a musical day

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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 oursWe 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.

busy busy busy

All of a sudden, I’ve gone from no life to almost too much life. I want to record it for future memories, so here’s a megapost to bring you up to date.

Freedom Chorus
I started singing again, after a break of many, many years, and I just love it. My first gigs were at the Freedom Festival – we sang a wonderful piece under Myton Bridge (like trolls!), which was bedecked with coloured neon lights; we also sang a selection of “river” songs on the new Stage at the Dock. It was Very Wet Indeed, and we were like a choir of drowned rats, and our second performance on Corporation Pier was cancelled because the floor was too slippy. But it was fabulous nonetheless.

Then, in September, the Chorus performed on stage at the press launch for Hull City of Culture 2017. We sang a glorious arrangement of the Isley Brothers’ Caravan of Love, which has a resonance for the city, given that The Housemartins had a hit with it. We also sang at Paragon station at the crack of dawn that morning, were shown on BBC TV, etc. We were all very proud.

Lots of interesting stuff for the Freedom Chorus coming up next year, but my lips are sealed for now.

I’ve also trained as a Singing Champion for the city, trying to get more people involved in the great social activity of choral singing.

City of Culture 2017
I joined up to be a volunteer for CofC, and got in on the first “wave” – how I wish I’d heard about it early enough to be a pioneer volunteer, but I missed the opportunity.

So far I have done backstage tours of Hull Truck Theatre and Hull History Centre, have worked a few sessions on the information Pod at Hull Paragon station, conducted questionnaires on behalf of Hull Truck at Endsleigh primary school, paraded around the stadium (with other volunteers, not on my own!) at a Hull KC football match, done a guided walking tour of the city, partaken in a Woman of the World thinkin, been part of a workshop with Blast Theory, and probably more. I intend to update this blog as I do more stuff, because it’s going to be a wonderful year, and I don’t want to forget it.

Last weekend, I spent a high-powered and exhausting day doing Volunteer Leadership training, which involved Child Protection, Health and Safety, Discrimination and How to Lead. I now have two new cards to add to my lanyard, and am fully DBS checked (which may come in useful).

Bandanarama
When we were volunteering at Cornucopia Festival in September, we encountered Bandanarama; they were so utterly barking that I went and asked them if they’d like a melodica player. It transpired that they would, and so I am now a member of the band, complete with motorcycle jacket (thanks, Ian and Carole!) and boots (thanks, eBay); I already had my own bandana. So far, I’ve played out with them in Beverley at the Flemingate shopping centre, and at St Stephens’ shopping mall; it’s always a hoot, and I’m so glad I’ve become part of the band.

A couple of weeks ago, we posed for a photograph in Quentin Budworth’s Hullywood Icons, and very mean and cool we looked too, though I say so myself.

The Wild One


Got lots of interesting stuff lined up for the next few months – so looking forward to it.