Sunday 27th March, 2011 ...

Dors or Singing?



We are looking good as usual, through the lens of our very own Dave-the-sound man, who gets time off from mixing when we sing at the Pavilion, and points his camera at us instead! And of course we sing at the Pavilion every year, because we are of course, The Best of Dorset! And we had our lovely banner in place too, to hide all the brown trousers and any comedy duck-feet.

Well done again 'Dors or Singing', it was lovely to see folk rushing in to catch our songs as we were on stage, instead of leaving to watch big guns being fired like they did last year. We did very well with fame, and I even remembered to more my hands, Bryan Husband would be so proud!

I brought two up-and-coming reviewers with me this time, who also minded handbags and ate the free stuff the Dorset Echo were giving out, and didn't booh once. Asked when they really thought of the performance, they stated Fields of Gold as the best song, and added, 'We would come again, if it was in town.'

See you in the music room for a knees-up next Thursday, lots of love, The Cat XXX

24 March 2011

The Chilli on my kebab!

I prefer cherries on cakes myself, but when Ed Throws us a complement like that, well, ya better not knock it! For most of the night our Big man was out in front, where he should be, not sitting behind his keyboard hiding his hands!

The were times tonight when the collective Dorset for Singing sounded very small and tired, and moments of sheer grandness, when we sang the roof off of the humble school hall! I am with Ed in that the practice before a concert is never without worries, I am sure it hits us with a kind of, 'yikes! last practice!' wobble, and if you think about it, the moment we open out mouths to please Weymouth, Portland and Dorset at large, we always make our Ed dead proud.

Don't be an hour late on Sunday, make sure you change your clocks and are at the stage door for about 1.15pm. For an extra treat, pop down and visit the Artwey stand and see a topical piece of soft sculpture created by me. It's not a seagull on a stick this time, although I suspect it should be. It's a bit of light relief, related to the relief road! (I get to be two-times the best of Dorset - and so does our lovely Carol!)

See you Sunday in Blue and Black, with smart folders, clean hankies and FAME hands, and remember I love ya! Especially Today! XXXX

17 March 2011

Ed may be very well behaved when being the compare of a very nice music festival final concert, but is very naughty indeed when let out from behind his piano, as witnessed last night, when he kept making jenny sing at the wrong time, and caught me once too!

Never mind. It will all come out in the wash, and we shall sound superb again at the Pavilion, and anyway we had some very grown up minutes from Michael in the key of F. Look out for chaos, polo shirts that don't fit your moobs very flatteringly, and a row of Nintendo DS thingies on the back row. Whatever they are. Michael's minutes don't have any made up stuff in them either, unlike my blogs!

We had a good go at 6 lovely songs tonight, and got a better grasp on most of those, with some careful harmony work too, that had me losing the melody in words, so good they were! And I loved the public toilet stories that choir members shared, too. Thanks DFS, i do love you lots xxxx

11 march 2011

Weymouth Music Festival, Proper!

And so DFS returned to Wey Valley School to raise the roof with our winning song - not that it was a competition. It was a very interesting night, my first time in the audience as well as DFS's first appearance at the Festival.

You will read this blog as soon as you possibly can, but with my broadband coming and going as it is, who knows when that would be! It's not late because I spent a long time trying to make it really witty. Just so you know.

I think we did really well, and our lessons in bott-rock stood us in very good stead, mind you I can't help feeling naughty after our flash-mob type behaviour during Wey Valley's lovely rendition of RUN. Adrian saw the audience turn their heads away from the stage in a wave! Sorry Wey Valley - it was Ed's idea!

Two Weeks until The Best of Dorset - don't forget to go to the pub on Tuesday, if you have ideas, hopes and dreams for Dorset for Singing. I would still like a lift, and I'll see the rest of you, Thursday! XXX

10 March 2011

A Bit of Bott-Rock!

At DFS we never hit rock bottom, well almost never. The problem - multitasking, the advice - awesome! The result? Quite a lot better!

So tonight songsters, after receiving the seal of approval from the Judges at the Music Festival (mentioning no other names here), we return, panting and excited, and with a surprise up our sleeve, to sing Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, at tonight's Music Festival Concert, where there will be joyous singing, high cheek bones, eye contact and what's more, a little bit of bott-rock!

Ed stayed centre-stage tonight, we never lost our Fat-Controller once, although we did make him sea-sick with some over swaying, and after that we worked on some of our recent songs, tried to express passion and a bit of raunchiness, and uncovered some new bum notes. Hope we get those ironed out by tonight. I am off to raise my chickens and sing in the shower. I will see you later at Wey Valley School, and at the pub
next Tuesday if someone can give me a lift? I promise to take good minutes if so. Bring your botts XXXXX

5 March 2011

Weymouth Music Festival 2011

The one where Bryan Husband came along and made us feel guilty for not doing all the things Ed tries to get us to do! The one where Jenny wore a dress and heels and looked very lovely all day. The one where we listened to a bunch of very talented other choirs, and managed without The Fat Controller at the front!

A very different experience for Dorset for Singing then, causing much more nerves than usual as we realised that we would have to sing two new songs, facing only an unknown audience, and something really scary called adjudicators! Members who have got used to performing as part of our friendly choir were feeling a few butterflies this time!

But all went went well, and most people waited nicely for all the right gaps in the songs, and then we got some lovely feedback from Mr Husband, who had us moving and smiling and generally feeling better about the whole thing. We didn't see very much of Ed at all, who nipped off for a kebab as soon as Bryan had finished with our critique, and didn't see the solo session that we had, when four soloists came forward from our own DFS, Me (egged on by many), Big Ron, Adrian and our expressive Alex, and got some very useful direction, and I am at this very moment sticking my bottom out, just a little!

I thought it a very enjoyable afternoon,and hope we can return next week, but we shall have to wait and see, thanks everyone for coming even if you were worried. We upheld Dorset for Singing's good name and very good sense of humour XXX

PS - Update - We got through! See News & Events ...

3rd March 2011

It's not a Competition!

Ed Promised us a lovely break tonight, as we were going to have to work very hard on only two songs. I was really looking forward to my kit-kat, but it didn't happen in the end because Ed spent too much time going up and down the stairs and doing ballet...

So for Saturday, when we sing at Weymouth Music Festival, we will perform two songs and Ed will be nowhere in view, tucked in the corner behind the piano. I just hope before he leaps off into Rosé that he remembers to do it in E ... and that we remember to go 'Raaaaaaaaaaw-zey!'(Think Geordie lions or something).

A very different experience it was, to work on only a couple of songs and really take them to bits. Not as different though as piling up in front of the stage and singing to the rest of choir (making up the audience). I am going to bring a mirror on a stick, so that I can see Ed, nodding his head and opening his mouth! More practical than seagull-on-a-stick, but much less cute!

See you 1.30 Saturday folks, at Wey Valley School Hall, and why not stay for the Master-class afterwords? That's like a vocal workshop but run by a famous person. BIG HUGS, Cat xxx