24 September 2026

 Welcome to … our 19th year! With a patched up Ed (was poorly during the ABBA trip) and an eager choir we listened to possible fun things to do this year. Charity nominations will be welcomed next week, so bring your suggestions… 

We sang happy birthday to DFS, Annie and Jenny with the most memorable harmonies everrrrr … then warmed up! Just a quick one before diving into our songs beginning with COME WHAT MAY. Massive intro … 

We had a sing through with the backing track then Ed sat at the piano to demonstrate the Capriol Suite which might be sung after half term. (Peter Warlock). Listening to that is our homework! 

18 Dec we are due at The Wishing Well and 11 weeks today we shall have a Xmas concert too. 

And ONLY YESTERDAY filled the room, with low voices first, of course. Dear old Karen had I think 4 octaves. We probably have more between us. Ed demonstrated why you really can’t start an octave higher and how we all laughed. 

Ed is a bake off fan … sumptuous! 

We flipped to I’LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER YOU and sang along. We have done this song before, but don’t ask me when! 

Next an old one we have also done but a long time ago, ONLY LOVE by Banana Mouskouri … we sang it again with Ed at the piano. He said it was lovely. 

We turned to SOMETHING STUPID and Ed showed us a harmony part for the female voices in the room to enjoy. We worked on this a Capella for a while before adding in the backing track with a hint of vocal. 

We stood to sing HOPELESSLY DEVOTED TO YOU with all the feels. 

Well done DFS, you have come of age and sang your hearts out. Xxx 

2 July 2026

 The final blog … the end of term. It was time to vote songs IN or OUT of any future line ups …. 

Ed has to mention the C word - we have been asked to sing with the Ukedelics again at the Wyke Christmas much, much later this year! 

A quick warm up was to be followed by GLORY OF LOVE, standing to perform it after getting some top tips and a lot more repetition of the word CHRISTMAS for some reason… 

This song gets the MAYBE vote. 

On the promise of a hot new joke we sang THE RHYTHM OF LIFE. We be had to do some of it sans piano to satisfy our choir master! Then it was sing-it-proper time full speed ahead. I can’t get get used to this but it did live in my brain most of the week. 

Then we had the joke about the duck. Very funny. 

Voted maybe and yes … 

On to TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART. This time Ed threw hand grenades in the instrumental. Joy. But Meridy said the start was flat. Eeewww. We had to do it again and then vote. 

Voted possibly yes! 

So MACARTHUR PARK … marmite park said Ed. 

Voted maybe … optimism on the behalf of Ed me think? Haha. 

And IMMORTALITY. Voted yes …

We stood to perform S.O.S and MAMMA MIA a smashing double finale, and the end to our seventeenth year… well done choir! 

Don’t come back until the 24th of September. I will still love you, Cat xxx 

24 June 2026

 The one were we went to Dorchester…we were given a very warm welcome by the Dorch regulars. 

It’s confirmed that our social 9th July for eating, drinking taking and progressing to singing. It’s at the Sun Ray, Osmington. 

Ed sat in the naughty corner behind the Clavinova and leaned gratefully against the cold church walls before leading us in a warm up. It was more of hot-up really … 

BeeGee voices ready we started with IMMORTALITY after some pointers from Ed. After a sing-through we looked at a few more areas of the song more closely. 

Ed sat himself back behind the keyboard and we sang THE RHYTHM OF LIFE. Hotly. We broke the back of the overlapping part in the middle and pulled apart the layers of the doobi doo section. The third overlapping section proved challenging too, but we nearly know what we are doing. Ed put on the backing track. 

Juggling copies of SOS went DFS and Ed put on the backing track. Lovely, said Ed. 

MACARTHUR PARK filled the speaker and barely moved the hot air around the church. But still we sang, mindful of the fact that we might well be stuck to our chairs like children in the back of a 1970s car in shorts… we sounded quite good. Ed also reccomend we go and listen to the original version, it’s only seven sweet minutes long and has a lovely middle bit not included in our version here. 

ABBA again, MAMMA MIA thumped from the speaker followed by YOU MAKE MY DREAMS and GLORY OF LOVE! 

We stood to perform TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART with added joyful thunder claps thrown in too! 

Well done for coming out, traversing all the eggs frying on the paths and cobbles and coming to sing! Xxx

18 June 2026

 We had two new songs and a choir master with man flu who was too tired to print out enough lyrics. We also had rather reduced numbers of choir members. Perhaps they thought it was next week. Don’t come then, choir is cancelled. Road works again.

After the summer, choir starts on the 24th September 2026. 

We began singing with MAMMA MIA! and flipped the shiny new page to S.O.S … these two have different singing styles. Some choir members remembered and sang the backing tracks. 

Ed wanted to break the back of THE RHYTHM OF LIFE, so he broke it down, breaking the room into many parts. Well three, typically. We did sing it slower to help us poor brains. 

Then on came the backing track and the speed. Oh my golly gosh! Breathing is surely optional at this point. 

Ed went to find batteries for his mic while we sang along and listened to IMMORTALITY. Lesley conducted. Then Ed sat at the piano and we sang it together. Lovely. 

Cake next or rather MACARTHUR PARK with the backing track, and no vocals.

Ed reminded us of our parts and we sang TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART. 

GLORY OF LOVE saw us relaxing into that 80s power ballad vibe and then we finished by singing MAMMA MIA and we stood to perform. 

Super singing DFS see you in two weeks back here or perhaps in Dorchester if you fancy it xxx 

PS DONT COME ON THURSDAY NEXT WEEK… 

11 June 2026

 Cold choir members gathered to sing once again. Summer starts soon apparently. Ed warned us that in 2 weeks time spa road will be closed again so we will cancel that weeks rehearsal. Next week is fine, the 25th June, no choir at all that week unless you pop to Dorchester! 

I’ll remind you next week. We sang happy birthday to Sonia and Karen in place of a warm up. 

We dug out the lyrics for IMMORTALITY and sang along with Celine Dion … roughly … then Ed slipped behind the keyboard for some thrashing things out. 

Immor - MASSIVE GAP- tality also comes with two harmonies. We did very well with those so we sang with the backing track again. 

Choir all finds YOU MAKE MY DREAMS tricky so we sang along with the lead vocal. Those of us that felt able to. The great big OOOOOWW def took me by surprise. 

Pick a part for THE RHYTHM OF LIFE? Ed said he might split the room but he wasn’t sure yes. We sang along with the recording and tried not to fall out with our neighbours singing different things to us. Eeek. 

It gave me hiccups. 

With Ed at the keys, and playing it a little slower we split the hall in two and then added in the sweet and low Go Go Go part. 

We continued onwards … doobi doobi etc … 

Cool down time now with GLORY OF LOVE best power ballad of all time haha. Ed even did his best 80s power ballad impression and we were impressed. 

Cake time now with MACARTHUR PARK which is another challenge. Well it sounded better than last week. 

We finished with TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART and stood to perform. Well done everyone - have a nice rest everyone! 

Xxx 

4 June 2026

 Welcome back after half term, and good evening. We had six ‘new’ songs including some we have sampled before. 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cuq6XRtaa/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Feedback was that everyone melted at Fayre in the very HOT Square. 

Our social is 9th July, venue tbc. Save the date. 

We sang happy birthday to Sandra then warmed up. 

Our first song tonight IMMORTALITY beautifully sung by Celine Dion, we we listened. Then Ed slipped behind the piano to break it down and see how much we knew. Concert ready. Haha we sang with the backing track. 

THE RHYTHM OF LIFE lead to Ed handing out dots ready to go. He pleased play on the backing track and it’s faster than you think it will be! The soprano parts are in brackets and low voices are BOLD and there are also …. Odd parts! 

Ed sat at the piano with the promise we could do it slower. Phew. 

It was going very well until he got very excited and sped up again! Meridy and Bob said it sounded better than last night, but we can blame Ed for the dodgy lyrics. 

GLORY OF LOVE by Peter thingy we sang along with the backing track. Concert ready. 

Backing track blasted out MACARTHUR PARK which I didn’t know was the cake-out-in-the-rain song. 

Still jumping around we sang along with YOU MAKE MY DREAMS 

21 May 2026

Don’t come next week. It’s half term. But do turn up on Saturday at 11am, even though we don’t all fit on the stage to this day.

We also pondered a return to the Ringstead cafe to hurt everybody’s ears with our karaoke. Again. As an end of term treat. 

What followed were warmups and exercises in singing loudly in preparation for Saturday… Then we sang our songs in running order for that very same event. 

We shouted HI at the wall … yes that one! Then we made big loud sounds, found a convergent note and played sirens before LAY ALL YOUR LOVE ON ME. 

Articulate! Ed gave us an alternative to those hi notes end-of-lines. 

UNDER THE BOARDWALK needs us to follow Ed and not just forget to come in. Dancing or being seagulls is optional. 

It will be what it will be. IT’S NOT UNUSUAL. We did three endings, you know, just to be happy. We need to be happy.

I ONLY WANT TO BE WITH YOU needs a HUGE energy input. 100pc in it. 

Now give 110pc to THE LOGICAL SONG …

VIVA LA VIDA requires rhythm. We attempted a second time with no music. Fun. We went over the ending quote. 

Big big big energy so we might ask the audience to help sing FREEDOM. Lots of fast do do doooooos

PHEW. I’ve definitely peeked, in life. Or was it peaked? 

But we just had time for TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS. We stood to perform. 

Well done and as far as Saturday goes, be there or be square. Haha. Gettit? Xxx

7 May 2026

 Tonight the blog was playing up and ate itself while I was trying to tell people how to find the aforementioned blog. Two people had asked me so I I thought it was time for a reshare. Then I scrambled to save some text and reload the blogger dashboard. 

Ed reminded us that our concert was looming, and that there were about 4 tickets left for the MAMA MIA trip so grab them if you want them. 

We will be singing at 11am on 23rd May at Brewers. Not the paint shop. The Fayre in the square. 

We had a notice from Jenny about some fundraising for this year’s charity, Chesil Sailability. On 15 May 10 - 3 they will be at ASDA with collection buckets and a lovely raffle. Good quality gifts would be appreciated. 

After our warm up we started with LAY ALL YOUR LOVE ON ME. No sliding until Ed does that things with his hands. He demonstrated the harmony parts again.

UNDER THE BOARDWALK started a tad falteringly that Ed restated the backing track with the vocal for a bit of revision. It’s also quite low for a lot of choir members to sing loud, being ladies who sing higher! 

Batteries clattered to the group and Ed lept behind the piano for VIVA LA VIDA. One glaring error of a syncopation kind had to be rectified. And so it was. Then it was time to sing with the backing track. 

Before singing IT’S NOT UNUSUAL we sung along to the ending, with the backing track slowed right down. Fun. 

Easy peasy song next, I ONLY WANT TO BE WITH YOU. Lovely lovely said Ed. 

Pristine annunciation required for THE LOGICAL SONG. Sandra wondered where it even ends. We needed one and we created one. Boom. 

FREEDOM …

TAKE ME HOME, COUNTY ROADS was sung with gusto. Digging deep to find the energy tonight! 

Climbing the mountains tonight. Oooooh. And yes lots of OOOH too! Xxx