. So I don’t need the downloads anymore, as we have it sussed between us. My neighbours have been great this week haven’t they?

 

There was more note bashing after the break

 

Dirty laundry good gracious me. Dirty laundry aired out for all to see.

 

We ended with ‘Raise Your Voice’ which I have nearly off by heart. I’m still finding this difficult and can’t get the last few verses. I always feel like by the time we’ve raised it to another level that must be the end; but there’s blast it, blare it, stand and share to get through which is the part where I raise a sweat and forget. I got a bit worried in the Latin bits as I could hear everyone else putting some good accents on ‘benedicimus’ (which I’m not doing).

Could someone help me out and do a phonetic version of how I should be saying the whole ‘Laudamuste’ bit? The whole ‘darb-eight seater cosy yay too’ was very helpful last term, as was ‘pied a gove knee’. Once I know what I should be singing, then I can try to fit the words into the bars provided and keep them going underneath the ‘Glorias’.

I left rehearsals tired and with lots of homework to do. I’ve been ‘tra-la-la-ing’ to myself all week, but made the unfortunate link with the Banana Splits this morning. So apologies to all if after a ‘tra-la-la’ I automatically go into ‘one banana, two banana, three banana, four’.

See you all next week and happy word learning.

Lorraine x

 

ps. For all those under the age of 35 here are the Banana Splits:

Weirder warm ups and words, words, words

Hi everyone

Wednesday’s rehearsal was brought to us by the tag team of Mark and Andy.

So no funky warm ups this week, instead we had Andy’s ‘even weirder warm ups’. It all started with what I thought was a rather delicate question from Andy “Hello Newcastle, do you do many men here?” Pardon! Andy explained that to the tune of the William Tell Overture we had to sing “many men, many men, many men, men, men” it seemed difficult, but perhaps easier to handle than the original question. It was difficult to get the words out, but good fun. Then we stuck with William Tell (riding the invisible horse was optional for Sopranos, but obligatory for Altos) and instead of many men it was “Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo, Scooby where are you?”

 

Inspirationers spotted on their way to work on Thursday morning

 

There were a few numbers which had to be by heart this week. I managed ‘This is the hour’, faltered a bit in ‘Phantom,’ and in ‘Raise Your Voice’ I kept thinking (at least twice) that we’d got to the end when in fact there were still a few phrases left to sing. In ‘Raise Your Voice’ I can sing the Latin Alto lines over once, maybe twice, but as this repetition is going on and on and on and on I find my mouth and brain failing to engage. So I sometimes get my “Benny dicky mouse te” muddled, and often find an extra syllable in “Glorificamus te” so it becomes “Glor iffy iffy ick a mouse te”. I will rue the day I ever typed this and made it permanent in the Tefal section of the word learning part of my brain (more of which later).

The Altos tried to funk it up to ‘let them know what they been missin’ in ‘Raise Your Voice’, but Mark said we sounded too middle class. I bet the only time we stop sounding middle class will be next week when we try Ascot Gavotte for the first time. Of course then we’ll be sounding really Geordie “Ev’ry duke an earl an peer is heor, Ev’ry one who shud be heor is heor”.

We tried ‘Masquerade’ which was critiqued as a ‘weird arrangement’ by Andy. The rhyming lines and knowing whether to flash mauve, splash puce, be a fool or a king, a ghoul or a goose, makes this one of the more difficult numbers. We sang this in our 2nd concert with Gary at the City Hall Newcastle in 2004, and we found in difficult then too. Back then we were young and daft, and made up funny words to help us remember. Nowadays we are older, still daft, and still making up funny words which we now have less chance to remember.

Anyway whilst rehearsing ‘Masquerade’ an Alto who was party to the great mis-learning of 2004 was egging me on with her eyebrows. I didn’t sing my preferred version of one of the verses, because I was hoping that you might enjoy singing it too. It goes:

“Masquerade! Grinning yellows, spinning reds.

Masquerade! Take your thrill let his testicles astound you!”

As with singing BIG LAD in the last concert, it is best sung loudly and with gusto.

 

That will cause some burning glances

Turning heads

 

But as a word of warning please don’t sing this whilst stopped at the traffic lights, especially so if you are a pedestrian or on a bike.

I hope these new words will now be in the Teflon section of the word learning part of your brains. Unfortunately it is even more stuck in mine now!

That’s all from me this week. I am off to sit in the garden with my iPod, give the neighbours a thrill at my singing, and maybe learn some real words along the way.

See you all next week.

Lorraine x

Look out, look out it’s our 1st rehearsal

Hi everyone

Wednesday was the first rehearsal of our ‘Do you hear the people sing?’ concert. A chance to meet up with old friends over coffee and cake, and of course a chance for lots and lots of singing. We’re all sorry that Gary can’t be with us this term, but we fully understand his need to be at home with Barry. We’re thinking of them both and send our love from the Newcastle branch of the Inspiration family.

So for this term we are in the hands (ooer) of Mark, Andy and Phil – aren’t we lucky!

It must have been daunting for Mark to stand on the podium and have 300 faces staring back at him. Each and every one of us waiting for the fun begin, and full of excitement for another fabulous concert. No pressure then!

 

Eeee Betty look Mark’s got legs. I’m not used to seeing him standing up. He’s normally at that piano thingy isn’t he?

 

To remind us how to breathe again Mark asked us to close our eyes and concentrate on diaphragmatic breathing. Now for this exercise you need to have trust in the people around you, which might be safe in the soprano section, but in the altos is a bit dodgy. With us there’s always the added danger of being pushed over the balcony, having your Normas honked, or opening your eyes to find all your friends have gone to the pub. So I closed my eyes with some trepidation, first making sure that my feet were firmly planted on the floor and that my Normas were on full alert. In the end it was quite relaxing and helped melt away some of the stresses of the day, with no reported alto casualties and no audible honking 😉

Then funky warm ups (as opposed to Gary’s weird warm ups),  although I’m sure as we progress the funky ones will get weirder. As soon as Mark mentioned warm ups all I could think of was “please not that counting one”.  You know the one where I can’t count beyond four – “one, one two one, one two ah shit, one two shit mumble, mumble, six, oh no eight” etc. But phew! That pleasure has been saved for another week, and instead we were given an easy start with ‘May, Me, Ma, Mo, Moo’ (weren’t they The Waltons?) and a ‘Ba Da Da’ one.

 

Mark really enjoys his funky warm ups

 

During the funky warm ups Mark acknowledged that he has picked up some of Gary’s sayings, so we’ll have to listen out for them. There were only a few this rehearsal:

• Sit down and take a drink
• Where’s the tenor pencil?
• Lips forward teeth out
• Altos stop passing around the cigar

Our 1st number was ‘Raise Your Voice’ which I haven’t done before. I got a bit worried when lots of the altos around me started to pray and then I realised why when I spotted our Latin bit. Whilst everyone else was breezing through ‘laudmuste Benedicmuste etc’ I was stuck trying to read the small and blurry words. I’ll get the hang of it soon when I get reading glasses.

‘Raise Your Voice’ seemed to shock the Basses and they spent a while bouncing on the loo (of hallelujah).

 

Bounce basses …. hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

 

We made a start on ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ with lots of hilarity about trying to get the right mix of cheesy American and broad but cheesy Geordie. We need this for the ‘Look out, look out, look out, look out’ shouts that we all have to do, one voice part after another, quickly and with no gaps. If you think of the ‘wait, wait, wait, wait’ section in last term’s Lion King it is like that, but at double speed and with different words (so in fact nothing like that, please ignore the comparison).

 

Look out!

 

Look out!

 

Look out!

 

Look out!

 

Bay City Roller fever hit the altos as we sang ‘shang-a-lang’ in one part of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’. We got to ‘shing-a-ling-ling’ too, and a few ‘yeah, yeah, yeahs’. In a few weeks time we’ll be groovin’ it, movin’ it and doin’ doo wop be dooby do ay. (Eurgh that cat photo is making me feel sea sick as I type, I hope it is not having the same effect on you).

So in all we had a very good and enjoyable rehearsal.  We left feeling happy with ourselves and pleased to be back singing again.

We’ve got lots to learn. There’s only a little bit of Latin, compared to all that Zulu chanting last time. I put my CD on and gasped in horror at the ‘Ascot Gavotte’ because of course we don’t sing the tune, and to me it sounds very different. I always find this relearning of a well known tune the most difficult bit, well that and Latin, oh and choreography, erm and taking a breath in the right place, and having to sit down at the right time. Oh I’m going to stop there not because I’m overcome by the learning task ahead, but because that cat photo is still making me feel queasy 😉

 

See you next week and happy relearning of popular tunes to those of you who are NTT (not the tune).

Lorraine xx