May has its moments. In May 1983 when the Pink Singers formed I was ten years old and starting to work out that the crushes I had were on girls. How gorgeous it is to think that while I was growing up and discovering myself there was a choir, already formed, waiting for me to join it twenty five years later. In May 1988, I was fifteen, and section 28 came into effect. Partly due to the climate of fear created around that particular piece of legislation, no one ever told me it was ok to be who I am when I was a kid. So of course I knew nothing about it when year later in May 1989 14 choirs gathered in Hackney for the fifth European Festival of Song. Zoom forward, twenty years this time, to the Southbank May 2009 and Various Voices. Now I’m grown up. I’m living the future of the kid who didn’t know who she was. But I feel like a kid again. Ever since Various Voices finished I’ve wished I were back there so take my hand and I’ll attempt to transport you: I don’t know which way you want to come, but I reckon we should get off at Embankment and walk over the bridge. From the bridge you can see the Southbank, and the Thames, and St Paul’s in the distance. It’s sunny. Got your Pink Singers T-shirt on? No? Don’t worry you’ll get one later. You’re a bit nervous. Will you remember the words to Dies Irae or the tune to Teardrop? You’re kind of a newbie and there are some people in the choir who have been singing for years and years. You start to see other gay people milling around. Cool. In fact, not just cool: oh my god, the Southbank is full of queers. Yes, that’s right the Southbank. As in the centre of London. As in one of the best music venues in the whole world. And guess what? You’re one of them. Take a deep breath. Put your delegate’s pass round your neck. Go in through the doors to the Royal Festival Hall. OK: on your left there’s a café. A few people aren’t here for the festival. They look at you curiously. Smile and blow them kisses. Continue reading “Now is the month of maying”
London’s South Bank Centre goes gay for the Various Voices festival (formerly known as the European Lesbian and Gay Festival of Song); the Pink Singers are one of the festival’s three stakeholder choirs.
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It is so hard to describe what Various Voices is to someone who has never been to one. Once every four years, the LGBT choirs of Europe gather to sing to and show each other how far they have come. On the face of it, this is like any other choral festival, but the gays really do have all the fun, and VV is like a massive family reunion with two thousand relatives you actually like.
The journey to VVL has been a long one, and we knew we had a lot to live up to. VV 2005, my first, was expertly put together in Paris by our friends the zany Equivox and the slick Melo’men. At the end of it London and Geneva put bids in to Legato to host the next one, but the award only came a year later. It was then that Team London, the group comprising members from the Pink Singers, Diversity and the London Gay Men’s Chorus, started the wheels in motion. We’ve been meeting pretty much every first Tuesday of the month since, but much more frequently in the last year, and it was wonderful to see members of all the London choirs putting their time and effort in under the guidance of the Festival Director Martin Brophy.
The biggest coup was securing the world-famous Southbank Centre for the four days of the festival. We needed a venue where people could sing and socialize in one space, and there is nowhere so perfect. But that was just half the battle, there was a programme to plan, a registration process to set up and a million other logistical nightmares to sort out. But before I could even blink the information desk in the Clore ballroom went up and the delegates started arriving! It was time to just cross our fingers and pray that all the preparation would see us through.
Of course preparation for the Pinkies’ choral performance was also on my mind. The Pink Singers sent a large cohort of delegates and we were in the opening concert Voices Of Our City on the Friday night. It is always more nerve-wracking singing to other choristers, but we have been tweaking our repertoire since the start of the year and were ready. Besides, you could not have had a more positive audience. In particular Somewhere and Teardrop were spine-tinglingly lush, and our set was greeted with thunderous applause and a standing ovation. In fact, the standing ovation was a regular feature of all the choir performances. VV is not about acknowledging the musical prowess of the established choirs, it is about supporting the smaller, fledgling choirs. We all understand the power of song to move, celebrate and overcome prejudice, and it is choirs like Sing Out Bristol, making their debut at a VV, but especially the women of Le Zbor from Croatia, who put up the most inspiring of shows.
Knowing that the three choirs of London have such differing musical styles, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised by the variety of performances on display. From Der Homophone’s theatrical tale of Cleopatra, to the Vancouver Men’s Chorus’ tightly harmonized Celine Dion, to Rainbow Chorus’ narrative of protest songs, to Canta:re’s exploration of Robert Schumann’s music, there literally was something for everyone. And the music didn’t just stay in the theatres either, it was on the cabaret stages, it was at the bar, it was in the fountain, it was on the riverside. We sang about stopping homophobia, we sang to Remember Justin, but we sang mainly because we love to.
Like Lou T, I aimed to install myself in the Clore Ballroom for the morning vocal warm-ups, followed by the free performances. I caught the musical director of Rozenkoor taking off his shirt as a part of Steam Heat, I saw the girls of Die Rheintoechter doing their sexy, sinuous choreography. I watched our own Tanya and Cilla do their beautiful rendition of Indigo Girls. It was just so much fun!
Two events really stood out to me over the weekend. The first was the Big Gay Sing: imagine 900 gay men and women who can all hold a note, totally up for performing gay anthems, led by a choir made up of members from all the different choirs. I was sitting next to Oliver from Die Mainsirenen and he couldn’t stop singing, even in the parts where we were supposed to listen to the soloists. Our own Thomas performed a jaw-droppingly inspiring rendition of Over the Rainbow with a friend from Diversity, to a truly deserved standing ovation from the audience.
The second event was With One Voice, the performance of the from-scratch festival choir. I sat between Nicholas from the LGMC and Franck from Podium Paris, or “Tatjana” and “Susan” if you went by the names printed on our seat backs! I doubt anyone could have told me just how awe-inspiring it was to be part of a 400 voice chorus performing Carmina Burana in a huge auditorium like the Royal Festival Hall. And we did it all with just 48 hours of rehearsal.
At the end of the day everyone had their own experience of Various Voices. The one moment which encapsulated it for me was when some of the Pinkies, together with Henning from Vox Homana, were in Pizza Express after the closing ceremony, having dinner, feeling a little tired and a little sad that things had come to an end. The women of Gemengd Dameskoor were at an adjacent table. Seeing us they started singing their songs to us in the middle of the restaurant, and we sang our songs back to them, to applause from diners and staff. It is memories like this which make my world a little brighter.
Various Voices is a very special treasure; it has been an honour to be a part of Various Voices London 2009. Roll on VV2013!
“The Pinkies are going to Paris!” … “Are you coming to Paris?” … “Equivox are mad, lovely, but mad” … “Where are you staying in Paris?” The whispers grew at every rehearsal as the date approached. It would be my first ever trip abroad with the Pinkies, but I was waiting to find out when my exams were to see if I could go, and as the concert drew ever closer I began to fear the worst. Just imagine how awful it would be to have to sit at home revising while everyone else was off having a ball! It was too awful to contemplate. Fortunately, I had a last minute reprieve from exams and suddenly, I was on the Eurostar at some god-forsaken hour of the morning, clutching my passport, with no idea where I was going and only the promise of an inflatable bed to sleep on when I got there. Continue reading “The Pinkies are going to Paris”
It was with a mixture of trepidation and excitement that I, as a recent Newbie, approached my first ‘community’ gig at Finsbury Library, Islington.
I had experienced the occasion of the winter concert at the Royal Academy of Music and the sense of fun that The Southbank Centre brought. For me, this was a different kettle of fish altogether – the thought of a more intimate gig, in a more informal setting sent the fear of god through me for some reason – not least because our audience consisted of, mainly other gay people.
A swift glass of wine and a nibble, pre-gig, took the edge off for both performers and audience and we were thankfully received with open arms!
Philip R, warmed the audience up in his inimitable style with his cheeky quips and the first plink of the piano and the drop of our heads in the introduction to Goldfinger provoked roars of laughter which was initially a little worrying but this soon turned to reassurance that we were being received in the manner intended – tongue in cheek and fun!
Ply the audiences with alcohol every time I say! Bond went down a storm with cheers and whooping from the audience. Could it get any better? Apparently so as we had people singing along and even a couple dancing in the aisles to the Motown medley!
A great sense of warmth and pride overcame me as we took our final bow and the crowd cried ‘More’. We left the stage on a definite high and mingled with the audience over further drinks and snacks. In true Pinkies style, some continued riding the wave by taking a trip to Islington gay bar ‘The Green’ post-performance. It was another success and we may, I hear, be invited back, which is great news.
On Sunday 25th January, The Pink Singers performed at the Southbank Centre as part of its VoiceLab series. Instead of a standard concert, we first performed our two numbers, ‘Best of Bond’ and ‘Motown Medley’, and then invited the audience to participate in a workshop in which they were taught three of the Motown songs, along with the accompanying movements. Continue reading “Southbank Centre gig”
