December 2024 was a very busy time for barbershop singing commitments, probably my busiest barbershop time ever, so much so that I thought I’d write a kind of illustrated diary about it. Perhaps – who knows? – this blog might encourage someone to take up this splendid hobby, so I should add that it’s not usually this busy.
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| Fine City Chorus at Norwich's Railway Station, 21 December. |
This all comes about from singing with Fine City Chorus (FCC), Norwich’s barbershop chorus. Six of the eleven events in December were for the full chorus, three were for my quartet Mustard and two were an octet (or thereabouts) of FCC singers where a venue more naturally takes a smaller group. There were also three routine rehearsals.
1 December was the first, for the full chorus, a joint concert in Gorleston-on-Sea with the G&S Singers. One singer belongs to both groups, which is the connection. The concert also featured an opera singer.
There was the usual FCC rehearsal on 4 December, Wednesday evening, followed on 5 December by the biggest group we sang to, a pre-Christmas event for the Wissey U3A (University of the 3rd Age) at Holme Hale near Swaffham. Here, as usual this time of year, we sang a mixture of Christmas songs and our usual repertoire.
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| 100+ in the audience at Holme Hale U3A. |
The following day, 6 December, Mustard quartet had a return visit to Churchfield Green, retirement housing in Thorpe St Andrew. Mustard’s Christmas songs are the same as FCC’s, but our quartet’s repertoire is very different, including Beach Boys and Beatles songs. ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’ is a favourite opening gambit for both chorus and quartet this time of year and ‘Feliz Navidad’ (click on the link to hear FCC singing it) is another well-received upbeat number.
7 December was the most unusual of the month’s commitments, as the chorus was engaged by a new housing development to provide entertainment at an open day. It poured with rain, hardly anyone came, so we sang three songs for the staff on duty and ourselves then called it a day. Sunday 8 December was a rehearsal day for Mosaic, Norwich’s mixed chorus.
Tuesday afternoon, 10 December, was another U3A group, this time in Wroxham, following their Christmas meal, two slots of about 30 minutes. 11 December was an FCC rehearsal night.
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| Attentive listeners at Wroxham U3A. |
12 December was an after-lunch engagement for the octet, singing to retired police officers and partners at the Old Feathers on the Loddon Road out of Norwich. The connection is one of our members, Brian Pincher, who has a great knack of making any event into a great fundraiser for FCC’s charitable good cause of the year.
Friday 13 December was far from unlucky: it was another small event that an octet also did last year, in a library in Earlham, Norwich. How lovely to see a library busy as a community hub and to have children lying on the floor as they watched us singing. Father Christmas also came along, which may have had something to do with it.
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| Fine City Seven at Earlham Library. |
On Sunday 15 December we took part in a carol concert at St Matthews, close to FCC’s rehearsal ‘home’ in Thorpe Hamlet. This lent itself to singing some of our Christmas carol repertoire such as ‘Silent Night’, ‘Away in a Manger’ and ‘Oh Holy Night’. Here we also did a one-off version of ‘Can You Feel the Love’ (from the Lion King) to showcase how the different singing parts contribute to the sound. It started with leads (the melody line) then added tenors, basses and finally baritones to make the complete four-part harmony sound of barbershop. Then, towards the end, parts dropped out one by one, leaving just the leads singing.
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| Drone footage from St Matthews (not really, there's a balcony). |
On 18 December, a Wednesday evening that would normally be rehearsal night, instead we had accepted an invitation to sing to Wymondham Bridewell Women’s Institute. It was a packed room, a warm reception and some wonderful food.
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| At Wymondham Bridewell WI. |
The Friday evening before Christmas was the date for Mustard quartet’s annual pre-Christmas pub tour. The main aim here, while taking barbershop on the road, is to raise funds for FCC’s charity of the year, this year Norfolk Accident Rescue Service (NARS). Ian, Mustard’s bass, knows a lot of pub landlords and we must give credit to his research and itinerary. This year we had special guests, women’s quartet Splash!, featuring FCC’s Musical Director, Carol Logan. We either took it in turns to sing, or split up and sang in different part of the pubs.
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| Splash! quartet joined Mustard on our tour of Norwich pubs on 21 December. |
Thank you to our hosts and all their friendly customers at The Maids Head Old Catton, The Woodman Pub & Carvery, Old Catton, Duke of Wellington, The Brewery Tap Norwich and finally The Gordon, Thorpe, the last an impromptu addition to the schedule. We find singing in pubs has more pros than cons, and what works varies. There are always people who really appreciate it, and some who say they look forward to our annual visit. Others, inevitably, just want to keep chatting with friends and singing against background noise means picking the right spot makes a difference. People’s generosity is amazing: seeing the notes go into our collection boxes is heart-warming. This year we had a card reader, which helped especially in one pub which is cashless. While Bob from Mustard was busy with the card reader in the The Brewery Tap, we pressed Tom, another FCC lead, into quartet service for a rendition of ‘Deck the Halls’. The pub tour raised £358 for NARS.
Saturday morning, 21 December, was the final event for the full chorus, at Norwich’s railway station (photo above). Singers’ partners helped to hold the charity collection boxes while we sang to those waiting or passing through. This event alone raised £180.
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| Fine City Chorus in informal gear - just our special scarves - at the railway station. |
And finally, Mustard’s third commitment, at a Christmas event at Sprowston Sports and Social Club. We came on to give the brass band a break. The Club’s President kindly sent round a tankard which soon came back full of generous donations to NARS to the tune of £152! This Sunday afternoon sing, on 22 December, was the last of 11 sing-outs, plus three rehearsals – quite a month.
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| Mustard quartet and a usurper at Sprowston, 22 December: left to right Bob, Chris, Adam and Ian. |
How did we do for donations? We raised £2420 for NARS in 2024, including more than £1400 raised in December.
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Anyone reading this who would like to try barbershop singing is welcome to get in touch. For women singers there is our sister chorus Norwich Harmony, who also meet weekly in Thorpe Hamlet, plus our mixed chorus Mosaic who meet about every six weeks.
To
encourage new members to join, Fine City is running a free singing course for
men called ‘Come and Sing’ on five Wednesday evenings in 2025, starting on 22
January. This free course, led by FCC’s musical director Carol Logan, will help
you to discover your voice and enjoy the benefits of singing in harmony with
others. You’ll learn a song from scratch alongside the established singers,
who’ll be singing it for the first time too. No previous musical experience is
necessary. FCC is a friendly, inclusive group, and welcomes new singers.
- Where: Lionwood Infant School, Telegraph Lane East, NR1 4AN
- When: 7.30pm-9.00pm, Weds 22nd Jan - Weds 19th Feb 2025
- To book your free place: e-mail comeandsing@icloud.com or call 01603 759634
More information about Fine City Chorus: www.finecitychorus.org.uk/ and facebook.com/FineCityChorus/
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| Come and Sing, from 22 January 2025. |
Chris Durdin
