Back to the Bond Age – Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus
Saturday, May 2, 2015
St Bartholomew’s Church, Brighton
THERE’S much competition within the city on the first weekend of Brighton Festival, but it was a full house at St Bartholomew’s church for the second night of Back to the Bond Age performed by the Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus.
The James Bond theme was carried through the evening with songs and links performed by the choir along with other favourites.
It has to be said that the acoustics in St Bart’s must have been very difficult to work with, balancing choir, accompaniment and echo. From my seat in the third row, it was at times difficult to hear the lyrics, but when the choir were able to let rip, the sound filled the cavernous nave beautifully.
The first half visited some of the choir’s favourites along with an enthusiastic solo by Jon Taylor of Jacky and Pablo Cazorla’s powerful rendition of For Your Eyes Only. Climb Ev’ry Mountain was simply stunning, the harmonies were spot-on and sound rich, demonstrated again in The Impossible Dream.
The second half started with another song using powerful harmonies. Sweet Talking Guy filled the church once again, followed by a new song for the choir, Uptown Funk. This lively number was fun to hear and watch, I will look forward to hearing it again as confidence of the choir with it grows.
Nobody Does It Better lived up to its title followed by a strong solo by Andy Williams of All The Time In The World.
Polished performances of Here You Come Again and Wrecking Ball were followed by a very enjoyable medley of Bond themes with an encore of Enough Is Enough.
It was announced at the beginning of the performance that “The camp must be retained at all costs”, a promise that was upheld throughout. The sketches between some of the songs performed by choir members were fun, though particular mention must go to the excellent portrayal of Dr Maybe by John Buckeridge.
Everybody performed with enthusiasm and all of the members should be proud of such a professional production.
Collections were made on Friday for the Friends of Hurstwood Park Hospital, and on Saturday night for Peer Action.
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