Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink

Isn't that the best name ever? I just discovered this guy (yes, I know - now - that he's been around for years, I'm not very observant!) He's a Dutch footballer who signed for Celtic last week, and scored on his debut a few days later. What I love is that they use the long version of his name - I heard a bit of the commentary for that game, and that's what made me notice him. And look at his shirt! (EDIT: for those searching for the mp3 of his song, is this what you wanted?)

Yes, I know that's not in any way choir-related, I just wanted to point him out to you :p

(Oh, and while we're on the subject of totally unrelated stuff, have a look at this website, that sells proper sweets like they used to have when I was little!)

Well, actually, I could start my music-related stuff with some links, couldn't I? Firstly, if you're going to London in the near future, try Play. Doesn't that look fun? (If anyone's already tried it, I want a report, please!)

Next, I found this newsletter (from the American Choral Directors' Association) by accident. It takes a while to load, but when it does, you'll see that on page 2 there's a section called "Warming Up Your Altos". Scroll down to read it. I was amused by the idea of the "alpha alto" :p I could understand the advice better if I knew what Julia Child sounded like, though (I've heard the name, but know nothing else about her).

I'm still enjoying the Proms. I think my favourite one so far has to be the Sibelius 5 from last Friday, but that's partly because I love that piece so much. Mind you, I also love Mozart's Requiem, but I was a tiny bit disappointed in the performance because the soprano soloist's tuning seemed less than perfect in several places. Was that just me? (I was surprised, because she's actually one I've heard of before!) (Actually, while we're talking about people singing out of tune, what about Franz Ferdinand? At the Reading/Leeds Festival, that was on TV all weekend. Again, a powerful performance, but the singing was so out of tune! I couldn't believe the commentators didn't, well, comment. And again, a disappointment, because I really like Franz Ferdinand.)

Oh, and The Bells was OK, I guess (although not as good as ours!) I couldn't make out many of the words, although "o kak svonka" stood out for some reason... and no Mikhail! Good to hear the piece again though, I haven't listened to it since we sang it.

Anyway, it occurred to me that there may be some people in the choir who weren't around the last time we sang in the Last Night of the Proms (well, strictly, the Proms in the Park - incidentally, I note that that page still doesn't mention us, although they have added Katie Melua, who was added to the bill ages after we were... but the good news is that it implies that Sky digital viewers can, if they choose, watch just the Manchester prom, uncut!). So I thought they might like to know what happened :-)

It was in 2004, and involved the Hallé rather than the BBC Phil, and was in Cathedral Gardens rather than Heaton Park. The plans changed somewhat after they were first mooted, at least partly because the BBC issued so many tickets that there was no room for a stage to hold both the orchestra and the choir at the same time. So the plan was that the orchestra would play for most of the concert, and then they'd come off and the choir would replace them to lead the crowd in the patriotic stuff. Except for the Fantasia on British Sea Songs, which... well, when we discovered what the plan for THAT was, we decided we'd be amazed if it worked. It had 4 consecutive new folk song arrangements inserted into the middle of it, each of which was to be sung by a different choir. None of these choirs were to be in the same hall - or even the same CITY - as the orchestra which would be accompanying them (i.e. the BBC SO in London). The added bits were "Ar hyd y nos" (All through the night) from Swansea, "The Road to the Isles" from Glasgow, "Danny Boy" from Belfast and "The Rio Grande" from Manchester. (I couldn't work out at first why only Manchester wasn't singing a 'local' song, but later my question became why it was only Manchester that had an actual sea song. I never found out the answer to this.)

We sang through the Rio Grande a couple of times before the day, and it was a fun arrangement. But on the day, guess what! Things didn't go entirely according to plan. We were asked to be onstage from 12.30 to 1.30 pm on the day of the gig, the plan being that at some point during that time, Leonard Slatkin (famous American conductor) would make time during his rehearsal with the BBCSO at the RAH to rehearse The Rio Grande, which is the bit that we were singing live with them via satellite link. Well, at 1.25 the link finally went live. We heard him saying grumpily "why do they need to rehearse it? We sent a CD of us practising it!" (which was true, but live's never *quite* the same...) Then he said "OK. Rio Grande, from the top." Then they started playing the National Anthem, which confused us somewhat. *Then* they went into the Rio Grande, and all was well until about bar 10, when the link died. The choir starts singing in bar 13....

We stood around while various BBC people talked furiously on walkie talkies and headsets, but no more was forthcoming from the speakers. At 1.40 we were told that the orchestra in London had left the hall (as you know, orchestras *never* stay a minute past the scheduled end of rehearsal - their management won't let them as they all go on higher pay rates if they do) and we'd missed our one chance to rehearse with them. So we went to plan B, which was "busk it on the night - and if the link goes, just keep singing and hope we're in the same place as them if/when it comes back". That's live TV for you, folks!

Sad, though, that even the *BBC* couldn't get it right. You'd think they'd had enough practice. You'd think it would be straightforward, but I've been involved in many TV recordings/broadcasts over the years and I can't actually remember a single one where there wasn't some technological mishap! I suspect the problem is insufficient gaffer tape :p However, to be fair to them, it *did* work pretty well on the night. That's the bit they *do* seem to be good at.

(I believe that there were many other non-technical things that went wrong that day, but despite that I really enjoyed it. Sadly, I know that lots of the choir didn't, and people still talk about that gig as an example of one where EVERYTHING went wrong. I must've been lucky.)

EDIT: Updated schedule is now online at the usual location. Email me if you don't have the link.