music – kestrel

mostly singing related

On Saturday 14 Jan, I ventured forth to Kardomah 94 to take part in the inaugural meeting of the Rainbow Choir; as you might suspect from its name, it is designed for LGBT singers , but all were welcome, so I thought I’d go and lend a helping voice. I did have to confess to being a CIS female, though 🙂

The session went very well, and I look forward to the next one. Kardomah is a lovely café bar, with a big meeting room at the back hired out for all sorts of stuff, including music and City of Culture volunteer training. It’s also about 1.5 miles from home, so I thought I’d walk down. Bad move. My faithful FitFlop boots had got Very Wet Indeed a few months ago, and that was the first time I’d worn them since; they rubbed my right heel unmercifully, and by the time I’d limped home again, my foot was bleeding. Ho hum.

Last night, 25 Jan 2017, I went to my first Heartsong session. I’ve been trying to do this for ages, but Stuff has always conspired against me. So glad I made it, as I really enjoyed it. I cycled there and back, 6.4 miles round trip. Go me.

In Volunteering, I did an afternoon at Ferens Gallery on Friday 20 Jan, and enjoyed it muchly. Saw the exhibition of Bacon’s Screaming Popes, which didn’t do much for me, although I do generally like Bacon (and bacon). And then on Sunday, I did 5.5 hours helping out with interviews for the next wave of City of Culture volunteers.

That’s all for now!

a musical day

As has been mentioned, I sing with the Hull Freedom Chorus, and enjoy it enormously. For the press launch event for Hull City of Culture we were very proud to be invited to sing a special arrangement of Caravan of Love on the stage at Hull Truck (more details here). We could never sing it again, because the performance rights were a nightmare to obtain, and very limited.

And then BBC Humberside decided they’d like to broadcast a performance on the local television news before Christmas, sorted out another set of rights, and we all got together on Monday night for a three hour (!) rehearsal and blocking out, with a 3.5 hour (!!) recording on Tuesday 13 Dec. We rehearsed, as we often do, in the Reception Room at the Guildhall, but the recording took place in the Council Chamber – very grand, although we toned that down a bit with plenty of red tinsel.

So that was a long evening, made even longer by two gigs with Bandanarama, to celebrate the launch of Back To Ours, another City of Culture event.

bus - back to ours We pitched up initially at Hull Paragon Interchange, played a few tunes for the slightly puzzled travellers, and then posed with an assortment of councillors, volunteers, etc, beside a helpfully labelled bus. Then we polled off to the Freedom Centre to do it all again. Except this time, it was in the rain, and nobody was about, but we did at least get a free lunch.

The rest of the band then sallied off to North Point at Bransholme, but the Guildhall was calling, so I cycled home for a shower and change, then off I went. I did nine miles on my trusty bicycle yesterday, the longest I’ve done in ages, and was properly knackered by the end of it, but a fun time was had.

do not be alarmed

Last Wednesday (7 Dec) I attended an “awareness” course on The Terror Threat. This was given on behalf of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, and was held at Hull University’s Wilberforce Building. Now, this place is the other side of town from me, and involves quite a hairy route for a nervous cyclist, so I thought – no problem, I’ll catch a bus; only £3.10 for an all day ticket.

A slight hitch is that we have two bus companies in Hull: East Yorkshire Motor Services, and Stagecoach. Pete informed me that I wanted Stagecoach from town to Cottingham Road, so I boarded one of their buses here in East Hull, which conveyed me safely to Hull Paragon Interchange. Where I discovered that all the buses out towards the Uni were EMYS. I hurtled over to the station cash machine, thinking my only hope was to buy another day ticket, and on my way back to the bus bays, discovered one Stagecoach bus saying it went to the University. Sadly, it went near the University, but I legged it the ¼ mile, and was only five minutes late. And was offered a lift home by kind Brian.

The course was … odd. It’s the one they give to security guards, etc., and to be honest we are volunteers. I think we all felt that this sort of thing was rather above our pay grade, to be honest, but no matter – the whole point of this particular course was to get feedback, so hopefully they took it all on board.

Yesterday (Sun 11), I took myself off to St Charles Borromeo RC Church in Hull; someone at Holy Trinity a couple of weeks ago had said they needed some singers, so I thought “why not”. I haven’t set foot in a Catholic church in decades – a convent boarding school education will do that to you – but the sights, sounds and most distinctly smells don’t really leave you. It was a service for refugees, and quite nicely done, but a bit more Goddish than I generally feel comfortable with.

Oh, and I got my bike’s back brake cable fixed by Jobes on Saturday – a fiver! Really can’t grumble at that.