This is a blog about a little project to showcase our history more fabulously. Actually, it was quite a big project and took bloomin’ ages, which is only right because we have a lot of history to share. After so much time editing the words of others, it now feels strange to be writing my own. But here I am, this is me, making my blogging debut – hello!
As the new website person for the Pink Singers, I’ve been on a mission to revamp every page with more photos, more videos, and of course good old text. It’s been a complex and lengthy endeavour, but the end is in sight and now seems like the right time to shout about it! Looking back over the last 9 months, there’s one page that’s really changed beyond recognition, which is all about “Our history”.
The timeline for the original history page was created in 2015, with a lot of the events being taken from an earlier blog by Philip Rescorla. It was the first time the Pink Singers had published their official history for all the world to see, and deciding what to put in the timeline was hard – what has made us the choir we are today? It’s a real mixture of events, from a grand visit to Downing Street, to lifelong collaborations with other choirs.
But the timeline is also about the people who have shaped the choir: that’s us, the Pink Singers. One of the unique joys of our timeline is that it’s written by us, often by our newest members, who give us all an insight into what the choir was like over the years. Looking beyond our members, our Musical Directors also give a huge amount to the choir: from the slightly reluctant Mark Bunyan in 1983, to our current MD, Murray Hipkin.
With all this history, the challenge for me was to bring it all to life, which is where I’m indebted to our previous Webmasters – Hsien, Al, Michael, Simon, Nicola – who did a brilliant job of getting people to blog about much of it. It was left to me to enrich what was already there, and find people to fill in the gaps – some 15 or so blog posts – often with very little to go on. It’s been quite an archival adventure, from obscure newspapers like the Palm Beach Post, to surprising discoveries, like our catchy and informative song about Safe Sex.
And now it’s all there, ready for your curious eyes. There’s also much more to discover in our revamped events timeline, which contains some of the special occasions we just couldn’t fit into the timeline. And so this is where I leave you, if indeed you’ve read all the way down here. It’s been a pleasure to rewrite our history – I’ve learnt so much about the choir it feels like I’ve been in it for years. Now it’s time to put my investigating feet up!
Ben
Alto
Timeline datestamp: 12 May 2019