Unleashing the inner comic strip creator

Little did we realise when someone pushed up his hand at last year's Pow Wow to volunteer him to help with some PR work that we would be unleashing such a talent, but here it is, yet more evidence of the inner bushel covered skills of young Graham C.

Beneath that mild mannered exterior lies a seething cauldron of unrequited artistic frustration just waiting to be released through the medium of song and doing slightly daft things associated with the group and all in the name of being Magnificent.

Remember Roy of the Rovers and those photo stories in your sister's Jackie magazine?  Well they are nothing compared to the Magnificent Adventures of "Bewildered of Ashton and his friends".  

So here it is in all its glory, the very first episode of The Magnificent AK47 cartoon strip.  And hopefully the first of many.

See the blokes in action this Saturday in Malmesbury but you won't if you don't already have your ticket, it's another sell out gig - don't say we didn't warn you!

The Choir and Voices Now snippet

Thank you to the bloke that tipped us off about this snippet from an earlier edition of BBC Radio 3's The Choir that features us from around 0 mins & 31 seconds onward with a mysterious member being interviewed and the interviewer commenting "Delilah sounding very Magnificent".

Tune your browers to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02jrz2s for the snippet and to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnw5 for the regular show.

Malmesbury Gig VERY nearly SOLD OUT

 

We need say no more than try to contact Chris via voxbox@btinternet.com or call +44 (0) 7971 918 862 and sign up to the official gig invite on our Facebook page but it might be too late.

A Magnificent Wolf Hall connection

 

Those avid students of history amongst you will be enthralled to know that a new BBC drama has been gracing the TV screens of this fair land that pays homage to our very own Magnificent history.

Particularly keen students of said Magnificent history will have noted in the first couple of episodes that the sound track has lifted one of our earlier period pieces from, er, one of our earlier periods, for their own nefarious purposes.  

In episodes one and two of Wolf Hall the fine lilt of "Ah Robin" can be heard adding Tudor tunefulness to the production prompting us to rummage through our back catalog to resurrect the piece anew so we can perform it at our upcoming gig in Malmesbury Saturday 28th February with those wonderful acapellistas "The Croutons".

The blokes have asked that the audience be put on standby for the appearance of Tudor Hats, but in turn the blokes have been warned by those allegedly in some sort of responsible capacity within the group that all non-regulation codpieces will be confiscated for the safety of the audience and our reputation.

Trawl through the episodes on the BBC iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gfy02/episodes/guide and we look forward so regaling you with Tudor splendour in ancient Malmesbury very soon - see poster below

 

Bursting into life

 

As even occasional readers will know, we try to do our little bit to extol the virtues of being in a choir and promote the whole medium of song and from time to time someone lets us spout on about it in print.  

We have recently had another short article by one of our resident scribblers in the very beautiful magazine published by those splendid championeers of live music at The Convent.

And whilst we would heartily recommend that you visit their stunning venue to pick up a copy for yourself, if you don't happen to be in the vicinity of South Woodchester, then you can inspect the online version at http://issuu.com/adhocnovember/docs/adhocfeb-mar.online.single and on pages 24 to 25 you can witness the purple prose and photos featuring the blokes in action and expounding the benefits of unleashing your inner minstrel through the medium of song.

 

"50 - - - - of Grey" day

What with this being more or less "Fifty somethings of Grey" Day, (or some simlilar awful pun,) on the title of that well known series of books, it has been deemed necessary to shamelessly pile in and contribute with an entry of our own (no pun intended for the dedicated "double-entendre" spotters out there.

And here it is, on a topic close to our heart, celebrating the Joys of Sheds and other natural activities, it is the very wonderful "Fifty Sheds of Grey".

For much light hearted hilarity you could do much worse than point your browser to their Twitter patch across that there Internet at https://twitter.com/50shedsofgrey.

Enjoy the rest of the day and brace yourselves for Valentine's Day at the weekend...

The blokes are back in action in Malmesbury

Those who would like to see the blokes in action in person after hearing of their exploits on the radio and who live in the Malmesbury area will have their wishes come true this coming Saturday 28th February, show opens at 19:30.

The fellas are back on stage with the very wonderful Croutons for a reprise of the sensational acapella double act that packed out Cirencester's Sundial Theatre a few months back.

Tickets have already been selling very briskly so if you want to ensure you can get along then contact Chris via voxbox@btinternet.com or call +44 (0) 7971 918 862 and sign up to the official gig invite on our Facebook page.

More info in forthcoming posts.  And thanks to our ArtMeister Bill for another cracking poster.

The VERY Magnificent sounding...

As it is not every day that we are name checked on national radio we are sure you will forgive us a little indulgence of basking in the fact for a few more hours and feeling rather excited that we were indeed mentioned BBC Radio 3's The Choir program and described by a very knowledgeable lady as sounding "very magnificent"!

You can hear for yourself if you point your Worldly Wise browsing device (as the young people apparently call it) towards http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b051ccr8 to hear a very full and comprehensive report of the Voices Now preparations that we had the great pleasure to attend the other weekend.

They rather conveniently have little markers indicating the principal sections of the show and you can find the report on the Voices Now preparations from the 2nd marker.  

For those of you who particularly like to get to the point where you hear about your humble singers, then slide towards roundabout 11 mins and 32 seconds and you will hear a mystery voice from a mystery member of our mysterious group declaiming the fact that we are not "The AK47", we "THE Magnificent AK47".  (Cheers Doug!)

And judge for yourself with the rather splendid snippet from Delilah.  More news about Voices Now preparations emerging soon.

Listen to The Choir on BBC3

 

Following on from the excitement of last week's Voices Now pre-event jaunt there should be a mention or two about that day and the evolving event itself on this afternoon's edition of The Choir on the venerable BBC3 presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Those who were there at the event last week may remember Sara as she was wandering around capturing the day on a rather impressive bit of kit and hopefully will make mention of that and some interviews with people on the show the today.

Point your browsers to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b051ccr8 for more info.

Singing Saturday Feb 2015

Truth be told, not many of us are lucky enough to be in a position where our FoBaFoBs (Family of Blokes and Friends of Blokes) and the DIY (WIOY) can spare us for two Saturdays in a row (mis)spent singing, but, if you are one of those lucky ones, then your, er, luck is in again!

Another Singing Saturday is on offer this weekend at yet another top Oxford location, combining the opportunity to learn a couple or more tremendous pieces in the company of other like-minded individuals and in the quieter moments to gawp up at the ceiling and marvel at all the twiddly bits.

Remember, YOLO and the DIY can usually wait so get over to http://www.singingsaturdays.co.uk/ and sign up and SING!

Voices Now & Roundhouse Round up

 

A fantastic mass gathering at The world famous Roundhouse of "15 of the most exciting choirs in the country" and The Magnificent AK47 were there too!

It was all part of the day long preparations for the 2015 Voices Now which you can read all about on our Twitter Feed at https://twitter.com/magnificentak47.

Choirs included our brothers in song, Chaps Choir, the hearty The B.I.G Choir, a fabulous Boyband 60 boys from Rhodes Avenue Primary School who stole everyone's hearts, the very impressive Green Street Blues, our friends from the immense Gurt Lush, the rather good Holst Singers, the excellent Roundhouse Choir, the Sheffield Young Singers who performed a cracking piece, the startling Veda Slovena Bulgarian Choir, who like us have also graced The Convent and many, many more

And  much of this was captured by Sara Mohr-Pietsch from BBC Radio 3's excellent The Choir on Sunday afternoons and a programme we will be featuring a bit more in the future.

You can hear a rather rough recording of the blokes in action to give you a flavour of the event and see loads more on our Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Another Magnificent day out and here's to the main event (if we are invited back...!)