2009
The chorus had an excellent coaching session on 1st February with Monica Funnell., LABBS Singing Judge.The end of October sees the Annual LABBS Convention at Cheltenham Racecourse and we are hoping to enter the Chorus Competition this year which will be very exciting as we haven't entered for a few years. We are busy learning 2 new songs for the occasion and are very pleased that Pete Nugent (Baritone in BABS Silver Medallist Quartet, Steel), is also coming along to coach us on a regular basis.
In February most of the Chorus made the trip to London to see "Billy Elliott", what a fantastic show! It was wonderful and a few tears were shed (of course, a show isn't complete without some tears). We followed the show with a meal in Pizza Express, made all the more enjoyable because we had 2 for 1 vouchers for our meal! Many thanks to June for organising the coach, show tickets and meal, you did a great job and we can't wait for next year's trip. Which show is it going to be - Lion King or Wicked?
A small group of the Chorus sang at a St David's Day fundraising event at Trinity Road Church in Barry where they enjoyed home made Cawl and cheese before entertaining the packed hall. Angela our Director, had to sing Tenor with Emma due to an unavoidable shortage of tenors -that was a surprise to her when she arrived! Still everyone enjoyed the night. On 14th March June, Assistant MD, directed the Chorus at a singout in Barry Athletic Club. In addition to Chorus singing, Cath read one of her wonderful poems she had written (she is so clever!) and Emma and Jane (tenors) were congratulated on a great performance. Jane switched to tenor from lead this year. Caroline our other tenor, managed to break her ankle on holiday so she was laid up for a while,
This year's Summer Season started off well in July with a performance at the launch of Cardiff Council's Women's Network at County Hall. This was followed by a performance at Roath Park Open day, not a very nice day weatherwise and that was a theme this summer! After a great afternoon at Barry Island a further event at Barry and one in Penarth were rained off which was a disappointment. Our regular booking at St David's Hall foyer during the Welsh Proms followed and our summer events finished with a spot on the Tesco Stage at the Wales Millenium Centre on 20th September, to finish off Barbershop Awareness Week.
At the beginning of September we were pleased to welcome some prospective new members, Fiona has just become a full member and we are hoping the others will not be far behind and will be able to join us for our Christmas singouts.
The end of October saw us off to Cheltenham Racecourse for the LABBS Convention. We had a great time staying next to the Centaur Building in the Jockey's Dormitory!! What "fun" with the bunks and only one shower between 16 of us! It was the first time in competition for 9 of our ladies and very well done to them. Angela, our Chorus Director, received her 30 year award and June, Myra, Barbara and Margaret sang in the Sunday Show with Coast to Coast so it was a busy time but very enjoyable meeting old friends.
Christmas will soon be upon us and we have more singouts than usual this year so December will be a busy time for the Chorus, Do come and see us if you are around for any of our public performances, we would love to see you there!
2008 started off with the Chorus concentrating on learning new songs and integrating new members into our group.
April saw the chorus coaching off to Bristol Prelims to spectate at the Chorus Competition as we decided not to compete this time. This was a first Labbs event for our newer ladies and they came away inspired. Maybe 2009 will be our turn to compete!
In May the chorus sang at the Congress Theatre, Cwmbran at a charity concert in aid of Leonard Cheshire Homes. It was a first singout for some new members, it's always nerve wracking going into your first public performance and they did a good job. On 31st May Delyth and Dick Knight came to coach the chorus. What an inspiring and interesting day we had. We learnt lots which we are currently putting into practice and can see the difference already. Many thanks to both for your hard work on our behalf. It was great
June - We had a great Skittles night when Cath's fiance, Kevin, had highest score of the night and Norma surprised herself by winning the Killer! The rest of us had to settle for being also rans. Look out next time, we'll be looking for revenge, ha ha! Some members went on a trip to London to see the musical "Hairspray" with Michael Ball who was excellent, in fact the show was excellent. A nice meal was had by all after the Show before making our way home. We are all looking forward to next year's visit hopefully to see "Billy Elliot".
Saturday 12th July saw us driving off into the Vale of Glamorgan to The Red Fox, Penllyn where Jane had booked us in for a meal. Of course we had a good time, singing a song or two after we had finished eating. Fortunately, this was well received by the other diners, some people even came into the restaurant to see who was singing and we did some networking. The following day, afer a week of dreadful weather, the sun shone on us once more for our annual booking to sing on Penarth Sea front and although it was a bit windy on the pier this time, it turned out very hot on the promenade. We were glad to finish!. The chorus also performed again during the Welsh Proms, singing as part of the foyer entertainment at St David's Hall, Cardiff, another annual booking.
Following a quiet August when we had a summer break, we started rehearsing again in earnest in September. A group of members are went to the Wales Millenium Centre to partake of some different culture when they went to see the Welsh National Opera peform "The Barber of Seville". Unfortunately, Angela was late arriving (for a change!) and the staff wouldn't let her in (together with another lady and her daughter who had tickets as a birthday present) until the interval. It was a real hardship drinking and eating in the Bar and watching the performance on the monitor screen!
October saw the chorus celebrating it's 30th Anniversary with a Show at St Faith Church, Llanishen, Cardiff. What a fantastic evening, it was wonderful to see so many past members some after a long time. Our guest performers, a men's quartet from Abergavenny with Martin Flory, Andrew (|Bass of QED) plus friends, were excellent. Mark and Lisa were very versatile with Mark joining the chorus for a different rendition of "The Rose", Barry Shiers was very entertaining as were our Kate and her Jazz trio Helen Wooldridge reminded us of lots of statistics about the chorus over the last 30 years. Many thanks to them and everyone in the chorus who worked so hard to ensure the evening was a great success.
A new booking for us was at the Sunrise Senior Living Complex in Cyncoed, the residents really enjoyed our performance as we did and we were looking forward to hopefully being invited back again. The end of the month saw June, Myra and Margaret off to Harrogate Convention where they were singing in the Sunday Show with "Coast to Coast". Unfortunately the rest of the chorus were not able to go to Harrogate this time but hope to go to the 2009 Convention in Cheltenham.
After revising our Christmas songs we enjoyed singouts for George Thomas, Light Up A Life, St Faith Christmas Tree Festival and a return visit to Sunrise Senior Living. We love going to St Faith Christmas Tree Festival to sing our Christmas songs and carols, and enjoy the lovely atmosphere. We also enjoyed a lovely Christmas meal at "The Bush", St Hilary where, of course we had to serenade other diners. One lady rushed into us from another room to enjoy the singing and it turned out to be Jean who has booked the Chorus on several occasions. We are looking forward to singing for her group again in 2009.
We enjoyed ourselves performing at a concert at St John's Church, Canton in January, and had a private booking in April.
Our Director and Assistant Director attended the annual Fellowship of Directors weekend in Coventry during February, where they learnt lots of new techniques etc from Ase Hagermann , Sweden, the guest educator this time.
An enjoyable Open Evening was held at Sbectrwm on Monday 23rd April with several prospective new members coming along. Four have now become full members.
Summer has been busy with a Singout at St David's Hall during the Welsh Proms, another at Penarth for their summer entertainment. Pity the weather wasn't better but we had a really good time and sang really well. Things improved in September at Cardiff Bay for the Pink A Blue walk for Cancer Research Wales. It was very hot and sunny, only blot on the landscape was that there was Motor Boat and Water Skier racing at the same time in the Bay! Some of the engines were very noisy to say the least, not good competition for singing! Still everyone enjoyed themselves and we were even given medals!!
The Annual LABBS Convention was be held in Bournemouth in the Autumn and the chorus attend ed this year but did not compete this time. Convention is great fun with lots of opportunities to catch up with our friends in other Barbershop Choruses from all over the UK and some of our newer members came along for the first time to see what we all get up to at Convention!
December saw us returning to Llantwit Major again when Kate entertained us with a spot when she played her classical guitar for us. She is so talented, it was great! We then brushed up on some of our Christmas songs ready for St Faith Church, Llanishen for our annual visit to their Christmas Tree Festival. Unfortunately the weather was dreadful (for a change) so they didn't have so many visitors this year which was a shame. Angela, our Director, entered a tree called The Shaker Tree in aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind and raised £27.60 and she has already planned to put in 2 trees next year!! We had a very enjoyable Christmas Dinner at the BP Club in Sully with lovely food, a disco and SNOW!! Well it was from a snow machine anyway but great fun. Unfortunately June, who had kindly organised it for us, was ill and unable to attend after all, many thanks June for your hard work we really appreciated it.
During the year 3 of our members attended the LABBS Foundation Course being held in Leicester where they learnt more about Music, Singing and Presentation. The last LABBS Foundation Course Day was on 25th November when certificates were awarded to Angela Palmer and Joan Pritchard who completed the course.
January 2006 saw the Chorus performing at a private dinner in Sully which was very successful once we managed to find the venue which was "hidden" from view and our Director got lost trying to find it!
5th July 2006 saw us performing on the Tesco Stage at the Wales Millenium Centre, Cardiff which was very exciting for us. We had new red polo shirts especially for the occasion and they really looked good against the backdrop on the stage. What a fantastic place to sing in and the audience were very appreciative. The Chorus were in top form and really enjoyed entertaining a great audience in a wonderful venue. Unfortunately we have been unable to perform at St David's Hall for the pre-Proms entertainment due to holiday commitments but hopefully next year we will be able to do this once more.
In September we sang at a Wedding Reception at the Rhondda Heritage Park Hotel. The weather was dreadful but we had a great time singing whilst the Bride and Bridegroon were greeting their guests and then again later after the meal. On 10th we performed at Cardiff Bay in support of the Pink-a-Blue Walk to raise funds for Cancer Research Wales when we "did our bit" by wearing our pink waistcoats in honour of the occasion. Isla Melville-Jones, from Sydney, Australia visited us September/October. She has been visiting the chorus regularly over the last 10 or more years and we were very pleased to welcome her to Cardiff once again. We also sang at a private booking in Llantwit Major.
November is the highlight of the Barbershop year with the Annual Convention in Harrogate which some members attended and performed with Coast to Coast, the national chorus. 4 members of the chorus also belong to Coast to Coast and 2 more hope to join them in January 2007. December the Chorus sang at an evening concert during the Annual Christmas Tree Festival at St Faith Church, Llanishen where the chorus enters a Christmas tree as well as entertaining visitors with Christmas Carols and other songs.
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2005
In February 2005 we welcomed Isla Melville-Jones who hails from Sydney, Australia. Isla is also a Barbershopper singing Tenor with her local chorus and for many years has been coming over to the UK and always spends a few Mondays with us. We were sad to see her leave us again but she will be back with us again in October 2006
In April 2005 it was time to sing at St Faith Church, Llanishen for a fundraiser in aid of the Church and Velindre Cancer Hospital. We donated our fee to Velindre in memory of Elseth Eronini, our Baritone Section Leader.
July and August were busy for the chorus with appearances at Cardiff Bay and Penarth during the summer season weekend entertainment. We also performed at St David's Hall during the Welsh Proms, when we sang on the foyer steps, thus entertaining people attending the Jazz Prom and also passers by. This was very enjoyable and ended with a passerby singing "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" to the chorus. He wanted to reciprocate as he had enjoyed the performance so much!
To finish the year off, the chorus also appeared at a Christmas Tree Festival to raise funds for a local church and a Carol Concert at a local hospice when we were able to sing our new repertoire of Christmas Carols and Christmas songs.
