Like most people, I’ve got a signed Metallica backstage pass on the back of my old passport. Here’s the story of mine…
Continue reading Jumbo gave me a Metallica backstage pass for the back of my passport…
Calling all National Youth Choir of Great Britain alumni!
Come to our special reunion weekend at St Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford starting on Friday 19 August (optional), with the main event and concert on Saturday 20 August and an optional get-together and walk on Sunday 21 August.
Conductor will be alumnus Will Dawes.
Participation cost is £15.00. Book your own accommodation.
Full details are on the NYCGB website via the button, below.
My annual review of what I’ve most enjoyed listening to during the last 12 months, and my albums of the year.
Honourable mentions:
Back in 2006, I was living and working in London. I moved in to a flat in Camberwell with my friend Jonny, whom I had met in the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. Jonny was the organist at a church on Vauxhall Bridge Road and inevitably I tagged along and made that my church too.
One summer’s evening as we were walking back from church, we passed the Camberwell Evangelical Church. There was an evening service on as we could hear singing even if we couldn’t clearly see through the windows.
It seemed clear to us that they were doing some renovations as there was a yellow skip outside on the road, stacked high with debris. The skip was also on fire.
Continue reading Do you have any sausages?This has been the year for lockdown choirs and following the success of the National Youth Choir alumni’s Shenandoah project in June, we geared up in the autumn to produce something in time for Christmas.
Arranged by Louise Clare Marshall (whom many will have watched bringing in the new year last night on Jools Holland’s Annual Hootenanny), we held sectional rehearsals on Zoom in early November and videos were submitted during the final week of November, leaving about one month for our team of technicians to edit and mix the audio and video.
The video launched on Christmas Eve and, remarkably, we were featured at the end of the BBC News broadcasts that evening!
I’m so proud of what we have achieved. It’s not the same as standing in the same space and making music together but I’ll take it over nothing.
Thank you to all who were involved. To Louise, the section leaders, everyone who got involved, our wonderful team of audio and video engineers, and the rest of the NYCGB Alumni Champions Committee—some of my dearest friends in all the world.
Enjoy! And see if you can spot me on the video.