This was indeed a night to remember. The capacity (120) audience were royally entertained by the sweet melodies and sonorous voices of the choir and treated to some of the best local swing band music to be encountered. The band make a fantastic sound and brought authenticity to their renditions of some of the classic jazz and swing repertoire. The band, led by Carolyn, performed such that you couldn’t help but foot tap, clap and sing as they played The Pink Panther theme, Sing Sing Sing and Mr. Blue Sky amongst others. The band brought along a talented singer, Andrew Clarke and the audience joined in with Come Fly With Me, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Mr. Bojangles, Mack the Knife, Bad Bad Leroy Brown and a brilliant performance of That’s Life. Andrew really engaged everyone in the room, participation and temperature went up and you were there in the moment. Brilliant!
By way of contrast the choir repertoire selected by Ian proved to be subtle and engaging. Audience favourites were Guardian Angel, The World in Union, This is the Moment and You Raise Me Up. Ian Bartle did a great job as compere for our performance despite the hilarious, uncontrollable bird-like noises from the microphone. As he said, “I feel like Michael Jackson” singing his high notes”. Hey, it made for some humour. Our Supporters’ Group did a great job organising a very successful raffle and as ever, Lynden Lowe, our concert secretary worked tirelessly to arrange and manage a super event in a lovely community location. Thanks go to him and of course the leadership of our music team Ian Grice and Margaret Ball. By the way lads, you sang beautifully even with the healthy volume of the band behind us and no doubt we will be singing New York New York, the finale item for days to come.
This feeling of involvement and sheer enjoyment is underpinned by all the preparation work. Well done everyone.
Ian’s Facebook post sums up the event beautifully: –
Top night for the choir tonight, singing alongside Ravenshead swing band to a full house. The band and its singer Andrew Clarke were brilliant and that made our performance rise to the occasion. Cannot wait until our next venture together. Thanks to everyone who took part and especially the audience.
