What do you get when you mix four ladies in red from Wales with an indeterminate number of blokes in black from darkest North, North Wiltshire?
A crackingly good show for one thing and plenty of innuendo laden jokes for another. Either way it marks a huge landmark for our gallant fellows with our first international adventure as we venture across the Severn Crossing towards the land of our fathers and source of much of our set material.
We shall be joining forces with the lovely ladies of A Fanfare of Strumpets at the rather lovely looking Chapter Arts Centre in the heart of the capital of Wales, Cardiff no less.
Apparently there are still a few tickets left so prize yourself away from your sofa for the evening and award yourself a top night out with a bunch of blokes and ladies, and possibly a large meal afterwards at the Happy Gathering Chinese Cuisine in Cardiff Canton.
Find out more the Arts Centre website http://www.chapter.org/
and more about the ladies from www.fanfareofstrumpets.co.uk/
Mirror, Mirror on the wall..., and the ceiling and other places + some very talented vocal acts + us lot = Bath Fringe Festival & Spiegeltent and a very unusual Tuesday night out.
We love to perform in "sonically interesting" spaces, such as the Sapperton Tunnel, The Market Square in Chippenham, Woodchester Mansions and some more coming with this year's BlokeFest, and this Tuesday 27th May should be a "visually interesting" location as we venture forth into a "Spiegeltent" as part of the Bath Fringe Festival.
We will be joining in with an eclectic collection of vocal act, ranging from
The Bellefleurs "with their tight harmonies and tight corsets"
Sassparella - "an all female community choir specialising in sassy feel good songs"
Zbella - "a vocal quartet who perform an eclectic mix of material with style and expertise"
Original Sing "an eleven-piece vocal group singing songs of the heart with passion, complexity and depth"
Song Club Weston Village - "a mixed voice community choir brings zest and harmony to rock ballads, dance hits, pop songs and jazz classics"
The Croutons - we know how good this lot are!
More info at http://www.bathfringe.co.uk/shows/sing
With the BlokeFest Cabaret looming and several gigs ahead that are
crying out for some "Afters" singing in pubs, what better than to nip
along to The White Hart Back Room this Friday 23rd May to brush up on a
few songs, old and new.
The current plan is we will aim to start around 20:30hrs onwards and see how it goes along these lines
- Assembly. Gathering and exchange of anecdotes. Procurement of Ale (other Lubricants are available)
- offers of contributions from the floor
Part 1:
- She died she did - Round - Alan
- North North Wiltshire - Neil, Ade
- Ashton Angler - first outing - Gary (with / without Guitar)
Replenishing of Glasses.
Part 2:
- 10000 Miles - WORKSHOP - Alan, John and Gary
- WW1 Medley / Fugue.. - Alan, John and Gary
- Now you know - Gary
Open
to all who would like the excuse to go down the pub and sing a bit, so
bring along WAGs & FoBaFoBs (Friends of Blokes and Family of
Blokes).
So be there, and be at the continuation of something possibly, er, Magnificent.
Performing at our second festival in just over a week, we are very pleased to be asked back for a third year by the organizers of one of the biggest Folk Festivals around these parts, Chippenham Folk Festival.
And we have a real treat in store for them (and some of us!) with not only a show by the blokes, but a workshop being run by our belovéd ChoirMeister, Mr Chris Samuel.
Entitled "Sing Like a Wiltshire Bloke" it is a twist on a well known format with added Magnificents . . . provided they can get up that early on a Saturday and make it down South!
The session is at 10:00 - 11:30 for "Sing Like a Wiltshire Bloke", in the very cute Yelde Hall and is event number 214. The blurb has it "The Magnificent AK47. Men doing what they do best – standing around singing beautiful songs about concrete and power tools. Come and find your inner man – even if you are not one!"
Our show is at around 15:15 as part of Event 320 which is billed as "Arena Displays 14:30 – 16:45 Big Top featuring: Joan Holloway and Andy Stafford introduce Tappalachian, Yately Morris Men, Hawksword, The Magnificent AK47, Morena Slovak Dance Company, Dorset Buttons Rapper, Winchester Morris Men and Crooked Moon."
We hope to see you there. Full program at http://www.chippfolk.co.uk/pdf/festival-programme/chippfolk2014-programme.pdf.
CELEBRATE THE HUMAN VOICE !
with The Royal Mail Choir and little old "us" at the Thornbury Arts Festival.
We will be doing our second performance with the posties from Brissle having locked metaphorical choral horns together the other year at the Bristol Festival of Song, and the blokes are all very much looking forward to rising to the challenge and getting back in the musical saddle after what seems like an age.
The fact that it is less than a month since we last performed to serenade our visiting Swedish Choir friends is perhaps an indication of how much the Magnificents have come on in recent times. Previously we were lucky to get together once every 6 weeks. Now we will be performing four times in the one month!
May is "traditionally" (well the last 3 years at any rate) a very busy period for us as we manage to take up the kind offers for gigs at festivals and the like. We are very much looking forward to many other outings this merrie month and hope you might be able to join us along the way.
More info and last minute tickets from http://www.thornburyartsfestival.com/ and more news later.
