10 February 2011

Normal service has been removed. The cat is back, with most of her faculties and sincere apologies, from myself and from blogger-dot-com, for the self appraising, biblical waffle that you were forced to consume last week (Mmmm, waffles). That wont happen again.

How nice to be back at Dorset for singing, even if, as i realised at teatime, i hadn't sung in over a week. Thanks for the welcome, you sang beautifully and brought tears to my eyes, or perhaps that was because i was trying not to laugh so much!

Look forward then, to a concert two weeks from today, in the church on Portland again, and also, to the return of Hannah, who is much less scathing than Ed, and will take the session in the hall next week alongside the disco, which although advertised on posters apparently will not happen! Hannah gets to materialise after we watch a video warm up made by Ed, and possibly a video song as well. It could be interesting. Or just odd. Esp the big where he stops playing and tells us not to hang onto a note or 'ssss' too early! Tell everyone that didn't come this week that next week will be an extravaganza!

So I am off to listed to ROSE now, and get some of those timings in my head, and then eat my cereal. Thanks for working hard DFS, and thanks to Fulvia's Husband for blog feedback! Phew, it's good to be back, love you, Cat XXX

3 February 2011

A Guest Blog!

Silence descended over the Room of Awe as The Great Man raised one of his mighty and talented arms to gain the flock's attention. One hundred butterflies danced in the hearts of every one in the room as He began to impart his words of unfaltering wisdom. And it came to pass that they did warm up their humble voices, and each follower became good for it. As if by some remarkable coincidence, they sang 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight', with a hint of beautiful irony, this mighty lion certainly wasn't sleeping. He was very much awake and able to command music, with a gentle roar of content when the believers listened, responded and were good.

At nineteen hundred hours past midnight, He began to ease songs into the souls of all around Him. 'Rosé' was the first chosen song, and the throng listened and sang the song. He raised one of his powerful eyebrows and the people saw that it was not good. Suddenly, with only a few jaw-dropping words from Him, the song became alive. It blossomed and became part of the very fabric of everyone's lives. 'Surely He uses magic' one person dared to whisper. 'No' came the booming, yet caring voice. 'My musical powers are not magic. They are delivered from deep down in a vast cave of inspiration. Some say it is an area so large that it contains a million unwritten songs, others say that it is filled with kebab (an ancient ingredient used by the great composers of our time), you do not need to know at this time, your work is far from finished. And with that firm line drawn by His might hand, the next song was lined up, almost begging to be transformed into another piece of wonderment..

By the end of the evening, the room was exhausted. The Great Man had given so much for so little, it was hard to believe that such a person could ever have existed. What entered earlier were raw ingredients, what exited was a combination of love, harmony and peace. The people were fulfilled. They were happy and so grateful to be considered part of His family. The all vowed to bring Him gifts of wine and chocolate, and will forever be armed with a response to 'can you sing far away?'. Indeed not, but they can certainly sing 'From a Distance'.

Thank you fo reading

The Mystery Blogger

27 January 2011

8 out of 10, Dorset for Singing!

Last night we enjoyed the projectile experience that was the brains of the TYROS 3 coupled with a rather smart projector, just a pity about the basket ball net on the wall, and Ed's Big head. The TYROS 3 is so impressive Ed doesn't even have to play it ... I hope he has not been faking it all these years!

And so, as a reaction to the feedback on the DFS forum, and after a powerful warm up taking advantage of the acoustics in the gym, Ed read through a list of 10 brand new songs, and not a single one of them was an Elton or an Abba number!

So we had quite a fun evening charging through most of the songs Ed brought, squeezing in a bit of Michael Bubble before bedtime, instead of Keane which didn't get enough votes. you may remember me soloing that one as Jenny ran in and out of the hall with hot fresh burgers, at our BBQ concert last year, so if you sing it next week, when I am not here, please do it lovely, for me.

There might not be a blog next week, as I will be at home, post op (milking it), and Ed may or may not have time to create one. I might post something for a treat for you just because I love you, like a handmade video, or i might stalk the forum for a bit of cut and paste pleasure!

And so, without further ado, it's time to get out of my pyjamas and hit the send button, probably the other way round. I'll miss you, Cat XXX

20 January 2011

Ahhhhh good to be back!

Happy new year Dorset for singing, 'slightly worn, but dignified, and not too old for sex!' No that's not you lot, but just one small part of the hot new songs we tackled last night, with our rusty voice boxes and enthusiasm! I am doubly happy to be back in the new year, as 2011 is easier to type then 2010, when blogging our adventures!

At first glance Ed looked a bit grubby, but then I realised it was a lush garden of facial hair, and that our man had only been clean shaven all this time as he was playing at being Elton John. Elton is not gigging at the moment due to all those night feeds, or something. Looks like I had better make a duck-suit for Brian Blessed, then ... Perhaps we should all get beards, so we can run our fingers through them when deciding whether to vote songs in or out?

Anyway, back to the singing, which was awesome, espcially when we had been hit with an interesting Abba B-side which no one knew, and the track hinted at above, 'When all is said and done', again ,not know to many of you. I didn't know the Michael Buble song either, I was only really with-it for 'uptown girl'!

Four concerts loom, the end of Feb for another slot back at All Saints church, and the 5th of march for Weymouth Music Festival and also back at the Pavvy on the 27th March for the Best of Dorset, this will be our third time on stage at this event, I was so surprised we were asked back after our shy first year, but we did a grand job last year and gave jenny goose pimples.

Just one more really important thing - we are in the gym next week so turn left when you go in through the front doors, and don't forget your kit. Knickers and vest if you do. Welcome back, Cat XXX

9 December 2010 ...

Sparkles!

Last night the Choir gathered to take over the stage, hoping the act before them didn't sing all their songs or that they fingers would not be too numb to hold the carol sheets. The lovely compère called us 'The Ladies', then apologised to Ed, Ron, etc. and invited us to sing again at the pavilion next year (27th March) as part of the Best of Dorset. Awesome-sauce!

Poor Michael was not singing with us last night as he felt poorly, so he went round with a bucket, not because he was poorly, but to collect some pennies for our two charities, and we enjoyed meeting Zebedee, Megan's lovely Dog, as a rep for Dogs for the Disabled, wearing his very smart coat. Zebedee also thought Ben the Rat was rather interesting, did you spot him? He's not very big, but he knows all the words and wore his cheerful Christmas hat!

We had a nice audience and some even sang along, of course they could have been waiting for the lovely Emma to sing, but they did make our collection bucket heavy too. I want to say a big thank you to Choir for turning out in good numbers again, despite the cold and missing our last practice together! And it was especially nice to walk into the lovely warm pub afterwords and have a drink together.

So the cheeky-blogger will now wish you a Merry Christmas and share this pic of Ben getting ready to go out and sing last night. Don't eat it Ben.



Love you always, Dorset for Singing, see you on 20 Jan 2011 ... XXXXXXXXX

2nd December 2010 - Practice Cancelled!

please don't come to choir practice tonight ... play is cancelled ... stand by for more details about next week when we will sound lovely having done all the verses of Jingle Bells for home work ...

oh - here they are - from our lovely Choir Master ...

"Will try and get the message out to all, but there will be no rehearsal tonight due to the risk of sunstroke. We are performing at 7.30pm next Thursday outside Debenham's so please arrive about 15 mins earlier in order to get in some sort of crazy order. Social starts at 8pm in the function room, Clipper Bar, Weymouth, Ed x"

25 November 2010

We love Penny ...

Last night when we arrived for rehearsals, the WI choir were sounding really good, and I was given my first Christmas card and three very sweet horseshoes! Ed handed out carol sheets, yes - proper carols will be sung by DFS on the cold streets of Weymouth, and barely a ballad left on the play list! There were 15 songs on the sheet, and we whittled these down to 8. Or 9. If you want a reminder I cleverly used my mobile phone to record and have this list ...

Silent night
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer
Jingle Bells - with more lyrics than I ever knew!
Good King Wensleydale
Calypso Carol
Deck the Halls - changed to DING DONG
White Christmas
Merry Christmas everybody ...

....and not necessarily in that order. That was the spell checker that slipped the cheese in by the way, we have got the one with cranberries to be extra festive.

Penny, our new shining star came along with her Choir recording all edited, and we discussed prices, numbers of tracks and CD cases that don't crack. Then before it was time to go home we listened to You Raise Me Up, and I went home to drink beer as I had been married for 5 years to the day!

Next week's practice goes on at the same time as All Saints' School's Christmas market in the hall, so we will be carolling in the gym but open to visitors popping in and out. Please smile and wear tinsel in strategic places. And don't be naughty. Much. XXXXXX

18 November 2010

Brown Girl in the Ring ....

I love listening to Wey-Hey-Bay WI choir before we all get to sit down. They sound quite good these days, even of down in numbers, and much more grown up than DFS... But after they have finished we pile into our seats, and rattle thru a warm up before Ed gets up and announces a surprise. Which is singing Christmassy songs.

So we all should out the name of songs we like, apart from me, and come up with a list of 25 songs, paired down with voting and groaning to a humble 9. I liked watching Dave type then out on the screen, it reminded me of the Match-of-the-Day teleprinter, only much more exciting.

Then we sang our way through some of the songs, many of them in too high a key, and at the end Ed hinted that although this list had been very democratically chosen, it might change when we saw it again the next week.

But there was an awesome super duper surprise this week, when right at the end the lovely person I had seen wielding equipment at our concert appeared with a nice shiny disk, and after Michael and especially Dave twiddled lots of things on the mixing desk, the beautiful sound of a well-rehearsed, happy, and rather good community choir rang from the speakers and made many a hair stand up on end! So now, the burning question would be, we can we have one? Me Mam would love it!

So proud of you Dorset for Singing, Traa-la-la-la-lah! XXXXXXX