We were delighted that on Thursday 15th February we were able to present a cheque of £572.31 to Winston’s Wish, our charity of the year for 2017.

Sophie Birch, Regional Fundraising & Events Officer, from the charity, was able to visit the chorus and she listened to our rehearsal. After the presentation Sophie was able to tell us what our donation would be able to help them with, and as the national helpline costs £500 per day it will be put to great use as nearly 5000 called the helpline last year. It is manned by trained clinical practitioners and is free and confidential.

Sophie also added “I would like to extend a sincere thank you to all members of Fascinating Rhythm for this wonderful donation. We really appreciate you choosing to support our charity, this kind demonstration of support makes a big difference to the families we are supporting. With your help we can ensure that grief doesn’t destroy a child’s future”

Cheque presentation for Winston’s Wish

So we are delighted to introduce to you, Mr & Mrs Thorn

The wedding was perfect, the love and happiness was so strong in the room that you could feel it. Jo looked stunning and Steve wore a permanent grin along with the dapper suit!

They were surrounded by special people who were all overjoyed to share the celebrations with them.

The traditional ‘first dance’ of a wedding was actually replaced with a lovely jazz duo of ‘Night and Day’ of Ella Fitzgerald fame which had the bride and groom gazing into each others eyes while they sang to each other for our entertainment. The 3 tier wedding cake was covered in musical score and notes…… and was delicious.

It would not of been complete had the chorus not had a song or two which Jo really enjoyed; “I cant believe I’ve directed in my dress!” was said at the end of “Can’t take my eyes off of you” and “Happy Together” – two very apt songs for the day of course.

We wish them every happiness for the future.

On Saturday 2nd December we welcomed almost 200 people over 2 performances of ‘The Christmas Memory Tree’ which featured our very own Junior FR, it was a heart-warming story of family time at Christmas, full of love, sparkle and happiness. Fascinating Rhythm were sprinkled in amongst scenes to add a musical feel to the production.

St Mary’s Church in Yate looked rather festive and beautiful. We were able to provide our guests with mince pies during the interval and with our raffle we raised a good amount of almost £300 for our charity ‘Winston’s Wish’ to help with funding for their helpline and providing face to face for grieving families.

Thank you everyone, we hope you enjoyed our Christmas Memory Tree story

Here are a few pictures of the performance …. it does show what fun we had!

We were delighted to have another weekend coaching session with the inspirational and enthusiastic (and very funny) Sally McLean during September.

Another 2 day session where Fascinating Rhythm were well and truly put through our emotional ringers as well as technically enhancing our Convention package. We so enjoy our visits from Sally and look forward to them almost as soon as she has left the building…. despite being exhausted. Our MD, Jo, also grows with advice given to her and her treatment of the chorus (although the big stick did not come out during this visit!)

We very much look forward to seeing and hearing Sally’s chorus (The White Rosettes) amongst all other competitors at Convention in Bournemouth at the end of October. It is sure to be a great European Convention this year!

One Thursday evening in August we were able to secure a session from a new coach – Doug Harrington!

He helped us with our convention songs and we really enjoyed this first coaching session with him. It is surprising how, as women, we reacted to a man!! We obviously have a female MD and we realise that our coaches are usually women too so it really was a refreshing and exciting change for us as a chorus. The evening went at lightening speed of course!

It was a fun and energetic evening and we do hope that we will be able to have Doug come to see us again in the future – thank you Doug

On 15^th June 2017, 3 members (Barbara Colfer, Irene Lees and Linda Holden) of Fascinating Rhythm were delighted and honoured to be part of the BBC Music Day in Southmead Hospital.

This was to celebrate the 60^th Anniversary of BBC Points West.

There were 60 choirs from all over the South West, members of the Bristol Youth Choir and the UWE ReVoice Choir, a community choir for people affected by aphasia.  We were also joined by YolanDa.

It was a very exciting day with the TV crew and recordings being made which showcased the theme of the power of music for good health and wellbeing.  This was broadcast on BBC Radio and TV.

The performance took place in the Brunel building of Southmead Hospital which was an awe-inspiring backdrop.  A great day was had by all.

Yet again our very own Junior FR put on an outstanding performance but this time it was Roald Dahl’s “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf”
Two performances took place on 23rd July in the Memorial Hall, Rangeworthy. This version was a humorous, contemporary spin on this well-know fairy tale with there being an unexpected surprise for the wolf!
The performers worked hard and learnt a different set of skills, incorporating acting and dancing. The music score was also improved (in our barbershop world) by adding harmony lines into two and even four parts.

JFR were delighted to recently receive £100 from the TAF and Eisteddfod Committees after taking part again in the Thornbury Eisteddfod. They were recognised as “great kids with a very enthusiastic support group” and “Junior FR are very inclusive and have a diverse age range, being an external chorus, all of the kids want to be there…”

Special mention must go to the JFR adult team, their continued help and support means so much to the girls and us in Fascinating Rhythm.

We all had such a good night at our charity concert on Saturday, 8th July in Bridgwater to raise funds for Ups and Downs South West.  The theatre was an amazing space to be in and the staff, especially technical team, were second to none.  Ticket sales, along with a spiffing raffle and some very generous match funding from Barclays Bank gathered over £1,000 into the coffers of this excellent cause.
We were thrilled with the debut performance of ‘Titanium’ quartet who sang Billy Joel’s ‘Lullaby’, and a Spice Girls medley.  Our ‘in-house’ quartet ‘Free Range’  also did a fantastic job with four songs in each half.
Mixed voiced a cappella group Planet 24 enjoyed the experience though with a touch of sadness as it was the last gig for their amazing beat boxer Henry; this master of timing will be greatly missed.
Fascinating Rhythm closed the first half with the very emotive song ‘Fix You’ and an inspiration DVD about the work of the charity playing images on the screen behind – not a dry in the house, including some on stage!

All groups combined to close the show with ‘Happy Together’ with the six gentlemen taking part getting nice and cosy right in the middle of 50 women – brave lads.  Our truly professional MC John Shipley, who is a Trustee for Ups & Downs, was supported effortlessly by new FR member Erica Smith as Stage Manager – her first time in the job (with all of two weeks notice).
Some comments from the audience: “so professional, a real pleasure to see”; “really impressed by the focus of Fascinating Rhythm on the MD and just how animated they all were – they looked like they were really enjoying every minute of it”.