Tunnel Inn Revisited

Well, there has been an impressive response from many blokes to the call to the brotherhood to return to the Tunnel Inn to sing on this coming Sunday at their Beer & Cider Festival and to help the process we have finally managed to get round to posting some new rehearsal material.

The audio tracks for Delilah and Dry Stone Waller's Song can be found at http://soundcloud.com/thetrulymagnificentak47/sets/tunnel_inn and the regular TMAK47 rehearsal material can be found at http://soundcloud.com/the-magnificent-ak47/sets/currentpracticematerial/

Other examples of BlokeFest audio can be found at http://soundcloud.com/blokefest.

Also available on request (just send us an email) are the Magnificent AK47 Songbook and the relevant BlokeFest pieces.  Please bring your own copy along.  Note that we will make a special exception from our usual stance of "no crib sheets whilst performing, learn the songs properly . . . " so that crib sheets may on this occasion be used for Delilah and Dry Stone Waller's song (but nowt else!).

Please note there may be a last minute Quality Assurance threshold applied to maintain our "reputation" (whatever that is) so don't be too disappointed if the pieces don't quite come together in time and get pulled at the eleventh hour.

Looking forward to seeing quite a crowd there and the weather is due to hold out . . . just!

Singing with Chris Samuel and Daughter

It has been mentioned before but we thought you'd like to be reminded that Chris and Jessica (father & daughter) are running 4 workshops in July, where they will be teaching songs from modern musicals, accompanied by fabulous backing tracks. Both are experienced teachers and all songs will be taught by ear, so no need to read music - the emphasis will be firmly on having a great time.

The nearest workshop to you is probably The Pilgrim Centre, Swindon on Weds 25th July, 7 - 9.30pm, but other dates and locations are on offer. Details are also on their website www.singingwithattitude.com - click on Modern Musicals or just Click here.

Whilst not quite our regular repertoire, a number of AK's have attended similar workshops before and they have been great fun so come highly recommended.

If you'd like to reserve a place, send £10 (cheques to VoxBox) to: 10, St Margaret's Villas, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire BA15 1DU, with an email address if possible and they'll contact you to confirm your booking or just turn up on the night.

Wiltshire Wailers Recordings

More proof, if proof were really necessary, that our merry band of blokes are continuing to sound "almost quite good".  Despite being only half their normal girth because of various other commitments, our valiant AK14 managed to make it to the rather swish Civic Centre and hurriedly convened a pre-performance huddle and quick sing through to warm themselves up suitably for a large, possibly our largest yet, audience in the modern auditorium.

The recordings can be found at http://soundcloud.com/thetrulymagnificentak47/sets/wiltshire-wailers-5th and are quite quiet and have taken a bit of post-production (also known as "fiddling with") to make them louder but listening to them on headphones or a decent stereo (or whatever they are called nowadays) should provide some surprisingly high quality results, just be careful not to have the volume up too loud in Duct Tape Madrigal when the taping starts!

We plan a later post on the kit being used to make these recordings and hope to tweak things for next time as we listen and learn.

A gig report may be forthcoming at some point as well and DVDs of the event are available from Chris Samuel at voxbox@btinternet.com.

What is the collective noun for Blokes?

So, the question has been asked and there have been a number of answers but what do you think?  

Just what is the collective noun for a ..... of Blokes?

This is an interesting question on many levels and we strive to answer the quest.

Some suggestions so far include:

• A Lump (a bit disrespectful? or just plain appropriate?)
• A Shed (along the right lines)
• A Flagon (hail and hearty)
• A "Harmony" (hmmm!)
• A Profundity (like the thinking)
• An Absurdity (apparently this came from a non-bloke, hah)

Let us know, preferably by leaving a comment so you can add to this thread in place.

Post BlokeFest 2012

So, BlokeFest 2012 is over and there are so many great memories, but don't take our word for it, see for yourself on the recently posted photos at Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/blokefest/sets and you can hear for yourself at the equally entertaining http://soundcloud.com/blokefest/sets.


There is more coming and if you have any photos, audio or videos, just let our friends at BlokeFest know via blokefest@gmail.com.