"Some of you have gone too far, and you sound like Jimi Hendrix."

I'm not entirely sure whether he meant Jimi Hendrix's guitar-playing or his singing, but whichever it was, Jamie addressed this comment to the altos during "Lift up your heads" on Wednesday. (For some reason that chorus was cut last year - I'd totally forgotten, but it says so in my score so it must be true!) He also said to the tenors, on the next page, "Bounce your Sunday lunch on top of it." What a delightful mental image :p

There was also something or other about "the whale and the nightingale" which caused the biggest laugh of the night, but annoyingly I couldn't hear exactly what was said because a couple of basses near me were talking (about the music, to be fair, but still). Did anyone catch it?

Other than "Lift up your heads", we also did "Let all the angels" and "The Lord gave the word" (which featured some run practice to the words "scooby dooby doo and scrappy doo" - much easier than the actual words!) I think that means we've now done the whole of Messiah at least once. No time for anything else on Wednesday though (no carols, and still no Mozart) because most of the night was taken up with the AGM.

No dramatic scenes at the AGM, although it did overrun by half an hour, mainly because Jamie talked for ages in his bit. What he had to say was all interesting stuff though, including some very exciting plans for the future which, as usual, he can't give us any details about other than the date! It was my last night as alto rep too, and (much more significantly) Chris Holroyd's last night as chairman. He is a great guy and has put in an unbellievable amount of work for the choir (a lot more than most non-committee members probably realise) over the past few years - quite how he's managed to do that while being a headteacher is beyond me!

I must admit I was slightly taken aback at the news of the new choir website, because that was the first I'd heard of it. I felt a little awkward having to admit this to the many people who came to ask me about it at the break, presuming that I'd had some involvement in it, and they all seemed as surprised as I was at this! It's unfortunate that I was unable to attend the last two committee meetings, at which this was apparently discussed, but as it wasn't mentioned in the minutes, I didn't know I'd missed it so didn't ask anyone! Maybe they thought that if I was too busy to attend the meetings then I'd also be too busy to talk to anyone about my experience of running choir-related websites? Or maybe they thought that since my original choir website is so low-tech and rudimentary (which is true; I'd be the first to admit that) that I wouldn't know anything about putting together a more modern-looking one? Or maybe it just never occurred to them to ask me?

Despite leaving the committee on Wednesday, I did go to one last meeting, on Thursday. This was at the invitation of David, so I could pass on any final bits of alto feedback I'd been given recently. (I didn't stay for the whole meeting though; I left after I'd said my bit.) I was glad of this opportunity, particularly since I'd missed the last two meetings, because I have had a lot of feedback in the last month or two. Most (but not all) of it has been altos who are (like me) sick to the back teeth of being unable to hear what Jamie says because of other altos talking. But my feelings on this matter are well-known (which is maybe why people have come to complain to me about this more than about all other matters combined) so I won't go on about it again right now.

When I was in town for the meeting, I happened to go through Piccadilly Gardens and see the Christmas lights in the trees (picture at top of post). Aren't they lovely? I was quite enchanted. And did you know that Manchester is having a greener Christmas this year? I approve of this. (Oh, and on a similar subject, you know that strange alternative energy thing that was in the middle of Albert Square and has now moved to the front of G-Mex? It seems it's called the Manchester Oasis.)

Another couple of links to finish: firstly, there's a new series starting on Channel 4 next Saturday which sounds quite fun - it's presented by Howard Goodall and is called How Music Works. Not that I'm suggesting that any choir members will need that level of basic music education, but these things are often good for shedding new light on a subject. In particular, his Big Bangs series was excellent - and if you haven't read the accompanying book, I thoroughly recommend it.

And finally - remember the Manchester Passion? Well, it seems that for Christmas 2007 it will get a sequel - the Liverpool Nativity! Get your predictions in now for which songs they'll use...