- Celebrate 2024
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Date Posted: Sun, 19 Jan 2025
Even Sarah losing her voice the week of the concert couldn’t dampen the Christmassy feel of a gloriously decorated St Pauls in Skelmersdale, the new venue for this year’s Celebrate!
Concerns about whether we’d all fit across the front were soon allayed by the fantastic staging Sam our Sound Engineer has put in, and we were all very excited to share the songs we’d been working on for the last few months.
We opened the evening with the wonderful Joy to the World, lifting our voices alongside our audience to celebrate this best of times. See Amid the Winter’s Snow followed a warm welcome and opening prayer from Chris, then the ladies sung us the beautiful and haunting Breath of Heaven, followed by a reading by Liz. Bob Chilcott’s The Sleeping Child was lead by Katie, backed by ReMix, followed by another Chilcott- For Him All Stars, this time with guest teenagers in the shape of Millie, Harriet, Georgia and Erin joining our own Erin! David read to us next, leading us into the powerful Bethlehem by Schonberg, and the congregation joined us for O Little Town of Bethlehem. The cheerful Ragtime Carol provided us with an overview of the whole Christmas story, with wonderful playing by Shaun, and Rutter’s I Wish You Christmas covered the more secular aspects, leading us to the final of the first half, Keeping the Dream Alive.
After the obligatory mince pies and Christmassy drink, the choir kicked off the second half in style with It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, following that with I Saw Three Ships as the audience joined in. Paul lead us in the Shaky classic Merry Christmas, Everyone, before Austin’s most recent gorgeous composition- I Am Christmas. Reflect sung The Christmas Song, well three of them did and Sarah gravelled her way through, then Sarah’s poem took us to the closing sequence, darkness, candle light, falling snow and Darke’s glorious In The Bleak Midwinter.
The rousing trumpets of Hark the Herald broke the spell and lifted us back into the moment, and after Chris’ closing prayer and blessing, the Coldplay classic Christmas Lights lead us to a final chorus of Auld Lang Syne, as we spilled out in to the frosty December evening. A beautiful night, and for most the first proper event of Christmas.
- A May Sing! 2024
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Date Posted: Thu, 16 Jan 2025
There are few things that bring me more joy than the opening bars of Let the River Run, and this year’s A-May-Sing saw us open the whole concert with that song. It had been a long and complicated set, and we’d had to work incredibly hard to get to the point where we were ready for the concerts, so to have finally made it brought a sense of relief as well as pride!
Morning preparations saw the Civic looking lovely for our first guests of the day, residents from local care homes arriving by minibus and taxi, being wheeled in to place by lovely carers and staff. Around forty invited guests enjoyed a shortened concert and a cup of tea and cake, allowing us to thoroughly soundcheck and warm up, and them to have the chance to see the choir in action.
After a short break we found ourselves in front of our hundred strong audience, ready to launch in to Let the River for the second time that day. I don’t know if it’s because it’s one of the first we learned after lock down but that song just seems to resonate with us as a choir, and it’s always one we do really well. We followed that with a couple of Queen numbers just to work the band extra hard- We are the Champions and the lively Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Things took a darker turn with the men exercising their lower registers in the intense Daylight, which Kate had arranged for us, and we softened things off again with the beautiful and haunting Fields of Gold. ReMix were next, with the Stave’s Wisely and Slow, which Lotte and Alice had arranged for us, and we followed that with Sir Karl Jenkin’s Adiemus, and World in Union. Whitney’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody had the audience up on their feet, and we finished the first half with the Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star. As well as being extra hard work for the band, many of the first half numbers had small solos sung by choir members, and it was a real team effort.
After a short interval the plan was the choir hung around casually at the sides of the audience whilst the band did Geno. Which sort of worked! The band did indeed do Geno with Paul on vocals, and Lotte, Shaun and Tim on brass, it sounded amazing!!
The choir came back to do the ultra cool Feel it Still (hee hee hee ha ha ha ha ha!) followed by the absolute classic Mr Blue Sky, and Reflect kept the sunny theme going with the atmospheric Cape Cod! Stevie Wonder’s You Are the Sunshine of My Life had a laid back groove, and the celebratory theme continued with McFly’s It’s All About You.
What a Wonderful World is another absolute favourited of the choir, and we sang that leading in to the stunningly beautiful For Good from Wicked, with incredible solos by Kate and Lotte.
An attempt to keep our final number low key was thwarted by no less than eleven musicians taking part, enhanced by a plethora of flags and percussion, as the whole audience joined in with Those Were The Days. And we really felt that these were, in fact, the days, as we finished our day on a massive high!
- September Songs 2024
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Date Posted: Wed, 15 Jan 2025
The thing about the September concert is it’s a funny old event. It’s not really summer, it’s not really autumn… it’s not really the choir but it’s not NOT the choir….. it’s not even really an audience sometimes, just people we know… and us… being the audience.
The usual mix of choir and groups made this September concert a particularly special one. We started with a small group of spirituals, Down in the River, with Robes and Crowns all over the shop, and moved on to lovely Cesar’s gorgeous Heaven is Singing for Joy. Water is Wide had brilliant last minute solos by Jan and Cherly (remind me to never give them more than half an hour’s notice of anything) and we finished with Rutter’s Heavenly Aeroplane.
Then the choir became the audience, as Linda and David sang of a better life in If I Want To, and ReMix dedicated Morningtown Ride to Sarah’s Mum and Sweet Baby James to Sarah’s Dad! Austin and Sarah went next with the emotional Sometimes When We Touch, and then the band took over with Chasing Cars, wonderfully sung by Tim, and a very funky Call Me Al complete with sax backing, Liz on whistle and Baz on the fiendishly difficult bass line!
Shaun kicked off the second half with Boys of Summer, then a slight set change as we had to drop the Waitress song A Soft Place to Land due to our lovely Lotte and Alice not being well enough to come back to us. Paul finished off the band section with the funky People are Strange, with brilliant organ solo by Austin. Gradually we started to invite people back, with the Ukulele group singing Come Up and See Me, ably led by Jason, then Reflect singing the beautiful Til There Was You. ReMix rejoined us for a gorgeous arrangement of Blackbird, then it was time for the return of the choir, clad in Lei, Sailor’s Hats, and shower caps to head back for a quartet of melodies from South Pacific. Nothing Like a Dame saw the men in fine voice, btu the girls were having none of it as they Washed That Man Right Out of their Hair. They joined forces for the cheerful Happy Talk, then finished with the glorious Some Enchanted Evening. Everyone had a wonderful night, and it was a really joyful celebration of both the community and the choir.
- Celebrate! 2023
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Date Posted: Mon, 15 Jan 2024
The day of the concert was as blustery and stormy as the previous two days had been, which made hair and make up an issue! Mostly for the boys though. We had to do quite a big set up as the church had been in use that day, so there was a lot to do, but we got there just in time, and our audience were welcomed in from the wind and rain, filling the main body and balcony of the church.
We kicked things off with the classic Paul McCartney number, Wonderful Christmastime, with Paul and the boys doing a sterling job of the lead vocals. It was a lively celebratory number and the perfect way to start the evening.
Phil Marshall from St John’s opening in prayer for us, his Sprout jacket from previous years having been augmented with some glorious flashing shoes, and we lead straight in to the beautiful Do You Hear What I Hear, a plea for peace in our time. Our audience joined in with Once in Royal David’s City, then after a reading by Liz, we started a very beautiful reflective choral section with Brittan’s challenging There is No Rose. The ‘second page’ version of Away in a Manger, chosen especially by Alice, was our next beautiful song, then ReMix stepped up to sing the Stopford Lully, a haunting, lamenting setting of the Coventry Carol with a glorious descant by Katie. Errolyn Wallen’s Peace on Earth, inspired by the previous Carols at Kings came next, with the unison melody beautifully challenging the circling chords on the piano. David read the story of the Shepherds, and ReMix sang the evocative Shepherd’s Carol. The tempo lifted slightly with the Sweet Chiming Christmas Bells version of While Shepherd’s Watched, and the band took things to a new level, finishing the first half with Glory to God in the Highest, with added Sax from Shaun and Lotte.
After an interval filled with mince pies and Karen’s secret cordial recipe, now handed down to Liz, we kicked the second half off with Warm this Winter, a lively romantic tale of snowballs and skating! Somewhere in My Memory continued the nostalgic feel, with a lovely descant from Millie, then the choir took us with them as we went A-Wassailing around the houses! After that, the congregation joined us for We Three Kings with an ever increasing Oh between verse and chorus.
Christmas isn’t Christmas now without an Austin special, and this year’s was beautiful- It’s Only Christmas filled us with joy and memories. Then our closing sequence started with The Power of Love, sung by Reflect with a complex and intense arrangement, followed by Sarah’s poem, and the lights dimmed, candles were lit and the snow fell as Colin sang Silent as a Snowflake, and the choir hummed Silent Night underneath. Shaun’s lovely piano lead us beautifully in to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and the trumpet opening of Hark brought our evening nearer the end.
Phil closed in prayer for us, and then Millie and Harriet refused to let us end things there, cuing Tim to kick off All I Want for Christmas is You! It was a wonderful evening, the perfect start to the festive season, and everyone left the church on a real high, ready to go back to their homes and get Christmas underway!
- The Colours of Music (ReSound Community Choir)
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Date Posted: Sun, 29 Sep 2019
Well for the first time I think we cracked September Songs! A few of the choir still managed to wriggle out of it using the 'not ready' defense- one or two even planned major holidays, but in the end, most of the choir and a very big audience gathered at a balloon festooned Civic Hall for an evening of Colourful Music!
The choir made their way to the stage as we kicked off our Colours of the World section with What a Wonderful World. They then sat in with their guests to watch as ReFresh sang of the Colours of the Wind, followed by Paul and the band- Shaun on keys, Tim on guitar, Barry on bass and Trev on drums, snapping their version of Paul Simon's Kodachrome. Nancy and Lee, I mean, Celia and Bill went next with a sip of their Summer Wine and the Nice Girls rounded the section off with a lively version of Spice Up Your Life, complete with authentic Spice Girl costumes and dance moves!
Between each section the audience had a quiz to keep them entertained, and we delivered the answers as the pink panther appeared on the screen to herald our In the Pink section and summon ReFresh to the stage. They sang the Pink Panther theme from the cartoons series 'From Head to Toes', followed by a clip with life tips from the inimitable Peter Sellers, Inspector Clouseau. The French theme continued into our ReMix song, La Vie on Rose, kicked off by La Belle Dame Sheila and her tragic tale of her lost love, Frederic.
After the Pink questions, we tackled Red, Gold and Green, inviting our audience to join in with Karma Chameleon. Celia and Fran delivered a beautiful and poignant Scarlet Ribbons, followed by Jason, Polly, Sheila and Tom uke-ing their way through George Ezra's Shotgun. The section was rounded off by the women from the choir singing Big Yellow Taxi.
The final song of our first half was the incredible Sunday from Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George. The choir, by now looking very smart in bow ties and spray flowers, had worked incredibly hard to do the song justice, and they did themselves proud as they told of the moment the artist Seurat finally settled on the composition of his iconic painting.
A very short interval lead to the Colours of Life and the powerful Million Dreams, with solos from Andrew and Gabrielle. Austin took on the role of Barnum singing of the Colours of My Life, along with Sarah as Charity. ReFresh lit the place up with their Firework and then the choir tackled the second of their signed songs from the workshop earlier in the year, Any Dream Will Do, with Cheryl at the helm to make sure we were all signing it right!
Colours of Life quiz and answers out of the way, we kicked off I Got the Blues with the beautiful and emotional Rainbow, sung by Sarah with Shaun on the piano. The men then delivered the Elton classic I Guess that's Why they Call it the Blues, followed by another beautiful duet from Jan and Shaun of the Kate Bush classic Symphony in Blue. Blue Suede shoes got the audience on their feet, with a fantastic Jive from Paul and Sandra to go with it!
The final section heralded the arrival of Geldart, Shaun Geldart with a full bond intro to the title song Black and Gold. ReMix went next with a beautiful version of Blackbird, and the section was rounded off with the bond classic Goldfinger.
After thanking the many people who had made it happen, the (by now very late!) evening was rounded off with the beautiful True Colours, with solos from Pat, Jean and Bill. The lively gospel style was the perfect end to what everyone agreed had been a fantastic evening!
