After writing yesterday’s post, I spent a good couple of
hours on important things like having a last ditch attempt at trying to learn
lyrics so that I wouldn’t have to look at the words once during the whole
concert (fail!); deciding which tights I should wear (result! Ladder-free all
night!); deciding whether I should do my make-up at home or at the Bertie (good
call as we didn’t have much time between sound-check rehearsal and performance.
Enough time for a quick re-touch job. There’s only so much you can do with the
war paint at my age anyway!); having a last practice of my solos (result – I managed
to do them without a bum note, I think, and I remembered all the words!); deciding
how many bottles of water to take (Yup, five wasn’t too many! I drink a lot of
water between songs – think it’s more of a nerves thing than a thirst thing -
hence the reason why I’m always first to rush off the stage...); deciding whether
to go straight or curly (being heavy-handed with the straightners was a good
call as the heat on the stage would’ve had me looking like Crystal Tipps if I’d
gone for wavy; deciding whether to wear a wee cardy or not (BIG mistake with this
one; the photos are unforgiving on the big chicken arms department!); and, lastly, practicing the surprise ‘Thriller’ dance that we were doing as part of our
encore (FAIL!! I nailed it when I was practicing, but come the real thing, in
front of hundreds of folk... Oh dear!). While all of that was going on Gordon,
my fellow choir member and youngest son, was ensconced in front of the telly; cool
as a cucumber and throwing his eyes up in the air every time I flew in and out
of the room, and wondering how he managed to get landed with a mother who
needed his advice on whether to go for 10 denier natural or 15 denier black....poor
soul! Alex had escaped the mayhem to compete alongside Ross in a cross country
event up in Dundee. Good call. Gemma had nipped across from St Andrews with her
good pal Lizzie to cheer them on before coming to the concert at night. Good
call staying clear of the house!
Anyway, after all that, we both headed off to the Bertie to get
down to the serious business of the sound check and last wee rehearsal. Aw, it
was just great to walk in and start to properly share in the big Bertie buzz
with everyone. I was, however, really sad to discover that one of
my friends, and fellow soloist on 'Feeling Good', Laura had pulled a muscle in
her chest, was in a whole lot of pain, and wouldn’t be able to take to the
stage. I felt so gutted for her and I’m already looking forward to a future gig
where I’m sure she'll get the chance to entertain another audience with her
beautiful voice. As was to be expected, it took a bit of time for the sound
guys to get the mikes set up properly and the sound sorted out, and it took a
wee while for us to get used to singing on the big stage again. We’re spoiled
with rehearsals in a church; the acoustics are awesome and we can all hear each
other really clearly, so it’s a bit freaky when you start singing on the stage
and can only hear the two people either side of you (I don’t mean that Becky
and Christine’s voices are freaky, I mean that it’s more difficult to find your
cues, or know if you’re getting it right, if you can only hear the two
beautiful voices either side of you!). As
was also to be expected, some of us made a fair few mistakes but, as the old
saying goes “best to get it wrong in rehearsal and right on the night!” (or something
like that!). And that’s what Annie reminded us of – more eloquently than that –
as we made our way to the changing rooms to get ready for the performance.
A very fast thirty
minutes later, it was time to hit the stage. Fortunately, I’d had enough time
to throw a couple of yoghurts down my neck, quickly change into my new red
frock – and 15 denier black tights - and swallow half a flask of hot water and
honey. My throat had been sore all day, so I was resorting to the best old
fashioned remedy. It reminded me so much of one of my school shows; we’d been
performing it all week and I had two songs to sing on my own. I woke up on the
morning of the last day with no voice. Mum, as ever, came to the rescue and
plied me with a disgusting concoction of hot water, glycerine and honey. Aw man,
it was mingin! I can still remember the taste to this day but it did the trick!
I managed to finish the last show and get though every song. Fortunately on
this occasion, thirty odd years later, I just had a sore throat and hadn’t lost
my voice so I reckoned I could get away without the mankiness of glycerine!
After a nervous wait backstage, and a lovely introduction
from our young compere, we all
filed out onto the stage. I think we all sensed right away that it was going to
be a great night. The audience was big, loud, warm and encouraging right from
the very start, and I think we all kind of fed off that. When the folk with
their bums on the seats are there to enjoy themselves, and make that clear
right from the off, it makes it really easy for the choir members to enjoy
themselves. And, as Katie, one of my lovely choir buddies said yesterday, when
we’re enjoying ourselves, we’re more relaxed, and when we’re more relaxed, we
sound great, and when we sound great the audience enjoy themselves and when the
audience are enjoying themselves we’re enjoying ourselves...etc, etc! Having
said that, we’ve done some gigs in the past where the audience has been pretty
non-responsive and, well, not looking as if they’re enjoying themselves and
that hasn’t really stopped us from having a blast! So, maybe my theory’s a load
of nonsense – but it was definitely great to have such a brilliant audience
cheering us on last night! It meant such a lot to have so many members of my
family and most of my best friends in the audience too. I’m sure that helped to
calm my nerves a wee bit before we got to the 5th song in the
programme and my first solo. I’d listened to every soloist before me do an
amazing job; Ray and Cara on 'Flower of Scotland' (great way to open the show),
Greig and Katy on 'Footloose' (aw man,
that had to be one of my many favourites of the night; Greig and Katy are a
couple and they just looked and sounded awesome together – and we were all
giving it laldy behind them – great fun!), Drew and Annie on 'You Got The Love' (Drew’s a huge character in the choir and has the most original dance moves I’ve
ever seen in my entire life) and Morag, Donna, Carrie, Sandra and Paul on 'Black
Horse and the Cherry Tree' (during which I was so relieved to remember to not
sing ‘Woohoo’ when I wasn’t supposed to!). Then it was my turn. I’m trying to
remember what was going through my head as I walked to the mike at the front of
the stage, to stand alongside my fellow soloists Sharron and Cara. “Get
a grip woman!” comes to mind, but I think next, very quickly, came “Imagine Dad’s
out there watching you.” And then I think I forgot that I was worried about
forgetting my words or making a mess of it, and I just sang the song. I’ve been
a wee bit overwhelmed by some of the lovely messages that I’ve received from
folk, and I’m so grateful for them taking the time to let me know that they were
moved by the choir’s rendition of 'Wild Horses', or enjoyed our version of 'Feeling Good'. The more experienced and seasoned soloists will be used to that
reaction, and will know full well how good it makes you feel, but it’s new for me and a lovely addition to my Bertie
Buzz!
The rest of the concert went on with one fantastic
performance after another. There were so many fantastic moments, like our rendition of a truly brilliant song written by Paul (the same Paul that comes into the hospice and cheerily plays guitar for the patients). The choir as a whole sounded brilliant on every song (I'm reliably informed by my friends and family!) and the
soloists all gave it laldy. I’m so in awe of their incredible voices, and I so
admire the confidence and personal touch that they all bring to their solos.
That was highlighted during many of the songs last night. ‘Say A Little Prayer’
is a great example. Three soloists; Sharron, Ash and Paula, three lovely girls
with awesome voices to boot, but each also really different, and any one of them
could give Aretha Franklin a run for her money! I’m not joking! There are too
many soloists and there were too many songs to mention them all. Actually, no
there weren’t. I can’t let this blog
post go by without making sure that all of my choir buddies were included
somehow or another! This is copied from last night’s programme:
The audience whooped, clapped and cheered and we all just
had a brilliant time. Facebook today has been such a lively, happy place for
choir members and provided a great platform to release some of that, still very
active, adrenalin! I’m waiting with bated breath for a video of our encore to
be posted as I’ve had such a ribbing from family and friends about being way out
of time on the Thriller dance. With a bit of luck the big tall Zombie with the
crazy hair won’t feature too clearly on the recording and my face, with or
without Zombie mask, will be saved from disgrace!
I’m thinking that you deserve a medal if you’ve stuck with
this post – it’s been a long and fairly repetitive list of superlatives – and I’m
thinking that some of you might be thinking “Jeeso, it’s only a choir, and it
was only a concert in a town’s hall that holds around 600 folk, and it was only
shoving on a red dress and going out for a sing-song on a Saturday night! What’s
she on about?!” Ocht, it’s just really hard to explain. It was all of those
things, but it was so much more. And I loved every minute of it. I loved that
my hubbie, daughter, son, mum, practically-big-sister and my mother and
father-in-law were sitting all in a row together, that my other son was on the
stage with me and that lots of my pals were dotted around the audience. I loved
that all the choir rehearsals on a Monday night have not only been brilliant in
their own right, but have resulted in a show that made lots of local people
really happy and really glad that they chose to go to a choir concert rather
than watch X-Factor. I loved feeling so many different emotions yesterday;
nervous, excited, sad, proud, anxious, happy. I loved standing next to my special choir pal, Christine and sharing lots of special moments with her. And, as ever, I loved spending time with all the rest of my choir friends.
Every single one of
them played a part in making me feel sooooo good last night, whether it was by
wishing me luck for the solos, making me laugh, zipping me into my dress, making
me cry with their amazing voices, singing so brilliantly together or simply by being part of the wonderful thing that is the mighty Heart of Scotland Choir.
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