Joining us for Men United are... The Raff Pack

The Raff Pack formed in 2016 as the blokey spin-off to Riff Raff, a Bristol-based pop and rock community choir. They sing in venues all over the city, and are easily spotted by their bright orange, red and pink shirts and miscellaneous hats. They mostly sing pop and rock music a capella, though have been known to do sea shanties and the occasional jazz crooner.

They are lead by Doug V. Watt, a conductor, singer and arranger from Bristol.  He is Co-Founder of the Bristol Show Choir, Musical Director for the Posset Singers of Portishead, Conductor for Blackbird Early Years Music Choir, and runs Penny Brohn Community Choir.  As well as conducting, he can be seen as one of the Roaring Trowmen, a Bristol-based Sea Shanty group, and as a Tenor in barbershop quartet ‘Frumenti’.

Doug was also made a great impression at his debut appearance at BlokeFest 2018 where he lead one of the workshops and walked away as the very deserved winner of the "Tonsorial Titan Challenge" (o.k.a the Best Beard competition).

In case you haven't alreadly, hear more about what is shaping up to be an awesome event of singing in lower registers in this helpful video.

Men United on BBC Radio Bristol

Geoff S and Neil B flanking Ali Vowles after their fun time on BBC Radio Bristol this morning.  

Listen to the interview.

And in case you haven't already, hear more about what is shaping up to be an awesome event of singing in lower registers in this helpful video.

Saturday Breakfast with Ali Vowles

By the time you read this, two of our intrepid blokes will be just about to go on the wireless on BBC Radio Bristol's Saturday Breakfast Show with one Ali Vowles.

She's a brave lady taking on interviewing these blokes so early on a Saturday morning... let's just hope they will be awake enough after their early start venturing down from Ashton Keynes way!

Tune in at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06kvpgv or you could even use your radio for you techno-laggards!

BBC Music Day - Get Singing!

A great idea from the BBC to celebrate the power of music and the amazing role it plays in our lives, BBC Music Day.

Lots to look at and be inspired, talking of which, why not be inspired to come to our Workshop on Saturday 6th as part of our Magnificent MASSIVE Man-Sing for Men United to raise a voice and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK at St George's Hall in Bristol.  Get your tickets here.  It's open to ALL singers of ALL types who enjoy singing in lower registers.

Hear more about what is shaping up to be an awesome event of singing in lower registers in this helpful video.

Joining us for Men United are... The Gasmen Collective

Formed from a bunch of guys involved with Bristol's highly influential Gasworks Choir, the Gasmen Collective have only been in existence for just around a year now but have already built up a strong reputation for the quality of their singing and depth of their repertoire.

But how did they come about.....?

One evening in 2017, Jess Broderick, top graduate from Sir Paul McCartney’s ‘Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts’ LIPA, co-founder and director of Bristol Show Choir and Gasworks Choir and all round musical star, was getting a lift home after a practice with a couple of Gasworks Choir singers.  The guys popped a question that had been kicking around for a while, would Jess take on the job of Musical Director for a new, larger version of a Bristol men’s group that had been singing for some years but had recently called it a day: The Gasmen?  Stunned briefly, Jess chewed it over for a day or two then, happily for all concerned, said: ‘Yes!’ 

Talks about talks were convened. Songs performed in living rooms. Ideas explored. And after a recruitment drive, the newly enlarged Gasmen Collective finally came together at the start of 2018. Its mission: to have fun performing an eclectic acappella mix at gigs of all shapes and sizes. Jess sources as well as arranges material – and somehow manages to keep this very chatty bunch of middle-aged men in order… 

Follow them at: Facebook.com/TheGasmenCollectiveBristol

And we are delighted to have them on board for our Men United event this coming Saturday 6th October in St George's Hall - tickets still available for both the Workshop and the Gala Concert but starting to disappear from https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/event/men-united/.

Hear more about what is shaping up to be an awesome event of singing in lower registers in this helpful video.

Poster boys of Prostate Cancer UK

As featured on the Prostate Cancer UK facebook page, for all the right reasons, even if we would rather not have to be there because of the trauma one of our blokes has been through, but hopefully we can do our little bit to raise awareness and help others get life saving treatment in time.

See https://www.facebook.com/prostatecanceruk/ for the post but more importantly see https://prostatecanceruk.org to learn what you can to do help prevent further this disease.

One of those things would be to visit our "March 2 Men United" page to learn about how some of our blokes are going that extra mile (40 in fact!) to help and how you could donate.

Unleashing the inner "Window Dresser"

When the call went out at our recent workshop for any experienced "Window Dressers" within the group to reveal their talent and be pressed into action, strangely for once the Blokes were somewhat silent...

On further in-depth analysis of life histories it was discovered that one of the Blokes was married to a lady who had once been employed by a clothing retailer to be a "Show Window Specialist", so this was near enough and the fellow was duly volunteered as Honourary Magnificent WindowDressingMeister, with all the glories of that sort of office.

And what fine results now adorn our village shop raising awareness of our various nefarious activities!

Joining us for Men United are... Bristol's very own Kettle of Fish

We are very excited to let it be known that we are really looking forward to meeting with the chaps from Kettle of Fish, because of their obvious singing prowess and also because they have such fabulous shirts!  Now, we are not saying we don't like performing in our uniform black T-shirts emblazoned with our hearfelt logo on the front and directions for returning any "lost boy" written on the back, but once in a while we like to unleash our "inner fashionista" with a fab-u-lous shirt.

But clearly there is much more to this group than a great line in shirtery, they can also sing rather well and have been very active in the local scene in various guises for quite some time now with numerous escapades including singing in the Corinium Museum in our local town of Cirencester - which has given us an idea for some more Magnificentness...

Find out more about this wonderfully talented group, and see if you can spot one or two connections with The Magnificent AK47 over the years via their very colourful website at https://www.kettle-of-fish.net and hear them in action on their SoundCloud page at https://soundcloud.com/bristolfish.

And you too could be part of what should be an amazing event combining the talents of Kettle of Fish and many others, visit https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/event/men-united/ to get your tickets, or have a quick watch of our promo video, then head to https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/event/men-united/ (hard sell, but we don't want people to miss out!).

One Day One Choir

Sounds like a lovely idea.  Maybe one day...?

More info at http://www.onedayonechoir.org/.

Where do you do it?

When asked, some of our blokes revealed the do it "slowly", "carefully", "eventually", "in the car" and perhaps a little more interestingly, "in bed" or "in the bath".

'Learning their parts', that is...  

Wherever they do it, most do it via quite a bit of tech that most of them have been dragged into the 21st Century by getting SmartPhones and using a thing called "Box".

This is where we keep all our practice material and many recordings for the blokes to revisit their parts and accelerate their learnings.

And good job too, we have at least one brand spanking new piece we are working on, in fact we are working on a second that has been specially written for us, but that's a secret for now so forget we mentioned that.

More Magnificent Men United

It’s just under three weeks to go before our Big Gig and Workshop to celebrate our (first) 10 years of peddling our unique brand of #altmvc Male Voice Choral singing...

And now we would like to invite you to join them on Magnificent Mystery Tour to help us be part of a fantastic community even we are planning with a MASSIVE workshop and Gala performance at the beautiful St George’s Hall, just off Park Street in Bristol.

Our aim is to get as many singers together for a huge workshop in the afternoon where some of the most respected singing leaders in the West will be teaching songs to the assembled throng.

This will be followed by a Gala concert in the evening to include appearances by some leading choirs in Bristol and culminate in a performance by The Magnificent AK47 themselves, topped off by the workshop attendees singing the songs they learnt earlier in the day. You and your friends could be there in the audience or even one of the singers taking part on stage! 

More info on our  website at http://themagnificentak47.com/ or get your ticket now from the St George's Hall Box office at https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/event/men-united/ or you can hear our Belovéd ChoirMeister espousing the virtues of the event in person on this short, but perfectly formed, video clip.

We very much look forward to seeing you there.

Joining us for Men United are... Bristol Man Chorus

Somewhat uncharacteristically un-humbl-y of us, we’d like to think that The Magnificent AK47 and BlokeFest played a not insignificant part in the formation of Bristol Man Chorus…

Back in 2015, Sam Burns, the energetic and inspirational founding force behind Bristol Man Chorus, was invited to lead a workshop at BlokeFest where he taught the stirring “Blood and Gold” in a way that roused the spirits of the assembled throng and gave Sam a taste of how spine-tingling working with just male voices could be.  

He enjoyed the experience so much that he was himself inspired to set up his own Man Group.

And what an inspired move that was!  Since their inception in January 2016 the group has gone from strength to strength.  They have performed at a hugely impressive array of events, in the Colston Hall, the Hippodrome, St Georges, the Old Vic, St Albans, the M-Shed, SS Great Britain, Southmead Hospital & multiple strange outdoor locations including the Portway & Staple Hill Tunnel. 

Their repertoire includes Mighty Male Voice classics from the Land of the Dragon, Georgian laments to make the very stones weep, Vintage Barbershop cheese (tempered with a small pinch of cheek & salt!) and also contemporary works, spirituals, shanties & odes to facial hair of course!

As if that wasn’t enough, Sam also runs the might Gurt Lush, one of the largest and most popular choral groups in the land.

We are so looking forward to the workshop and main evening event to hear these guys in action and mingle with some of our “Brothers in song”.

Find out more about this amazing group via https://www.bristolmanchorus.com/ and their YouTube Channel.

To be part of what should be an amazing event combining the talents of Bristol Man Chorus and many others, visit https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/event/men-united/ to get your tickets, or have a quick watch of our promo video, then head to https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/event/men-united/ (hard sell, but we don't want people to miss out!).

Phenomenal fund raising success

Some might view it as a bit of a dodgy looking exchange of an envelope containing a large amount of cash, but it is all "legit", as a beaming Andy E hands over the monies raised at the Whisky/Whiskey Appreciation evening that he organised a couple of weeks back.

Receiving the donation on behalf of Swindon Prostate Cancer Support Group is our very own Geoff S, who has had a "brush" with the illness and is now quite active in this local group to help other sufferers.

Amazing £500 was raised in the one night from the donations of the evening's attendees, through fees and fines as Judge John G presided over the assembly and passed his "summary high justice" to extract monies for "heinous crimes" too numerous, humerous or libelous to recollect in public.

A tremendous effort in aid of a good cause that we will be continuing to support with our Big Gig and joint venture with Prostate Cancer UK at our Men United event in St George's Hall, Bristol.  Hear all about it from Chris Samuel, our belovéd ChoirMeister in our promo video.

Promo video for Men United

We have a nifty little video to help let people know about our Big Gig celebrating 10 years of Magnificentness and raising awareness and funds for Prostate Cancer UK at St George's Hall in Bristol on Saturday 6th October.

 

We hope you like it and just to emphasise the Workshop AND Show are open to ALL singers & audience of ALL types who enjoy singing in the lower registers.

For more details at http://themagnificentak47.com/ or go straight to https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/event/men-united/.

Rocking the world with a Choir

Interesting to catch "Rock Choir" being featured heavily on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show this morning and how it came about and has spread like wild fire throughout the land.

We know some of our blokes (re)started their singing their before seeking lower tones of the "poster boys of BlokeSong" and their many mini man-adventures.

Hear some of the show at https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/p06kb579 and come along to our very own event to get people singing, the Magnificent MASSIVE Man-sing in alternative way.

Celebrating World Beard Day Quiz

In honour of World Beard Day, we thought you might like a little, light-hearted quiz to celebrate the fact that according to https://worldbeardday.com/ it is "celebrated annually on an international level with people from every nation and continent gathering together with their beards".

"On World Beard Day, it is customary for the bearded members of a family to relax and partake in no jobs or chores. The beardless members of the family traditionally show their support by waiting on the bearded hand and foot".   Well, most of us can but dream... to be able to grow beards worthy of such adulation...!

And to the quiz...  

Can you spot the Odd Man Out on row 1 and why?

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Which one of the purveyors of these fine beards on Row #2 is "Living the dream"?

Answer revealed in the next exciting instalment.  Or if you can't wait, turn your computer or SmartDevice upside down to reveal the answers.