#MagnificentCork - one long week on

Thank you #MagnificentCork #lovechoral #lovecork!

As we struggle to return to our humdrum lives as "modern" 21st Century blokes, we can only look back on a fantastic few days in #MagnificentCork and once again thank EVERYONE who made is possible and so enjoyable, from the organisers, the fellow attendees, the great people of Cork, our Magnificent Tour Team, our Belovéd ChoirMeister and all the wonderful Blokes on Tour who were such good company.

Here are a few pictorial souvenirs to help re-live the moment and prolong the hazy glow of time well spent as we get back to what passes for normality... before hopefully doing it all again some time soon!

Day One - on way, singing at Cork Airport + "tea time" at the bar.

Day Two  - Exploring Cork by day and by night & pondering tactics before performing to 100 school kids!

Day Three - cultural & historical trip to Cobh and refreshing ourselves before another few bits of singing round the place.

Day Four - more culture and history at the Jameson's Distillery and around Cork galleries and museums before closing the first half at the Gala Performance after picking up another award and leading the craic at the Festival closing party.

Day Five - early start after a late night - luckily no photos appear to have been taken...

#MagnificentCork - Day 4 - The best yet

What a day...! Even by our standards, an absolute astoundingly Magnificent Grand Day at the Cork International Choral Festival.

Great weather + some pottering around Cork, some pottering around Jameson's Distillery + singing in an atrium to an attentive audience + winning the P.E.A.C.E. award (Awarded to the choir that best embraces the spirit of the Festival, and fulfils the intentions of the trophy's benefactors, the P.E.A.C.E. Movement) + being asked to sing with all the proper singers at the grand, last night Gala Performance + leading the singing along at the after Festival party.

Phew, we need a bit of a lie down as we attempt adjust to our humdrum 21st century existences and sort out the tour washing.

Thank you to everybody involved who made it such a brilliant weekend in so many, many ways.  It was a Magnificent craic!

#MagnificentCork - Day 3

Another almost unbelievably sunny day in #MagnificentCork sees us sight seeing, absorbing culture, history and geography, and singing on a bandstand.

#MagnificentCork - Day 2

Lots more walking around this lovely city getting our bearings and enjoying the sunshine.  

Midday Concerts to 100 school kids was an interesting experience for both parties.

More stuff to do today, including culture and history and geography.

#MagnificentCork - Day 1

Day 1 in MagnificentCork - arrived, well received and raring to go.

It's a long way to... Cork

A final parting thought before the blokes board their plane to voyage across the seas, that you can follow their adventures at these locations during their long weekend of spreading the good notes of BlokeSong at the Cork International Choral Festival on this map below.

More soon, when we reach the other side...!

Mascots are GO!

It's not just the Blokes that are getting excited, the tour mascots are pretty up for it as well!  Here you can see Big Kevin & Big Bob having their Tour Photos taken looking suitably animated (well, at least Big Bob does...).

So, we wish them safe travels and parting thoughts as the blokes fly across the Irish Sea to represent our small corner of the county.

The singing blokes of Ashton Keynes in North North Wiltshire and beyond

“One of the most exciting choirs in the UK” Matt Swann 2015 Voices Now Festival Director The London Roundhouse

Garlanded with the “Audience Award” at the 2016 City of Derry International Choral Festival

Unlocking the Inner Minstrel by lowering the tone at http://themagnificentak47.com/ since 2008

Delighted to be attending the 2018 Cork International Choral Festival

Blog:  https://themagnificentak47.blogspot.co.uk/
Twitter:  @magnificentak47
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/themagnificentak47
Instragram:  Sorry, but no, we've got to stop being sociable at some point, there's singing to be done!

#MagnificentCork

Brace yourself #MagnificentCork - we're heading your way!

The Magnificent AK47 – appearing at the Cork International Choral Festival 2018

Singing away and blazing a trail around the place at these events

See this Google Map https://goo.gl/q8qAQd

The full Festival Programme can be found at https://issuu.com/corkchoralfest/docs/choral_2018_prog_aw_lr1.

And edited Magnificent highlights of the singing are:

Thursday 19th April

Bristol International Airport

Choral Trail: Cork Airport  14:15

Choral Trail: Costigan’s 19:00

Friday 20th April

Choir Meet & Greet: City Hall 11:00

Friendship Concert: Carrigtwohill Community 13:00

Choral Trail: Shelbourne Bar 19:00

Then, open for invitations and any decent offers…

Saturday 21st April

Guest performance:  National competition for Light, Jazz & Popular Music: City Hall 17:15

Choral Trail: Tequila Jacks 18:00

Festival Club: Clayton Hotel 22:30

Then, who knows where else & till what time….

Sunday 22nd April

Afternoons in the Atrium: Clayton Hotel 14:15

Then, open for invitations and any sensible offers

Monday 23rd April

Singing wherever we have the opportunity and with whatever remaining voices we still have!

Should you find any lost Magnificent bloke, please return to

The Maldron Hotel

John Redmond St, Shandon, Cork, T23 A9TF, Ireland

www.maldronhotelshandoncorkcity.com

+353 21 452 9200

Or simply return him to The White Hart Inn, The High Road, Ashton Keynes, North Wiltshire, England.

We are hoping for "quite a time..."

#MagnificentCork #lovechoral #alt.mvc

Two sleeps till #MagnificentCork - Tour mascots have arrived

With just two official sleeps (might struggle on Wed night with the excitement...!) the Tour Mascots for our voyage to the Cork International Choral Festival have arrived just in the nick of time to somehow be given to two careful guardians to snuggle aboard the flight to Ireland.

But what can they be?  All will be revealed in the days to come when more about the trip is revealed.

Getting ready for our first "proper" international tour

Who would have thought nearly 10 years ago when we first started getting what would become The Magnificent AK47, that we would have been going on tour...?  First of all we had our "Grand Days Out" then our first proper tour was to Cornwall where we were fed within an inch of our trouser capacity and nearly split them laughing during the "Judging Sessions".

Then we somehow managed to get invited to Northern Ireland for a tour to the City of Derry International Choral Festival where we won the "People's Prize" of the award they created just for us, the Audience Award.  A few top memories from that wonderful weekend are above and not all of them involve imbibing in the local liquors, we even do some singing!

Next we returned to Cornwall for another blisteringly good few days, and now, off the back of the Derry visit, we are returning to the isle of Ireland for our first "don't forget your passports" International trip to the Cork International Choral Festival, http://www.corkchoral.ie/.

With this in mind we have booked some extra rehearsal sessions to ensure we are in top form:

Wednesday April 4th SCHOOL HALL BOOKED 19.30 to 21.30   
Monday April 16th  WHITE HART 19:30 to 21:30

More about the Mini-Tour

To say that the blokes are excited about their forthcoming Mini-tour down south is probably pushing English understatement into rather a tight corner and making it look very worried about what happens next (or something like that).

But without labouring the point, the blokes are in red hot form having given what was considered to be "a reasonably decent show" the other night in Wotton-under-Edge.

We even premiered a new song for the very first time (that possibly being the definition of premier), a new masterpiece taking a famous old standard that has had a Magnificent work over and now opines about the virtues of hirsuiteness and general appreciation of the humble bloke - long overdue some might say.

And so to the tour.  We shall be doing things in these places at roughly these times.

Friday 5th 
Fleet Air Arm Museum - lunch time
St John's Church, Totnes with Glorious Chorus

Saturday 6th 
Minions & The Cheesewring - lunch time
Port Isaac & Village Hall

Sunday 7th
Padstow Town + Padstow to Rock Ferry
St Enodoc Church
The Waterfront, Polzeath - late lunch
St Mabyn Inn - from 8pm

Monday 8th
Glastonbury Town & Tor - lunch time

Then toddling back to our humble, humdrum blokey existences all the better for it.

Sensible advice for the Magnificent traveller

The new Magnificent Performance T-Shirts have arrived just in the nick of time for our trip to Derry.  

And they have some very sensible safety notices for any of the blokes who become "lost boys" during their time away from their normal stomping ground.

Let's hope there won't be someone still wearing this if it has to be put in the post!

Blokes Abroad

We are very excited to be only one more sleep away from heading off for our very first overseas trip to represent England at the International Choral Festival in the City of Derry!!

It is quite an honour to effectively be representing our nation in such a prestigious competition and we are hopeful of a "podium finish", but not taking anything for granted as it is a marathon not a sprint but we are up for it and really looking forward to what should be another Magnificent experience.

More info at http://www.codichoral.com/2016-festival/participants/national-competitions.php and beyond.