Fun at the Great Western Chorus of Bristol’s Open Mic night
By Julie Macnamara
Fascinating Rhythm and Black Sheep Harmony had the joy of joining a musical evening hosted by The Great Western Chorus on Saturday 7th June at the North Bristol Rugby Club. Thanks go the the GWC Chair Mark Tedds and Steve Mowatt and their team for organising and MC-ing a delightful evening of harmony!
As the silver medallists at this year’s BABS national competition in May, GWC were proud to show off their silverware and entertain us with their winning songs ’The Lady Must Be Mad’ & ’You Make Me Smile’. They also sang Let’s Live It Up, Summer Of 69 & Show Me Where The Good Times Are.
We enjoyed an evening of non-stop quality entertainment: Black Sheep Harmony followed GWC, and then it was our turn to take the stage. We were all excited as our new MD Wendy Howse was making her debut – and she smashed it as she led us through the Beatles’ “Get by with a little help from my friends”, and Queen’s “Don’t stop me now”, which included a special appearance from an FR scratch quartet singing key parts of the song.
Wendy Said…
“It was a fantastic evening, and I feel so proud and privileged to stand in front of Fascinating Rhythm who sang just brilliantly!”
Our smaller group Rhythm Mix then entertained us with their current favourite “Spring Song” followed by the delightful “Somewhere out there” from the animated classic “An American Tale”.
It was great to join Black Sheep Harmony singing “Happy Together” and we are looking forward to singing with them again later in the month, at “Yate Rocks in the Park” – a family fun festival event in Kingsgate Park, Yate, South Gloucestershire.
We also enjoyed listening to GWC’s Quartet, In the Wings, as well as Black Sheep’s quartet, Fine Apples – with engaging performances from both.
We rounded the evening off with a Grande Finale with everyone joining to sing a heartfelt rendition of the ‘polecat’ song, “Anthem”, from the musical Chess, which the majority of us knew.
Our MD Wendy was delighted to be invited to direct. She said:
“I so enjoyed the evening – so it was the icing on the cake to be given the chance to direct ‘Anthem’ to the whole room.”
It was such a fun, happy and enjoyable event – so GWC – we thank you! We really hope we can collaborate with you to create another special evening like this again very soon!