Thanks to the West End Singers for kindly inviting us back to share their summer concerts with them this year. We really enjoyed playing with them last year (see blog post), and we happy that we were going to play not one, but two concerts with WES !
The first concert kicked on on Friday 22nd June, at The Berry Theatre, not somewhere we’d played before. We were all a little tired as some of us had been out playing at a wedding at New Place during the day. Nothing like a bit of adrenaline to liven us up! The first concert got off to a bit of a dramatic start, as sadly a member of the audience was taken ill so we had to wait for the paramedics to arrive. Hopefully they were in safe hands and are much better now! The late start meant we decided to cut a few pieces from our repertoire in order to allow the audience to leave at a decent hour! We played pieces such as Piazolla’s Libertango (you can see a vid of us playing it at the King Street Tav here), Queen of Sheba, The Killers Mr Brightside, Theme to Sex and The City – eclectic as ever!
We also performed with their talented pianist, Richard Copeland, and played a rather complex arrangement of Grainger’s Handel in the Strand.
The benefit of doing two concerts with the West End Singers in one weekend was that we had the chance to do it all over again, and even better the second time! The second concert was at Thornden Hall in Chandlers Ford, and we love the acoustics in that place! The Southampton Hospital Radio recorded us again for live broadcast (read our thanks from last year)
All in all we enjoyed our concerts considerably. The West End Singers are great fun to work with, they really love singing, and their enthusiasm really shows.
Hopefully we can get together next year too!