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

 

19 June 2025

No Ukelele’s this week, but the words of a brand new song ARMS OF MARY were waiting at the back. Jenny had to save the day so everyone would have lyrics. 

28 June 2pm - ukelele group playing in town. Wear clothes. Flash mob will commence with nonchalantly Ed. Afterwards at Nautico Lounge. 

10 July - ringstead cafe choir social. Karaoke and more. 6pm. 

9 August - abba singalong workshop. 10am to 4pm. Luncheon and drinks in the church centre with a concert live on Facebook. Whooo. £25 and fancy dress optional. 

3rd July is our last rehearsal together so we might have a bit of fun because there will be no more concerts. 

We warmed up. 

First, the flashmob song ALL ABOUT YOU during which some people forgot and came in with Ed. Oops. 

Straight on to SIT DOWN, again with Ed at the piano. We worked on the ending in support of stage right who were thin on the ground. 

BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP burst forth from our mouths and we tried to impress Ed with the strong start he was looking for. He was impressed. 

Four chords in and HELP was belted out. But not quite loudly so we tried that again. 

Next with the backing track, we sang DON’T SLEEP IN THE SUBWAY. Ed said, we may be close to having reached perfection, so I wrote that down quick. 

Joy as we sang WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM and completed our six song set for the flashmob. Hehe. 

Our new song ARMS OF MARY has been done by a few folk. We listened to it.

HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN we sang along with the backing track. Not bad.

Another look at WHO BELIEVES IN ANGELS … Ed said no one but three people had done their homework. 

Our final song we sang along with Abba, some stood and chatted as Ed started the song I LET THE MUSIC SPEAK. 

Stay awesome DFS, see you soon! Cat xxx 

12 June 2025

For the second Thursday in a row, we gathered with the ukeleles at the front. Ed slipped behind the piano and welcomed everyone, complementing stage left on their numbers. 

We DUM-DUM-DIDDLED.

Flash mob is … oh I can’t tell you. It will spoil the surprise. End of summer party is 10 July singing on the beach at Ringstead. While I was adding that Ed read out the running order for the secret flashmob and managed to miss it. Frantic copying in the front row so anyone can look on the blog later and order their folders. 

ALL ABOUT YOU 

Don’t sing until Ed’s sang a little on his own. Then drop your bargains and head for the front. 

Then Ed and the Ukelele man had a secret chat at the front. 

We sang it again after a few pointers. 

SIT DOWN

We sang this as my once-small twins were seeing the real James thanks to some prize tickets. We all put a lot of energy into this one. 

BUTTERCUP BABY

Strong start needed WHAAAAAAAA that sort of thing. 

HELP was Grand and Superb. 

DONT SLEEP IN THE SUBWAY 

As the a ukeleles packed up we sang with our backing track. They tiptoed out as we sang ‘Goodbye means nothing’ which was hilarious. Lovely.

WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM raised the temperature in the hall. 

I LET THE MUSIC SPEAK made me laugh. It’s the bit about the blind man. Sorry. Needs a phantom of the opera theatrical laugh I think. After a run through with tbe backing track Ed slipped onto his piano stool for some note bashing. 

New song next, WHO BELIEVES IN ANGELS? We listened carefully. 

Super and amazing DFS, lots of love, Cat xx 

5 June 2025

We shuffled and grabbed fresh words (two new songs) and sat facing the Ukelele players as they tuned up. 

We warmed up and didn’t feel embarrassed at all. Two practices until our grand flashmob. Eeee some of them joined in! We invited them to play as we sang happy birthday to Sandra. 

ALL ABOUT YOU is going to kick off the flashmob outside HSBC. Choir starts singing on ‘Then you whispered…” allowing Ed to kick off the flashmob. It was declared concert ready. 

Next SIT DOWN by James. Pretty good. Moving on…

HELP went down well at quite a lick. We sang that one twice to make sure it was all right and tight. 

Our final joint song was BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP. Remember to leave out the key change and no times 2 at the end, just do that once. 

We repeated ALL ABOUT YOU just to help out Dave. As the Ukelele players packed up and left we listened to I LET THE MUSIC SPEAK, then when they had departed blown away by our collective talents Ed slipped behind the piano. 

Inspired by recent weather HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN. 

Song voting time for two songs to sing outside HSBC while the Ukeleles have a break. We chose DONT SLEEP IN THE SUBWAY and WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM and we will perform those with our backing track. We stood to sing a final song … 

Wow, well done DFS keep singing and go play that ABBA song loud xxx 

15 May 2025

A fun delay tonight when we realised someone had ended their Pilates session by popping the bag containing our til and lyrics sheets into a car to Preston. We chatted about our weeks while we waited for its return. 

Here’s our running order for a week on Sunday - 25th May 11.20. Outside brewers quay, definitely not Brewery square! 

DONT SLEEP IN THE SUBWAY

We stood to sing, satisfied we had done our very best this evening! 

SIT DOWN 

Beautiful said Ed. Can you tell this in reverse order. 

ALL ABOUT YOU 

Mind the overlaps! 

WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM

We had begun a game of ‘count the repeats in the ending’ during the last song. Much hilarious was had in the room. Eight times. 

BLACK VELVET

3 times 2 If you pleases at the end. We sang again from the second chorus without helping guides. 

ALONE 

We sang along with the vocal guide. It starts light with relaxed phrasing, slips into some agitation and then goes for it. Bob offered to sing the ‘Bodyforn’ solo. 

HELP 

Sang after happy birthday and with the guide vocal. There’s a funny little note at the end there. Slightly discordant and slightly sweet. We sang the beginning again trying not sound sluggish. 

(Pretend end of concert)

BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP 

That little key change is still a little tricky. We practiced that. 

Then choir sang Happy Birthday to Cat and Audrey. Yippeeee. 

And the plan for tonight was to tackle them in reverse order, so we did. Perhaps next week we will sing them in the right order, but the week after you can sing what you like in the bath or something because it’s half term. 

Such fun. See you next week, for dress rehearsal. Concert perfect x 

8 May 2025

We had to new songs to meet tonight, HELP and ALONE so we jumped into a warm up quick. We sang scales to Aaaah and AMEN. 

With all our folders open at ALONE Ed fired up the App and the noise machine. There are a few pauses to be aware of, something called and obit and a bit from the old Bodyform advert. 

We all made like divas without the backing vocals and we were all happy. 

The ukelele guys want to perform HELP with us so we sang that one, but in a higher key because ukelele. There seemed to be rather too many words and it was rather high. The smurfs on the backing track were testament to that. 

We tackled the backing track in detail too and it started to sound really, very, amazing! 

DON’T SLEEP IN THE SUBWAY was sung next, once through before Ed found the light switch, told us to mind the gap, give him a big fat nothing, and sing a lovely 7-note oooh. 

SIT DOWN requires some serious parts-singing. Don’t forgot to hold on to those notes. We sang it with the backing then without. Just Ed clapping. 

He didn’t pretend to get things wrong, like last week. 

Next ALL ABOUT YOU sounded quite lovely. Everyone was happy. 

My favourite next WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM. We can all be divas in this one too. 

Some BLACK VELVET was squeezed in before BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP whooooo! 

Awesome DFS. Proper good. See you next week. 

1 May 2025

Good Evening and welcome to a summery summer choir practice… 

We warmed up, gently at first, promised Ed. We la-la-la etc. but then we had to do some shouting. That is how loud we can be. Nice. All are vocal folds are aligned. 

We started with DON’T SLEEP IN THE SUBWAY, then after had a listen to the backing track to see where all the extra OOOOOs need to go. Some of them are very complex. Any questions? 

SIT DOWN, said Ed, but we already were. So we sang along with the backing vocals, transposed like pinky and perky. We also sang a capela and broke down the overlaps in the bridge. Super. 

ALL ABOUT YOU of course. You are the choir, after all. Ed said we were magical. 

WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM. Love this one. A lot. We contemplated free falling in the ending. 

BLACK VELVET also has random ooooooohs and aaaaaahs. We will need to check out the melody and harmonies next time, but we touched on the chorus. 

BUILD ME UP BITTERCUP was our finale. 

Super, smashing, brilliant. Go home satisfied, and see you next week x 

24 April 2025

Welcome to a brand new term, with new songs and new old songs. Thank you to all who came to the singing workshop and to Jenny for doing the lovely cooking. 

Same old warm up though, and we needed a good one to tackle six songs. Our next appearance is on the 25th May and we need some for that. 

We began with DONT SLEEP IN THE SUBWAY which Ed unearthed while looking for this terms songs, and he played it using his brand new tech gear.  It has us accidentally us singing like snurfs. Hilarious. Take care singing ‘pouring rain’ and mind the gaps .. Ed has added two dots in the relevant places. 

After 2 goes ‘Petula’ was muted and we sang with Ed and his red pen baton .. 

SIT DOWN said Ed sternly, and we sang along, wondering if Ed would decide to pitch it a little higher. He did. Not hard T in sit. Ed spilt the room into brackets and hinges. Sorry, no brackets. We worked on that and it started to come together. 

The room was divided again for ALL ABOUT YOU and we sang it with the guide vocal, and then once through without. 

A fresh, new-to-choir song WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM. 

Referencing Elvis we sang BLACK VELVET. 

Finally, we leapt to our feet to BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP! 

Whoop, well done, see you next week DFS XXX