Before I get into the singing and shenanigans of tonight's rehearsal, I would like to wish a very happy first birthday to the KTB Music Blog Squad (or whatever we're calling ourselves)! Yes, it's been a whole year of blogging all the rehearsal and backstage gossip that we can safely put on the internet without Katy giving us That Look. We all know the one.
Tonight's MTC rehearsal was small in number, but as the rain absolutely hammered onto the roof of the Studio, we tried to make up for it by going large on the sound... and the giggling. Starting off strong with "While Shepherds Watched" - "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'At" might be a tune from Yorkshire, but by 'eck, we're going to bring it across that border for some festive peace and goodwill between counties.
We followed that up with "Deck the Hall", and yes, that is a singular 'hall', and there is a penalty for anyone caught with an S! Other lyric changes in this version replace the "blazing Yule" and the "Yuletide carol". Are there any fellow celebrants of Winter Solstice out there who are used to absolutely belting this one out with gusto and massive grins? Let's grit our teeth and move on, hopefully without dropping any 50ps into the penalty pot. I'm going to have to start remembering to bring coins to chorus. Does it count for double if we bring in one of the Wicked UK 20th Anniversary 50ps that are about to start making their way around?
(Side note: You can buy them! The standard one and the colourful version are both nearby as I type. They're definitely not for spending, nor sacrificing to a chorus penalty jar.)
Time for a "Sleigh Ride" (The Ronettes), and this marked the first piece of the evening where we spent some time carefully perfecting the "ooohs." Much more note-bashing for "Somewhere Only We Know" (Keane), where the sopranos and altos have most of the tricky bits. Those notes aren't where we're expecting them to be, until they are... and then they're gone again. Now we know how the basses and tenors feel.
There is a very informal petition to convince our dear KTB to let us have shaky eggs for "Born Is The King." This modern number worked so well with a little percussion last week, and we felt the loss at this rehearsal. We note-bashed a bit, sang it through, and Katy approved. Bish bash bosh. Anyone wishing to co-sign the shaky egg petition: you know what to do.
Two hours felt both stretched and compressed this evening, and before we could all believe it, we reached our final song of the evening: "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town" (Jackson 5). Lots of little interjection-y bits to concentrate on, plus some "woohoo"s to get perfectly in tune and in sync. After some detailed work and a couple of sing-throughs, we were sounding much more confident. We'll be ready to welcome our audiences in no time.
As we have had an unexpected change to our rehearsal schedule, this particular blog will continue in November, which is when things will be getting even colder outside while heating up rehearsal-wise, as we race towards that first concert date on 28 November. Book your tickets for "Kickstart to Christmas" now to see us, singers from the wider KTB Music family of choirs, the Chorley Silver Brass Band, and pupils from Brindle St James' Primary School, all gathered at Chorley Town Hall to bring you an absolute musical spectacular of festive music.
To everyone who's written for one of the blogs, I'm raising my cup of tea to you all, and hitting send on this email with a sense of whimsical ceremony. Here's to many more entries still to come!
Written by Aeryn Isherwood
