The Pink Singers at Pride London 2010

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO4TcMmWkbg
Does your mother know that you’re out? There was never a better double entendre to ABBA’s classic song than when the Pink Singers performed it at our concert, and then again at our 27th Pride.
It was also the 40th anniversary of the Gay Liberation Front, and here’s a look at the Pink Singers celebrating the occasion on the Pride parade and on stage in Trafalgar Square. What a rush!

They’re my kinda guys!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdFrxv2STzA
Here’s some video of last Saturday’s concert, A Little Light Music, from the Pink Singers official YouTube channel. This time round the sopranos and altos are taking a bit of a break and letting the tenors and basses do all the legwork – literally! They perform a medley of some of the Chiffons’ most famous hits: Sweet Talkin’ Guy, He’s So Fine and One Fine Day.
The vast majority of the Pink Singers have not had any dance training, and quite a few would insist that they have two left feet, but an awful lot of rehearsal, and the patience of our choreographers Oli, Karin and Rachel, seems to have paid off. The tenors even managed the tricky sequence walking backwards! We’re looking forward to next concert’s mass moonwalk, or perhaps not.

A little light photo album


Missed the Pinkies in action last week? Interested in seeing the kind of shenanigins we get up to back stage in preparation for our show? Then here’s your chance to relive some of the action of the summer concert. You’ll get a sneak peak at the Pink Singers in our tech rehearsal on stage at Cadogan Hall, and then backstage when we do our traditional roll call of all the Pinkies who have helped the choir run smoothly this season. Mark models the lovely shopping bag they all received by way of thanks.
Click on the photo above or head on over to our Flickr page and our A Little Light Music photo album!

Now is the month of maying

Lou
Lou

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”