27 November 2025

 Almost Christmas… nearly December … some Christmas trees are up and there were lots of birthday anniversaries and more to sing including a happy 30th birthday to Harry tomorrow! We sang. 

Please bring a raffle prize next week if you didn’t bring one tonight. The running order is sorted out, and is provided for you below. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY 

More rough, more rough! Loads and loads of energy.

CAROL OF THE BELLS 

A WINTERS TALE 

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER 

DING DONG MERRILY ON HIGH 

MARY DID YOU KNOW 

solos etc … 

HARK THE HERALD

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE 

DECK THE HALLS

WHITE CHRISTMAS 

O HOLY NIGHT 

O little town is no more. We warmed up with an accompanied CAROL OF THE BELLS. More precisely said Ed. Over annunciation please! Cut off your Dings and dongs as quickly as you can, and enter the nasal zone. We ran through the songs in the running order above. 

And after the run through we did some topping and tailing! 

Good good see you next week xxx 

20 November 2025

 Good evening and welcome to Thursday, a day that lacked snow. There were three new songs for us on one bright shiny sheet of A4. 

Two more rehearsals and then concerts begin. 10th dec for united church in Dorchester. Solos etc required. 11th is our informal evening and you can sing a solo there too. Raffle prizes appreciated. 19th dec for Xmas Carols at the upwey wishing well at 2.30pm. 

We did a quick warm up to be swiftly followed by MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY and CAROL OF THE BELLS. 

DUM DUM DIDDLE!

Loud rough rock voices for MERRY CHRISTMAS but not shouting of course. After singing the chorus with the piano we whipped out of he backing track. 

It was lovely and rough. The lovely that wasn’t lovely. 

Ones and twos given reminders then we sang CAROL OF THE BELLS. No long songs please. Doooong is wrong. Donnnnnnnnng is right. Ok? Good. I don’t want to have to type all those nnnns again. 

Onwards and a capela. Well not bad. Just stop staring at sheet. We went again for the second time.  Please practice while shopping in Asda etc. 

Next a new song, well perhaps an old familiar song but with a fresh new backing track DECK THE HALLS. 

The Bing Crosby version of WHITE CHRISTMAS filled the room. This one’s perfect for audience participation. We did listen to another version but no. 

And Shaky is in the room, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE. Look out for the key change. 

Ooooh IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER. Make like a big organ. No being a big diva  and sliding notes all over the place. 

DING DONG! MERRILY ON HIGH  phew. Breathe when you can, and don’t forget your pelvic floor. 

A WINTERS TALE, over the page - this one is in a gentleman’s key. 

MARY DID YOU KNOW? Coming along nicely.

HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING and we called for Andy to come and close the air vents as we were all cold. Lovely said Ed and Andy said don’t put the chairs away and we performed O HOLY NIGHT. 

Whoop whoop well done, keep singing xxx

13 November 2025

 Good evening everyone, we do love Peter! Don’t forget to say DONGLE to Ed at the end. I popped up to the front to say sorry for mislabelling last weeks blog, sorry I won’t be around to blog next week and thank you (again) for supporting NOT LOST - Susie the Dorchester Cat (book). I’ve been invited to the AGM of PEOPLE FIRST DORSET to find out just how much money was raised. And eat pizza. 

Anyway. Back to choir. We did a lot of breathing work. Bob had been practicing all the tricks. Ed thinks it’s in your buttocks but it’s really your pelvic floor. But we won’t mention it again. 

It’s to help with CAROL OF THE BELLS. We sang with the piano and then a capela. Some people are still going Doooong when they should be going donnnnng. Don’t. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY blasted from the speaker. It was sung very nicely, and Ed wants a bit more festive aggressive! More Divas! More loud! Leave Aled Jones at home. 

A WINTERS TALE is a little low but Ed said we could zip up an octave in the second verse. 

 We sang IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER. Everyone was happy. Ed didn’t even announce DING DONG MERRILY ON HIGH probably because it’s on the same sheet. Please roll your rrrrrrrs if you can. And mind the gap. Use your pelvic floors for the big Gloria at the end  

Cliff Richard’s O LITTLE TOWN next. What a treat it was … to sing the trad version afterwards with Ed at the piano. We voted for the best version to perform.

Ed played so we could sing MARY DID YOU KNOW?  Bob dropped off it was so soothing and Ed said he will play this live at the concert. 

We stood to perform O HOLY NIGHT. 

Well done DFS KEEP singing xxx 

6th November 2025

 Hello and happy Friday to you, 

Sadly no live blogging occurred yesterday. While I remembered to bring my daughter, who wanted to join us for the festive segment, I left my phone at home on charge so that was very helpful. Mary texted me all the songs in order to help me recap, today. To think 17 years ago I had three children under three and blogged at home the day after! Say nothing. 

The speaker blasted out HARK THE HERALD and I started singing. By the end of the song Ed was ready at the front and everyone was singing. Then we warmed up. 

We started with CAROL OF THE BELLS which is fun as we get our starting notes and then that’s it. Some of us remembered it quite well. Ed went over the harmony parts. Don’t worry, he said …. the good news is, it’s still November. 

We went back to sing HARK THE HERALDS and some super clever people sang the descant. 

Now for fun and intrigue Ed whipped out the Dolly Parton version of MARY DID YOU KNOW which was challenging but also a bit of a giggle, especially the spoken parts. Did you know? I think she did. 

DING DONG MERRILY ON HIGH is the one we have to fit in all the words that don’t fit. Good job dfs. 

We do love a bit of IN THE BLEAK MID WINTER and that was quicky followed by A WINTERS TALE which may need a pic transpose or two. My Mary didn’t know this one. She texted the next title as MERRY CHRISTMAS and now for the life of me I can’t recall the real title. We hung our stockings on the wall. 

At some point we sang Cliff Richard’s version of O LITTLE TOWN but it was rather sung in the boots and a few people didn’t know it. I remember Cliff of top-of-the-pops twirling around. 

Finally we stood to perform O HOLY NIGHT which we all love and adore, and sing out. 

Well done DFS, stay festive xxx

9 October 2025

 Two new song sheets to collect on arrival this week before taking our seats as Ed played the theme to The Muppet Show. 

Stage right was a little light. Friday 19th December high tea at the Upwey Wishing Well at 2.30pm with Carols possibly performed by us. Christmas concert here on the 11th, informal and fun. 

Our chosen charity is chesil sail ability :-) 

We DUM DUM DIDDLED and otherwise warmed up. 

The backing track filled the hall and we sang ONE DAY IN YOUR LIFE. We started at the beginning to deal with our snakes. Place and Face are longer than you think. We went again. 

New song time with DONT LEAVE ME THIS WAY and there was such a lot going on in this song. Ed tried to explain where we went wrong and I really concentrated hard. From the top. Ed came out from behind the music stand a few times. Much better said Ed. 

YOU NEEDED ME was our second new one. We shuffled papers and sang. It’s very nice but also a good exercise sort of song, on account of all the octave-jumps. Ed sat at the piano to go through it with us. It was sang in 1978 by Canadian Anne Murray. 

Next JERSEY BOYS MEDLEY rocked the hall. It was much better than last week, and we kept going as requested  

Aha, TAKE ON ME. A few discrepancies in there, but all ok. I think Ed was happy. 

Calming things down a bit, WITH OR WITHOUT YOU was coming on very nicely with lovely harmonies. 

For our final song, A LITTLE RESPECT won the show-of-hands vote. Yipppeeeee! 

Super Singing DFS see you next week hopefully xxx 

2 October 2025

 Blog number 496. I still haven’t found my folder. Ed changed his battery. It was charity choosing night. Dorchester are supporting Weldmar this year. 

Nominations were made, to be voted for at the back, after choir. We warmed up, singing WITH OR WITHOUT YOU to hums, oooohs and aaaaaaahs. Then we sang it with the backing track and Ed belting it out too. 

We were under singing. We were asked for 400% more. So we gave. And we gave. Lovely. 

Time for the JERSEY BOYS MEDLEY which has a lot of words. We slowed it down a little to help us squeeze in a few more in the right place. Dangerous really, coz we had to speed it up again immediately! 

Gently into ONE DAY IN YOUR LIFE. Clever chord at the end there. We went over the key change. 

Ed said we should TAKE ON ME so we did. Look out for the organic ending. It might mean we have to be flexible but not that the words are wrong. We worked on it around the men’s parts until we had made an ending all our own.

All choir masters A LITTLE RESPECT. Near the end we are going to have a lovely overlap/cossover with stage left holding into MEEEEEEEE. 

We stood to perform HIGHER AND HIGHER and had to deal with a technical hitch again  no lyrics instead of no batteries. 

Well done DFS another fun filled session, I wonder who will win the position of this years charity? Vote now and goodnight xxx

25 September 2025

Happy 17th birthday DFS! Ed welcomed everyone and we all clapped because Ed and Jenny became grandparents this summer on the 14th July. And Ed and Jenny have moved to Osminton. 

Our Christmas concerts will be in about 12 weeks time, and we will need charity nominations next week, please. All concerts raise money for the year’s charity. We have probably raised about £25,000 in our 17 years. 

We warmed up. I missed the old blogging app but they are charging to use it now. Big meanies. The web, on my phone it is! 

Ed decided to experiment with us. And so he did. Notes rose and fell. The idea was to meet in the middle, and find the middle ground. Hmmmmmm. 

Most of us had copies of WITH OR WITHOUT YOU and we are going to sing the Boyce Avenue version which is new to most of us, so we listened to the demo and sung along. Ed slipped behind the piano. How I’ve missed that all summer. But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for - my choir folders, since moving house! 

The Oh oh ohs needed clarifying. We hammered the harmony too and we were almost CR - concert ready. 

We dived into the 80s for TAKE ON ME. We usually listen to Ed sing this at higher more farm! You need spider hands for the instrumental. Then we attempted to sing the think without any backing. 

We moved onto ONE DAY IN YOUR LIFE. When I was a child I thought it was sing by a woman. That and BEN. We listened to the backing track and had a go at the freestyle ending  

The challenge in HIGHER AND HIGHER is another freestyle. Plus I think I heard pinky and perky on the backing track. Choir has done this one before, I wonder when? It will be somewhere else in this blog for sure! We need to go big or go home, said Ed as he removed the lead vocals and we sang again. 

The wild card, JERSEY BOYS MEDLEY had shades of dirty dancing and radio one, in the olden days. It had 4 songs smooshed together. 

We stood to perform A LITTLE RESPECT…

And I hope this post publishes, so well done DFS lots of energy needed tonight for sure! Stay awesome, Cat xxx 

26 June 2025

We were a little low on numbers today so Ed said we have to sing four times louder. 

1pn this Saturday outside HSBC the weather will be gorgeous as we watch ukelele players nonchalantly. 

Drinks and Nautico after. 

Some of you may have Facebook invites to the final party in 2 weeks time down ringstead bay. Ed has negotiated free parking for us. 

Forms were at the back of the room for the singing workshop but you can always contact the big man. 

We warmed up then Ed told us to look forward to something of a different format next week, as next weeks songs will have been sung. 

ALL ABOUT YOU 

don’t forget, it’s starts with the Ukelele singers, two solo lines from Ed, then we are in. Dash to the front and sparkle! 

We went straight into SIT DOWN. 

There was just enough time for Lesley to complain about my voice before Ed started the intro to BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP. 

HELP! Shouted Ann, but it was ok, she was just finding the lyrics to the next song. 

DONT SLEEP IN THE SUBWAY and WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM completed our flashmob rehearsal. 

HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN blasted from the speakers. Lesley called for a vote and this song was axed. 

I LET THE MUSIC SPEAK was followed with a demonstration of ‘Mixing’ to enable us to sing across our ‘break’. 

Next week we will be signing medleys from musicals and ending with DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING. Forgive me dear reader, but I may be packing boxes … 

With the backing vocal we sang WHO BELIEVES IN ANGELS and Ed said we need to give pizza preferences next weeks. Meaty or veggie then we stood to perform ARMS OF MARY. 

Well done DFS, getting a lift to my new house with Carol, see you nonchalantly on Saturday xxx