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Bangor International Choral Festival Bangor, Northern Ireland 20th - 22nd April 2007
Having achieved a good standard in our rehearsals, some bright spark decided we should test our mettle in competition and April's Bangor Choral Festival seemed favourite. So, late afternoon on Friday 20th, the choir assembled at East Midlands Airport for the swift hop across the Irish Sea to Belfast ........... WRONG !!! No swift hop here but a two and a half hour delay to our flight. We wouldn't get into Belfast until 10pm which made our 9.20pm appearance at the Festival Concert in Bangor rather difficult !
To add insult to injury, one of the Tenor's cases was kindly sent to Glasgow instead of Belfast .......... the omens were not looking good for this trip !
Anyway, the coach driver
cheered us up and was very informative, pointing out many of the points of
interest around Belfast as we travelled to Bangor. Particularl
Arriving at our hotel, we hastily dropped our bags and headed for the bar and guess what we found ............................ GUINNESS !!!
Those of us with delicate dispositions had to remember that a heavy day of competition was to follow the next day and so it was just a swift half ! J
So the following morning, after a hearty breakfast we congregated for a warm up at 10.00am and then moved up to the Competition venue and then began a veritable marathon of singing .........
We started off with the ladies and men of Friday Voices separating to take each other on in the Barbershop Chorus Class. Historically, and purely due to the fact that there are more of them (nothing to do with quality !), the ladies have usually come out victors in a 'head to head'. However, on this occasion, the men sang brilliantly and were the clear winners in many peoples eyes with beautiful renditions of 'Red Red Robin' and 'Wonderful World'. The women tried very hard but lacked the passion of the men. (No change there then !) Imagine the shock in the auditorium when the ladies were given first place ahead of the men ! What injustice ! I'm sure the adjudicator was a ladies man !!!!!!!! (More later on this!)
Next came the Mixed Voice Class. We were singing an up tempo piece called 'Come Away Death (!) followed by 'Plenty Good Room'. The choir were singing well at this point and we were given joint first prize with an Irish choir, Concentio.
The Madrigal Singing class which followed this produced some high quality singing and we were reasonably confident, despite a fine effort from a depleted Sciolto group from Belfast. Our programme consisted of 'Hark All Ye Lovely Saints' and 'Adieu Sweet Amarylis'. Another first Prize to Friday Voices !
An important class came next with the Sacred Music competition. A 'secret' ladies choir from Ireland, Loughside Chamber Choir, was whisked into the auditorium and disappeared again immediately after they had performed. Having said that, they were extremely talented and young so they were always going to beat a bunch of old fogies, like Friday Voices !!!! So a creditable second was awarded to us following our renditions of Byrd's Ave Verum and something else that Dirk can't remember !!!!!
Our Ladies Choirs and Mens' 'Male Voice Choir' both came second in their classes, the seven men of Friday Voices taking on the massed voices of Ballyclare Male Voice Choir (all 60 odd of them). Just before singing, I felt like one of the Welsh Guards facing the opposition in the Film 'ZULU' ! There were just so many of them !
Q) What was the name of the first Zulu killed in that battle ?
A) 'Will' ................ Michael Caine shouted 'Fire at Will !!!' J
Anyway, back to the trip ............
At this point, we were due for a break to recover our voices. However, the competition was running a tad late so we had only a short time before the Gala Evening competition started. We were singing in the Light Entertainment class and the important Open Class competition.
Light Entertainment : Programme included Chattananooga Choo Choo, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and 'And So it Goes'. We sang well (although the soloist was decidedly dodgy !) and the large audience enjoyed our performance and that of the runners up The Open Arts Choir. Another first place for Friday Voices !
And so to the main event ......... The Open Class. The young Irish Choirs were out in force with a £1,000 first prize at stake ....... and they were good ........ very good. However, even though the adjudicator inferred that we appeared to be tired after the full day's singing, we were awarded joint 2nd prize and a share of a £500 cheque !
So, not only did we enjoy a fantastic day's singing but also returned with two trophies and £1200.00 in prize money !
Other highlights of the day :
# Joint 'And So it Goes' sing with a female Dutch Choir after our Irish Stew Party !
# Seeing all of our ladies (and every other female!) drool over the handsome adjudicator, Greg Beardsell (Ladies, if you want more piccies for your bedroom go to www.gregbeardsell.com
Then it was back to the bar and the Guinness and we sang late on into the early ours with one of the Basses making a fool of himself after an indecently swift infusion of the black stuff !!!
Sunday was 'chill out' day (or hangover day in the case of the disgraced bass!) with the choir recovering and going for long walks off Bangor's short pier, or going on a picturesque sightseeing tour of the Shankhill Road in Belfast !!
Before being picked up for the return to Belfast airport, there was just chance for a meal and a final sing of 'Ave Verum' in the Bandstand at Bangor.
The return flight was largely uneventful but, spookily, the missing luggage arrived back from Glasgow at the same time, on the same baggage conveyor as our Belfast flight and DJ and Tenor were happily reunited!
Altogether a great trip and the next competition trip is already being selected !
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useful as it was pitch black outside and we couldn't see a thing!
