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

27 March 2025

Hello, called Ed, inviting us to work intensively on some of the songs, including HYMN which will be sung in the Dorchester Easter concert. (Next Wednesday 7pm). 

This time next week we start our concert at 7.30pm. Don’t forget your raffle prizes. Wear bright and pastelly colours. Plain tops, no patterns. 

There are a few places left on the workshop on the 16th and it has a cute we performance at the end. Come back on the 24th April for the summer term. 

We warmed up then we started with HYMN. Ed counted us in. We muttered before hand about a little rusty. 

The intro of ONE OF US needs a big blast. We didn’t do too badly actually but we did discover Lesley had had a bad day. 

LOVE LETTERS we sang all the way through with Ed marking the ends of words. 

He sat at the piano for most of ALL MY LOVE then switched to the backing track. 

We got to sing the whole of TIL THERE WAS YOU / HERE COMES THE SUN with the backing track too. 

And I WILL FOLLOW HIM too. 

We had three goes at the intro of YOUNG AT HEART. 

AVE MARIA requires big monster breaths so we sang the whole song and then went through again looking were to take big breaths and snatch small ones. 

FRIDAY IM IN LOVE needs a funky ending that fits but it needs to go up at the end. 

Finally, BANNER-MAN, looking out for timing and huge breaths! 

Wow. Well done, see you next week for the concert xxx

20 March 2025

2 weeks until concerts! No panicking aloud. 5 songs, solos and then 5 more songs. But don’t forget one of them is the encore. 

Please hand raffle prices to the lovely Carol. 

The fresh and lovely running order … 

ONE OF US 

LOVE LETTERS 

ALL MY LOVE 

TIL THERE WAS YOU/ HERE COMES THE SUN

I WILL FOLLOW HIM 

solos and duos 

YOUNG AT HEART 

AVE MARIA (or HYMN for Dorchester)

RUN FOR HOME

FRIDAY I’M IN LOVE

BANNER MAN

we begin at 7.30pm. 

We began without a warm up to sing the first five songs. Had a two minute break, then sang the second half. That took us to 11 minutes past 8 and Ed said we had to tackle some of those songs again but he did let us a one minute break. And we did bits of songs, not all of them. 

We did brilliantly, now go home for a well earned biscuit xxx

13 March 2025

Ed welcomed us all … telling us we had a lot to get through tonight, all our songs! Next week we can look forward to singing our songs in concert order. Concerts at the start of April! 

There were tick forms at the back of the hall for the workshop day too. Grab your early bird tickets as a DFS member before it’s opened up to the public. 

We had a little warm up … 

Then we rang through all the song in this order… 

TIL THERE WAS YOU/ HERE COMES THE SUN 

Sounded lovely but just needs a little lift. 

IT’S FRIDAY I’M IN LOVE 

The ending could be the beginning but to do and da. Or some doo-do-dos of your own invention. Maybe. 

ALL MY LOVE 

Ed sang harmony, and he very much liked our efforts here. Practice in the kitchen is paying off. 

AVE MARIA 

Needs to be smoother. More big breaths. 

YOUNG AT HEART

Coming on beautifully 

ONE OF US 

Lovely 

RUN FOR HOME 

Dramatic

LOVE LETTERS 

This one has a bit of country. A hint of a yodel. 

I WILL FOLLOW HIM 

THE BANNER MAN

And after that we had a treat - getting to sing ALL MY LOVE with Ed at the Piano. 

eeek. Didn’t we do well? X

6th March 2025

Welcome to no roadworks, welcome to Thursday evening. Ukelele Dave is keen for a new flat mob so don’t tell anyone it’s Saturday 28 June, time to be conformed. 

2nd and 3rd April for our Easter concerts, with lollipops and prizes. More details next week about the singing workshop, but it will be running 10 to 4pm. 

One song needs to go tonight, to whittle 9 down to 8. We warmed up with I WILL FOLLOW HIM. Don’t forget to hold those long notes. No passengers allowed. 

Ed slipped out from behind the piano to fire up the backing track and conduct. It went well. 

Next, BANNER-MAN blasted from the speaker and from us too. Breathing is essential for this song, and don’t forget to fully participate in the competition between stage right and stage left. We worked quite hard on this one tonight. Was it concert perfect? 

Then we ‘relaxed’ with LOVE LETTERS as you do. The first record Lesley ever bought.

We dug out copies of TIL THERE WAS YOU/HERE COMES THE SUN and spares were shared. Ed slipped behind the piano forte and sang along too.

ALL MY LOVE was played by Ed too. On the second run through he blasted out the harmony before letting us lose with the sound track. Lovely love. 

Up tempo nest with YOUNG AT HEART. Ed said that were lovely too, and we flipped to AVE MARIA. He was also very pleased with that. We might have to persuade Dorch to try again, or just wow them at the concert! 

Abba to finish, ONE OF US. Yes indeed. Be careful with STUBBORN AND MISCONCEIVING !!!!! 

Fab singing, you have all obviously been practicing in ASDA etc. but that’s not why I love you x