Imagine 500 villagers with flaming torches. Domesday Morris dance group amongst them wearing ‘tatters’ (white shirts and black trousers and boots with waistcoats with strips of cloth hanging loose, topped with hats covered in ivy and bird feathers.
Plus Penkhull brass band, and us, the Mystery Singers choir regaling the crowd with various Wassail songs.
We walked around the boundary of Penkhull and sang in front of the ancient ‘bloody’ apple tree halfway down Trent Valley road, then around to local pubs to sing a wassail to all of them. For the first time in ages I felt happy.
I went to choir practice tonight. It was with trepidation and I was very nervous, but I’m glad I went. Breathing in and out, stretching my lungs, concentrating on the words and the emotions of each song. Gradually I felt a bit more like myself. It was scary and upsetting to start off with but by the end of the session I had relaxed a bit.
The only problem was that when I got home with a friend man in high vi’s trousers was wandering in the middle of the road. He watched us as we got out of the car, so we stood outside and loudly discussed if “Tom” or “Pete” were still up. Pretending someone was already in the house. Then I looked at the man and said I would ring the police. He wandered off and my friend sat in her car for five minutes watching out for me. Anxiety is a bad thing.
Sometimes I play punk pop music (blonde, ultravox etc) get a torch and shine it on the glitter all in the living room! Totally bonkers but I like remembering my youth.
Also the sunlight through the back window sometimes catches the globe and sparkles shine around the room. I am a very visual person!
If you’re in the area why not come to our concert in a few weeks time. You’ll be supporting Penkhull Players and our plans to put on another pantomime in the future. We are practicing ancient and modern songs, there will also be solos and poems. Its going to be fun.
Our choir sang at the switch on of Christmas lights tonight. We sang for about twenty minutes and included traditional carols and other seasonal songs.
The only problem though was the traffic! It felt like hundreds of cars were on the way to the venue. Everyone was driving in the right hand lane as we had to turn right at a roundabout onto the venue. Our choir leader had a asked for designated parking, but was told there would be plenty of spaces. Unfortunately half the city seemed to be fighting for them!
We were dropped off while my friend went to find somewhere to park the car. We had to fight our way through a packed crowd to get to the stage, so when we had finished our set we decided to listen to a couple of songs from the next act, then get going. Unfortunately this meant walking to the far end of the site and climbing over a low fence. When we finally made it to the car all the vehicles around us were in a stationary queue. The cars were moving a foot or two every few minutes. I think we would still be there if a man controlling the traffic explained there was a back road off the site! It took us one and a quarter hours to drive 400 yards!
Despite the traffic chaos, I think we did a great job, we were well appreciated and I’m glad we did it.
It’s coming up for Christmas and once again the Clay Chorus choir has transmogrified into the Mystery Singers.
We met last night for our second rehearsal and it was straight into various carols and wassails that we perform in a trip round Penkhulls’ pubs in a few weeks time.
We sang ‘while shepherd’s watched their flocks by night’ Cranbrook arrangement, ‘Good king Wenceslas’, ‘Sweet Chiming Bells’, and several other favourites.
Old friends come and add to the choir numbers. We sounded good last night. I hope we learn some new songs too x
We went off to a garden centre today to get some pyracantha and roses to add to our hedge, we are bulking it up because it looks like there was another attempt last night to get in. I feel like we are under seige.
Hubby nailed some fence boards back in place and we also bought a lot of chicken wire to go above the bamboo screening we have put in. Spiky Pyracantha will go next to all this. Making it more robust.
We heard Christmas music as we were searching for plants, and these animatronic reindeer made me laugh and cheered me up!
Our choir is going strong! 25 years of song! We raised the roof tonight. High middle and low… A riot of musical flow. A wonderful sound. Was to be found. …………. …………..As the song goes, open hearts, open minds, open words, open voices!
One of the loveliest and unusual songs we sing at choir practice is River River.
These are words from memory but I think they are pretty accurate. I had to look up the writers name as we didn’t have it. I hope I’m not breaching copyright by writing out the lyrics? I will delete ths post if here is a problem?
River River where do you flow With your water the colour of tea Gold and red in your sandy bed Do you flow to the wide green sea? No said the river I flow inland Sink down deep beneath the rock and the sand. Under the Geeji and the Mugar tree Where the desert people can find me Earth belongs to all, she belongs to no one, she belongs to herself Earth belongs to all, she belongs to no one, she belongs to herself…..
I was answering someone’s question about how it goes because they recently joined the choir, and I see an image a bit like my drawing in my mind when I sing it.
Mallaband-Brown 