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Douze Points: Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus: Music Review

Brighton Gay Men's Chorus at the Brighthelm Centre
Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus at the Brighthelm Centre

Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus contribution to this years Brighton Fringe was Douze Points!

“Amidst claims that Eurovision has had it’s day, Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus imagine what might happen should Brighton attempt to stage an alternative song contest. What would be the highs and lows, the delights and disasters? Would it be a fabulous folly or a scandalous success?”

The chorus gave three performances of the show, two at the Brighthelm Centre in Queens Road and one as part of Pride at the Fringe at the Sabai Pavilion in the Ladyboys Tent on Victoria Gardens.

 

Brighton Gay Men's Chorus

The two performances were like chalk and cheese.

The Brighthelm concert was quite formal in the surrounding of the main hall at this religious venue while the theatrical setting of the Ladyboys Tent allowed the chorus to let their hair down, relax and deliver a more fun and ultimately musically satisfying performance. The material for both shows was the same but the resulting performances were very different.

Brighton Gay Men's Chorus

Only negative at the Brighthelm Centre concert were the acoustics of the hall, which were quite dead making the choirs job much harder. Voices are very exposed in such an acoustic which ultimately makes a choir sing in rather than out. Consequentially the Brighthelm Concert I attended was very safe and contained. However in the surroundings of the Ladyboys tent the choir opened up, relaxed, let their hair down and had more fun, resulting in a better musical experience for this listener. The production values of the Ladyboys tent with the lighting, the audience seated around tables and very good sound system certainly added to the entertainment value of the show, but more importantly the choir seemed much more comfortable and able to perform in this more theatrical setting.

Douze Points! included a series of standard pop songs linked together with cleverly scripted dialogue links, delivered by different members of the choir. The links were brilliant in concept, content and execution as were the performances that went with them.

Choral highlights for me included Island in the Stream, Rule the World, You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling and a clever James Bond medley which closed the first half of the show. Second half highlights included Dancing Queen, Neil Sedaka’s Solitaire and Manilow’s One Voice which showed the choir off at its very best.

The second half finished with Douze Points, a number specially composed by one of the original Four Poofs and a Piano, and choir member, David Wickenham. It was quite brilliant and highlighted the fun aspects of the evening. It was followed by No More Tears (Enough is Enough) complete with arm waving and camp dancing. I love to watch men of a certain age move their bodies out of time to the music.

Brighton Gay Men's Chorus

Members of the choir were featured as soloists during the show. My favourite performance was Sadao Lieda singing What I did for love. His phrasing was beautiful as was his articulation. He kept it simple which added to the overall charm of the performance. Rod Edmonds sang a lovely version of We’ll gather lilacs. It was controlled and measured and highlighted Rod’s understanding of the subtleties of singing this type of number. David Buttery and Nic Collins’ version of Will you was haunting and reflective while Dean Cowlard and Andy Williams lifted the rafters with their soaring vocals on Rolling in the Deep. They breathed life into this number and brought the audience well on side with them. Adam Betteridge sang a beautiful, soulful version of the Neil Diamond classic Love on the rocks successfully conveying the real feeling and meaning of the lyric of the song.

The Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus have been trained into a very tight, musical force by their musical director Marc Yarrow. He has them trained to the end of his baton. They are a very, very fine singing machine. For my own liking they are short of a couple more first tenors.

I was always taught that when you smile you produce a different sound when singing. The sound the choir produced in the fun surroundings of the Sabai Pavilion was really uplifting and I left the show feel very good.  Assistant musical director and accompanist Tim Nail as always performed his accompanying role beautifully.

The choirs next show Taken from behind (The scenes) is on July 19 & 20.

For more information, CLICK HERE: 

Les chansons instrumentales: part 1: All Saints: Brighton Festival: Review

James

Partly a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Poulenc, partly a study in contrasting musical styles, and wholly a celebration of French music, this series of chamber concerts reunites many of the artists who began their careers in the Festival Lunchtime concerts. Curated by the pianist James Baillieu it was a chance to explore the charm and originality of the French chamber music repertory.

TynanThe Irish soprano Ailish Tynan is noted for the breadth of her repertory, and is a celebrated exponent of French song. Together they open the celebration of Poulenc and Hahn in scintillating style.

James Baillieu playing anything is worth queuing for, when he’s linked up with such a charming and sophisticated soprano as Irish delight Ailish Tynan then we know we are in for a treat and this delightful duet of songs and chamber music from Poulenc and Hahn was just that, a real treat.

Bailiey’s  accompanies like an over attentive lover, all hesitancy and enthusiasm in equal measure unpinning Tynan’s expressive voice with just the right amount of emotional support and tension echoing the sentiment in the lyric and her voice as it glows and rolls around the grand acoustic space of All Saints Church hove.

A well thought out placement of the stage ensued the sound quality was perfect and with the huge stained glass as a back drop this was as easy on the eye as on the ear.

Baillieu took turns with Tynan to talk about the songs and music and also a little about the men behind these lovely soft romantic and fun pieces. It was nice to see young Mr James so chatty and secure as I’ve seen him a few times and he’s always been quiet, he’s becoming as accomplished on stage as he is on the keyboard, the delightfully witty and understated Ms Tynan lit the place up and teased out some depth with the warm clarity of her voice to the Hahn piece that their apparent frivolous nature might have hidden. She simply has great diction and is superb.  They were also obviously having a great deal of fun this evening and that shone through in this warm and witty performance.

 The third part of this recital is tonight at All Saints, you may still be able to buy returns or tickets on the door and I would recommend it

All Saints Church

The Drive

Hove

For more info on this concert see the festival websites here and this evenings concert here:

 

Les chansons instrumentales: part 1

Web 15th May

Ailish Tynan soprano
James Baillieu piano

Poulenc Airs chantés
Trois Poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin
La Courte Paille
Fiançailles pour rire

Hahn Venezia – Chansons en dialecte Venetien
À Chloris
‘En Sourdine’ from Chanson Grises
Fêtes galantes

Bullet Catch: Spiegeltent: Review

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Rob Drummond’s show is more about theatre than magic. He examines free will, destiny and the butterfly effect of small decisions having monumental consequences. The fact that his background is in theatre makes me wonder about exactly what kind of show it actually is. Drummond tells through contemporary documents the story of William Henderson who died 100 years ago performing the Bullet Catch illusion. But only after getting home and googling it becomes clear that Henderson never existed. And a reference to stooges in the documents makes me skeptical about someone from the audience chosen to spend practically the entire show on stage.

Drummond himself has a great stage presence; unlike say Derren Brown his persona is more, well, loveable. He certainly projects control over events, but it’s done with a lightness and compassion missing from other more famous illusionists.

The bullet catch illusion is a bit of an anti-climax. Which is perhaps due to the nature of the trick itself: it really consists of a loud bang as a gun is fired, then the magician shows us a bullet that he’s just ‘caught’ between his teeth. And it’s never explained how marking the bullet with a dash of red ink before the trick ensures it’s the same bullet used throughout – it really wouldn’t take much to mark another bullet beforehand and simply pop that in your mouth. So Bullet Catch is either a lovely bite-size piece of theatre or a slightly disappointing magic show.

Continues at the Spiegeltent, Old Steine, until Sunday 19.

For more details and tickets click here. 

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