Watching Gareth Malone do his thing

I love watching Gareth Malone at work. D’you know who I mean? I first saw him on the telly a couple of years ago when he took a bunch of bored, disillusioned folk from a deprived area down in England - South Oxhey - and transformed them into a fantastic community choir. I thoroughly enjoyed the series and I remember saying to Alex, ‘I really wish there was something like that here in Stirling. I’d love to be a part of that kind of choir...’.  What a difference a couple of years can make!

I suppose, up until then, I’d always thought of choirs as consisting of big groups of classically-trained singers who could all read music, stood in a regimented group at the front of a church or concert hall, moved nothing except their very wide mouths, held matching black folders, wore matching white or black shirts and hauntingly harmonised the kind of songs that I’d never sing in the shower.  I obviously knew about gospel and rock choirs, but if anyone had told me they were a member of a choir, the classical churchy set-up is the one that would’ve sprung to my mind. I remember looking for a choir in the Stirling area and the only ones I could find were of the choral music, traditional sort. One that I came across at the time was the Stirling City Choir, so it was nice to go along to one of their performances held in my mum’s church last night. The evening was called ‘A Festival of Gifts’. In my naivety, I thought the idea was for the church’s members simply to benefit from the gift of beautiful music. What the idea actually turned out to be was to entice the church members in with the promise of some beautiful singing then hit them with a power-point presentation detailing the state of the church’s finances and explaining lots of different ways that the members could improve the state of the church’s affairs in the form of different financial ‘gifts’! Hmph. Still, I had a lovely night. Gemma came along and we joined my mum and her good friend Jan; we were all a bit like the cheeky school-children in amongst the pretty staid audience, but we sat back and thoroughly enjoyed the choir’s beautiful performance (except the part when they got a wee bit lost with their ‘Amens’ during the Amen Chorus). It really brought it home to me though that I made the right choice by not joining a more traditional choir. It just seemed so serious and, well, stuffy if I’m being honest. There just didn’t seem to be any kind of mojo about them. Ocht, I’m sure the members love their choir and have great fun at their rehearsals – and they certainly produced a beautiful sound – but it just didn’t produce the same kind of ‘feel-good’ vibe that I like to think oozes from the Heart of Scotland; the choir that I’m now very privileged to be a member of.

Anyway, I’ve totally digressed from Gareth! When we came home last night we settled down to watch his new series on the telly. Aw man, it was such a good opening programme. This time he’s taking a group of military wives and girlfriends and forming them into a community choir while their partners are away on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. It really brought it home to me just how difficult it is for these women, and their children, when they’re left behind on the base. So, the idea is that Gareth is giving them something to focus on; something that’ll raise their self-confidence and also bring them closer together to support each other through the trials and tribulations of living on a pretty isolated military base while coping with the emotional turmoil of the long wait for their partners to return home, hopefully, safe and sound.

One of the most touching parts of the programme was when Gareth asked the women to audition for a solo part. Initially no one would come forward. You could almost hear what some of them were thinking, just by looking at the expressions on their faces: “There’s no way I’m doing that, I might make a complete ass of myself”, or “I know I could sing that, but I don’t want folk to think I’m a show-off” or “I think I could sing that, maybe not brilliantly, but I think I could just about manage it. But I’m too shy to give it a go”. However, with some gentle coaxing and persuasion by Gareth, some of the women hesitantly made their way to the front and sang the solo audition piece. It brought a big lump to my throat. It’ll seem like such a trivial thing if you didn’t see the programme, or haven’t witnessed or experienced that kind of thing, but it was honestly so inspiring to see these woman find the courage that it takes to stand up and sing alone in front of folk. It's a different kind of courage to the kind required by their partners out in Afghanistan, but it's courage all the same. The woman who, for me, stood out – not because she was the ‘best’ singer, but simply because she sang straight from the heart – was the one chosen to sing the solo. When the time came for the choir to do their first public performance, the companionship, camaraderie, boosted confidence, positive vibe and sheer feel-good factor were almost tangible throughout. It was brilliant TV.

 
I'm so chuffed that, after spending a good while looking, I did eventually find the choir in Stirling that totally floats my boat (I may just have mentioned it in previous posts...!). We have two of our very own Gareth Malones in the form of Annie and Jane, we have a whole bunch of folk who've benefitted in so many different ways from being a member of a very special community choir, and when we sing I reckon we mostly do it straight from the heart. Yup, much of Gareth's programme last night felt very, very familiar....