Swindon Arts Centre COMPLETELY SOLD OUT

If you wanted to get a ticket for tonight's show in Swindon, TOO LATE,  Swindon Arts Centre is COMPLETELY SOLD OUT.

We will find out tonight if those Swindon girls from the Big City really can dance the polka!

Oh you Swindon girls, can you dance the .... ?

And now, back safe from our cross-border raid into the badlands of Glos and the very warm welcome we received from all at the wonderful Sub Stroud Rooms, we head South to the big city lights of yonder Swindon town, to join forces with the might Swindon Community Choir.

Many of The Magnificent AK47 have very close ties with Swindon CC over many years, and we are not just talking about one or two of our current and past members who are married to some of them!

And many of them have been staunch supporters of our own merry band and we are very much looking forward to joining them all at the very lovely Swindon Arts Centre this coming Friday 22nd - have a look at their website for more details but hurry!  Less than 10 tickets left!  

So, join us if you can and find out the answer to our question of whether Swindon girls can dance the ....

Thank You Sub Rooms

Thank you to everyone who turned out in considerable numbers to support us and partake of a memorable evening at the very lovely Stroud Subscription Rooms.

Hopefully it was not too crowded for everyone as it was a pretty sizeable audience in that venerable old venue - what a history and important part of the town it is!

And thanks also to the ever marvelous and vocally inspiring The Croutons, always a delight to hear what you can do with three voices and a good deal of musical imagination.

Never ones to pass up the opportunity to purchase new hats, it was good to see a new crop of toppers wheeled out for a wonderfully received home town version of Unsung Hero No. 10, the homage to Edwin Beard Budding.

Knowledgeable audiences are on of our specialties,  but the Stroud crowd surpassed all others in their familiarity of the oeuvre of Mr Budding.

So, farewell Stroud and next up Swindon - let's hope they like the chorus of Ashton Keynes Land Shanty and we live to tell the tale.

Big Gig at Stroud Sub Rooms tonight

Last week The Voices Now Festival in the London Roundhouse and appearances on the BBC Radio 3 show The Choir, this week a cross border raid to the badlands of Gloucestershire and the People's Republic of Stroud as we line up and voluntarily sing at the Subscription Rooms with the immensely talented and tuneful The Croutons.

We hope you can join us and at what promises to be a very special "Afters" which we will announce at the gig.  

Book from here and save enough money to nearly buy one of us a pint.

Turnips make cross border raid into Gloucestershire badlands

CartoonMeister has been at it again regarding our cross border raid into Gloucestershire badlands for our gig at Stroud Sub Rooms with The Croutons  - get your tickets from http://www.subscriptionrooms.org.uk/general.asp?pid=12&pgid=972

Unlock your inner minstrel with us at Stroud Sub Rooms

Far be it from us to suggest that this is an old photo with ancient copy and that we have moved on massively since this was all put together, but 'tis true.  

When this pic was snapped around 1/3 of our current crew were not on board and since then we have sung in caves, castles, coaches, clifftops, quaysides, inside Stonehenge, multiple times at The London Roundhouse at the Voices Now Festival and appeared TWICE on National Radio, including being a main feature on BBC Radio 3's The Choir program.  

We also have more songs that speak of the dilemmas facing thoroughly modern men and how we strive to release ourselves by #getmensinging.

Having said all that, 'tis also true, we have been praised by many as "surprisingly good" and hopefully you can see for yourself this coming Saturday as we unleash our Radio 3 approved set along with the infinitely more talented The Croutons this 16 May from 8.00pm at the very wonderful Subscription Rooms in The People's Republic of Stroud.  

Avoid disappointment and save yourself nearly enough money to buy us a pint from their website at http://www.subscriptionrooms.org.uk/general.asp?pid=12&pgid=972.

The Magnificent sound of Voices Now Part 1

One of the great joys of last weekend's Voices Now at the London Roundhouse was the range of material sung by the very different choirs and also the fantastic way that the various groups collaborated.

This led to some great programming for the three nights and one of our very favourite moments was us old lumbering lumps sharing a song with the spritely little chaps from BoyBand.  A great example of how you can #getmensinging even if they aren't quite men yet!

And you can hear a snippet to good effect of this as part of this little medley of Magnificent recordings from the more shanty orientated material we performed at the weekend.

In passing, if you attended the event and would like to leave your feedback the organizers would be pleased to hear from you via https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BP3TRNF.

Re-live some of that fabulous weekend of singing by clicking on the Play button on our Soundcloud.

What did you do at the weekend Daddy?

Daddy, what did you do at the weekend when you were away?

Hmmm, let me think...

I dressed in black

I journeyed far away with my friends

We went to a great round building

And gathered in darkness

Where there was great light and sounds so pure, so high and so deep

We sang together with our compatriots and many new friends

We roared like Mastodons

We droned, we groaned

We sang for the Radio

We posed around town

We sang our hearts out on stage with people a fifth of our age

We shantied, we flirted in front of hundreds

We listened in awe

We drank to a great life

We bathed ladies in sound

We serenaded our fellow singers

And marveled at their singing

We shared magical, memorable moments

We lived the dream

I think I didn't dream it, but I can't be sure ...

Daddy, you are funny

From roundhouses to The Roundhouse in a week

The Magnificent AK47 is an interesting journey of self-discovery through the medium of BlokeSong.

Last week we were in modern replicas of ancient Roundhouses like these . . .

. . . wondering where we were and where we were going (and clearly one or to wondering what on earth we were doing wherever we were) . . .

So, after we had thought for a bit, we decided to Go West! (or rather East) . . 

. . . to visit an ancient Roundhouse that is a modern mecca . . . 

. . . that is THE London Roundhouse where we will be performing over the course of two days at the fabulous Voices Now Festival.

It's all go in this Magnificent little world of ours - hope you can be there too

Voices Now + The Choir on BBC Radio 3

In case you can't make it along to Voices Now this Sunday (and Saturday), and we VERY much hope you can because it will be a great show, you can console yourself with the sound of The Magnificent AK47 on LIVE on The Choir on BBC Radio 3 - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05tpm44

Exciting....

Vote Magnificents

For policies and promises you can't beat.

Whatever you do on the 7th of May, if you can vote, exercise your right to do so, whoever it is for - here endeth the lesson.

Voices (nearly) Now!

Only a few days to go before we are back off to the London Roundhouse for the next parts of our incredible journey that takes us to this year's Voices Now Festival this weekend 9th - 10th May.

On the Saturday we are due to be helping run a workshop from around 4pm with Boy Band and then  performing in the evening SATURDAY SESSIONS with folk legends Sam Lee and Kathryn Tickell as we journey around the folk-routes, by-ways and high-seas of England and Ireland.

Discover your inner pirate and explore traditional music old and new with North London’s very own 60 strong Boyband, plus The Magnificent AK47 (little old us!), the Holst Singers and friends from across the British and Emerald Isles.  

Then on the Sunday we return  to join in with incredible choral sounds from around the world for the final night of Voices Now with SUNDAY WORLD SERVICE.  Taking in music from across Africa, Bulgaria, Georgia, the UK and all points in between as Sam Lee and Kathryn Tickell join some of the country’s most adventurous vocal travellers, including the 300 voices of Bristol’s Gurt Lush. Voices Now is brought to an exciting finish with this world-wide celebration of singing.

Should be a cracking weekend.

Immaculate in the setting sun

And we, will be, MAGNIFICENT