One Day One Choir

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

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

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.

Are you stuck in "Chrimbo Limbo"?

CHRIMBO LIMBO . . .
"The period after Christmas Day and before New Year's Eve, mainly spent sitting down and eating leftovers. Many find it extremely dull."

Ref: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Crimbo%20Limbo

Are you stuck in "Chrimbo Limbo"?  

This is not a new phenomenon but a great name for that special time of the year when all the Yuletide madness has just about subsided and New Year hasn't quite kicked off, you are spent up and wondering what lies ahead in the on-coming twelve months or thinking about all those virtuous things you are 'really going to do this year'.

Well, we have a Crimbo Limbo antidote at hand, get yourself a "Party Piece" or two and GET SINGING WITH OTHERS.  There are plenty of choirs around the place, you only have to look at the mighty impressive list at http://www.choirs.org.uk/ with over 350 listed for starters!

And if you are from round our parts, don't forget the Prince Albert Consort Knees Up this Tuesday 30th December where the massed throng of carol singers of Greater Stroud gather in the evening for their end of season knees up. This is a massive evening of bawdy singing, laughing and drinking of the ale and a bit more singing - more info available at  http://www.theprincealbertstroud.co.uk/event/prince-albert-consort-knees-up.

Whatever you do this year, don't sit on your @rse in limbo, get out and do some singing in time for next Chrimbo!

We can only heartily recommend it as our end of year review will show, re-living some of our many Magnificent Adventures and Magical Man Moments from 2014.

Keep calm and carry on singing

Not that we would want to give the impression that when not writing these little nuggets that are windows into the world of a singing bloke that all we ever do is watch TV, far from it. . . However, as we have been shovelling some sustenance down one's neck on occasion of an evening, the TV has been on and bizarrely there have been a lot about choirs and the therapeutic benefits of singing, especially in groups.

The latest example witnessed was that provided by the redoubtable Ian Hislop who presented his programme on the fascinating topic of the "Stiff Upper Lip".  In the latest episode he makes reference to how those things called emotions were bottled up for so many generations and finally began to be unleashed in the 1950's and increasingly so in the 1960's.  He then went on to discuss the aftermath of the Aberfan tragedy and how camera crews entered the mainstream consciousness by interviewing survivors and relatives of those who did not, and all the emotional impact that had.  Following through on this theme he then interviewed a number of people linked to the Ynsyowen (Aberfan & District) Male Voice choir that was formed after that terrible event.

As one member comments about the choir it "keeps the spirit alive" and Mr Hislop continues to say "The choir is an extraordinary vehicle for both emotional control and emotional release".

The programme can be watched for the next few days via BBC iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nhccs/Ian_Hislops_Stiff_Upper_Lip_An_Emotional_History_of_Britain_Last_Hurrah/ - well worth a viewing for this excerpt and the rest.