Bass Gary shares his favourite things about being a Pinkie:
Someone asked me the other day what I enjoyed most about being a member of the Pink Singers and it took me a while to answer – when I joined I couldn’t have imagined the diverse range of things I would get up to!
Over the last few years the choir has performed at LGBT choral festivals in Dublin and Brighton, taken part in a choral competition in Manchester, and visited Reykjavik and Mallorca to sing with their respective LGBT choirs. And this summer we are off to Amsterdam for the Ama-SING festival! We have also recorded two CDs since I joined in 2012 and I have also performed on stage in Trafalgar Square during Pride in London.
The trips are great fun – you get to build on friendships within the choir and enable you to make friends with members of other LGBT choirs – for example a large group of us now have an annual skiing holiday together! We organised a 30th Anniversary ball, arranged several residential weekends away, tackled the Crystal Maze – and I have made friends with people who I would never had the opportunity to meet if I hadn’t joined the choir.
These things have all been amazing – however the one thing that stands out is our concerts.
One Night Only will be the eighth concert I’ve done with the Pinkies, and it will be the accumulation of four months’ hard work learning showtunes, opera and operetta pieces – as well as our renowned choreography!
I am always in awe of our artistic team, who every season pull everything together into a show that has the required level of what we like to call ‘Pinkie Magic’. This season includes favourites from Les Miserables, Wicked and My Fair Lady to name but a few, and promises to be a memorable night for our audience. I will still get nervous before the show, it will all go too quickly, and I will look back on it and think ‘wasn’t that awesome’ – for me, nothing else we do gives such a buzz!
The whole choir takes immense pride in our performances and if the reception is anything like previous concerts it will make it an amazing experience for all of us.
So if you’ve haven’t done so already, please book your tickets here before they all go – and I promise I’ll wave to you from the fourth row of the bass section!