Edinburgh Gay Men's Chorus
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Blogs
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Recruiting now!
Our new term starts on Tuesday 31st August 2010 - why not join us?
Come along to our open evening at 7.30pm, Dance For All, 106 St Stephen Street, Edinburgh. This is a very social occasion, where you'll get a chance to meet members of the chorus over a glass of wine, learn more about what we do and our performance opportunities over the coming year, and do some singing.
We've already got 4 performances in the pipeline for summer/autumn 2010 and more planned in 2011. We are keen to add to our growing numbers and put on bigger and better shows, as well as providing support to other LGBT and charitable organisations.
For more details, send us an e-mail.
Hope to see you at the open evening!
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Audience feedback to EGMC’s World Tour concert
Thanks to those of you who left comment cards after our recent concert...here's a selection of a few quotes: "Excellent! The best version of Advance Australia Fair I've ever heard (An Aussie)" "Great concert - well done! Lovely soloists, particularly enjoyed This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore" "Fab" "It was extremely good" "Extremely professional" "Really wonderful...keep it up!" "My first time at a concert and had a fab night...I wanted to sing along and dance in the pews!" "Can't wait till the next one!" If you were at the concert, why not leave a comment below? -
Summer concert 2010 – playlist
On Saturday 26 June 2010, the chorus perfomed the following songs during our World Tour. We hope you enjoyed each and every one of our songs. If you have a favourite, drop us a line and share your views. Advance Australia Fair (1878) - Peter McCormick Written by Scots-born Peter McCormick, this has been the Australian national anthem since 1984, defeating "Waltzing Matilda" and "God Save the Queen" in competition. Africa (1981) - Jeff Porcaro & David Paich A hit in USA & UK for rock band, "Toto". The white writers had never been to Africa - this is their impression gleaned from TV and films. Amarillo (1971) - Howard Greenfield & Neil Sedaka The tale of a guy travelling to Amarillo, Texas, to find his girlfriend. After chart success all over Europe in the 70's, the song was re-released in 2005 for Comic Relief and is still a favourite for dancing the slosh at weddings, etc. Bali Ha'I (1949) - Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II A song from one of the greatest American musicals, "South Pacific", which explores racial prejudice and culture clash as well as being a wonderful romance. Bali Ha'I represents our unattainable island paradise, free from worldly cares. It was based on the island of Ambae, Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides Islands). Blame Canada (1999) - Marc Shaiman & Trey Parker From the sublime to the ridiculous, this was written for the film "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut", satirising the US/Canadian relationship. American parents blame Canada for the corrupting influence of thinly-disguised camp gay guys appearing in the fictional film "Terrance & Philip:Asses of Fire". Nominated for an Academy Award! Down Under (1981) - Colin Hay & Ron Strykert A satire on Ozzy life, this pop number from "Men at Work" was a hit in the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden & UK. One theory is that it's based on a Welsh folk song! Note:"chunder" is Oz slang for "throw up". Finland (1989) - Michael Palin From the album "Monty Python Sings", this is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Finland, which is probably no more boring than any other country with 6-month long winters, lakes, forests & peat bogs (Scotland?) Note: There are no "mountains so lofty" in Finland! Flying the Flag (2007) - Andrew Hill, Morten Schjolin, Russ Spencer & Paul Tarry Staying in Helsinki, Finland for a UK Eurovision entry (we came 22nd with 19 points), this bubble-gum pop number by Scooch is full of camp trolley-dolly innuendo. Can't think why our choir would choose this one. [Flower Duet from Lakme (1883) - Leo Delibes On the flying theme, but by way of contrast, we have interspersed pop with the classic British Airways' anthem. Who says we don't appreciate serious music.] From Russia with Love (1963) - Lionel Bart Crooned by Matt Monro in the film starring Sean Connery as MI6 agent, James Bond, facing Cold War Russian agents. Strands of Monty Norman's Bond theme are woven through this arrangement, together with the Russian song, "Kalinka", sung at times like a lullaby, at others like a wild Cossack folk dance. Go West (1978) - Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo & Victor Willis Surprisingly, based on a chord progression in Pachelbel's Canon in D Major, this disco hit was originally recorded by Village People, but became a bigger hit in 1993 arranged by the Pet Shop Boys, who took some inspiration from the Russian national anthem. "Go west" was a 19th century exhortation to adventurous east coast people to push America's boundaries as far as the Pacific. However Village People probably intended the song as encouragement to provincial gay men to head for the sexually-liberated west coast hotspots of San Francisco and Los Angeles in pre-Aids days. The High Life (1994) - Forbes Masson & Alan Cumming The theme song of the outrageously camp Scots sitcom based around a flight crew - need I say more? Istanbul (1953) - Jimmy Kennedy & Nat Simon Another piece of divine silliness - an American idea of a Middle Eastern dance rhythm, originally recorded by Canadian group, The Four Lads, but also deemed worthy of repetition by Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald, Bette Middler, & Reggie's Red Hot Feetwarmers! Note: Prior to Constantinople, Istanbul was named Byzantium. I Still Call Australia Home (1980) - Peter Allen Probably beloved of expat Ozzies the world over as they weep into their Fosters lager. Also adopted by Qantas, the Australian national airline. La Mer (1946) - Charles Trenet A quintessentially French ballad, though not written about a woman, but rather a person's love of the sea and unspoilt coast. "The ocean you may see dancing along the shimmering bays …has cradled my heart for life." The English version has lyrics by Jack Lawrence. Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (1897) - Enoch Sontonga Written by a Methodist teacher and originally sung as a hymn, it became the political anthem of the African National Congress in 1925. Since 1994 this Xhosa (tribal language) song has become joint South African national anthem with the old Afrikaans "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika". It is also the national anthem of Zambia and Tanzania, and previously Zimbabwe and Namibia. Russian National Anthem (1938) - Alexander Alexandrov Originally the Bolsheviks' anthem, it was adopted in 1944 to replace The Internationale, with the lyrics being re-written several times to reflect Russia's changing political face. San Francisco (1967) - John Phillips A Summer of Love psychedelic-pop hit of the Flower Power generation, with references to the cultural and political changes in 60's America. An anti- (esp. Vietnam) war anthem. Sous les Ponts de Paris (1914) - Vincent Scotto & Jean Rodor A ballad describing the walkways which run under Paris's bridges, on either side of the Seine, and where even the poorest can wander in the perfumed evening air and perhaps fall in love. Ah, those seductive French! Solos/Quartet California (1965) - John Phillips & Michelle Phillips A hit for The Mamas & The Papas, probably written during a freezing New York winter, while thinking of escaping to the warmth of sunny California. Don't Stop Believin' (1981) - Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry & Neal Schon Originally recorded by rock group, Journey, this is an upbeat take on starting adult life - some advice for the journey. Going to a Town (2007) - Rufus Wainwright A ballad about leaving the country of one's birth and moving on to the next phase of life. This Train Don't Stop There Anymore (2001) - Bernie Taupin & Elton John From the album "Songs from the West Coast", a wistful backward glance towards the end of life's journey. When in Rome I Do as the Romans Do (1964) - Carolyn Leigh & Cy Coleman A cheeky little ditty about those sexually-charged holidays in sunny climes, where the advice (and excuse!) is to follow the local crowd. An early favourite of La Streisand.N.B. Songs are in alphabetical order, not the order in which they were sung. This writeup is the work of one of our chorus members and we cannot accept responsibility for any errors or incorrect details.
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Open evening 12th Jan
It was really good to get back together after the Christmas break ... good to see old friends again and good to see so many new faces. I think we had more guys tonight than we've ever had: brilliant!The new arrangements we started tonight for got off to a really good start - we're going to have them learned in no time! We'll then have time for our new singers to get to know the tunes we're going to do from our recent 'Heroes' concert in time for our next performance.
I really enjoyed the rehearsal tonight and we got through a lot of stuff.
See you all next week. Have a good week til then!
Jamesx
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Heroes – the concert
Many thanks to everyone who attended our concert last night. It was an amazing turnout!
Our guys worked very hard rehearsing and we hope you enjoyed the programme. I'd like to thank them all on behalf of the management committee. And of course a big thank you and well done to our music team, led by James Wilkinson (music director) and Steve Wren.
A special thanks also to our volunteers on front-of-house and to our lighting technician.
Don't forget we're performing at High Tease in Glasgow on Saturday 5th December - see Events for more information.
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A great start to the new term!
Following our open evening on 8th September, EGMC has experienced an influx of great new singing talent! And we had a record number at our most recent rehearsal.It's still not too late to get involved this term. Please go to the "Join Us" section of the website for details of how to get involved. But hurry - we are already making good progress with our new pieces this term - songs all about heroes. I think everyone's enjoying the new arrangements and I'm sure our audience in November will have a great time listening to what we're working on - more details will be posted on the "Events" section soon.
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MD musings…
Saturday afternoon.Thank goodness its too windy to go out! All the avoiding tactics are used up: washing done, ironing done, washing up from Thursday’s hilarious music team meeting done, done my homework for the final concert of the festival (‘Dream of Gerontius – don’t think we’ll add that to our repertoire). Rehearsal’s on Tuesday! Need to get on getting some more music into the computer! Make sure everyone gets a shot at ‘the tune’ – don’t want troublesome tenor 1s and tetchy tenor 2s or bolshy baritones and belligerent basses on the first evening (hopefully everyone will have had enough wine at the start not to care anyway). Haven’t yet had any flash of inspiration for ‘Flash’ so back to ‘Herc’ and his jolly tune, and wait til Brian sees the ‘prms’ for the basses in ‘Two Little Boys’ (hehehe).
Anyway, after last Tuesday’s committee meeting and Thursday’s music team meeting definitely ready to get started again – see you all Tuesday!
J
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Join the Chorus!
Our new term starts on Tuesday 8th September 2009 - why not join us?Come along to our open evening at 7.30pm, Dance For All, 106 St Stephen Street, Edinburgh. This is a very social occasion, where you'll get a chance to meet members of the chorus, learn more about what we do and our performance opportunities over the coming year, and do some singing. Oh, and enjoy a glass of wine!
It’s going to be a bigger, better, brighter year for EGMC and we’d love to have you along as one of our new members. For more details, send us an e-mail using this link.
Hope to see you in September!
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Ciaran’s weekly Sing a long a blog
Well folks. Its time for me to blog again this week. Straight to it then. Phantom of the Opera. A fairly ordinary show by anyones standards. Although we use it as a warm up exercise for the choir. So it turns into a camp ditty. Something along the lines of 'Phantom of the opera, Phantom of the Op-ER-a, Phantom of the opera, Phantom of the opera, PHANTOM. Crazy by Patsy Cline comes to mind. Its fine. you tend to normalize it after a few weeks. You see we love a showtune here at EGMC. See how I turned a silly blog into a marketing ploy there. Clever me. So we love a showtune. And the upcoming summer concert is no exception. Although this time we have some camp popular music type 'numbers', as we call them in the business, up our well ironed sleeves. One that I have been humming all week since rehearsing it just once. Andy Williams and 'cant take my eyes off you'. Its camembert of the highest quality. Genius. The clip below confirms the brillance. I defy you not to sing a long. Obviously it gets the harmony treatment, so will be even more jazz hands. So in summary we love a showtune, the show will be camp and we use Phantom of the Opera as a warm up 'tune'. Hooray. Till next week my musical friends. Enjoy. Ciaran. watch?v=VE4ANsMvRsE -
Concert Fun!
Well it's official, our Concert tickets are now on sale. Which is unfortunate for people who have previously not had to pay to hear me sing! Some would pay me to shut up. But that's for another day. I'm extremely excited that this is our first large concert; it should be fun. We certainly are having fun rehearsing the programme. Lots of melodic songs for people to sing along to. The soloists should lend a bit of drama, too. My goal is to keep everyone updated on the progress on the run up to the concert. The ups, the downs, the tantrums, the drama. And thats just warming up at rehearsal. Hmm. In summary. I'm excited, it's the big Concert on the 20th of June at St Georges West and you need to get a ticket to see EGMC sing! Until next time. Ciaran. x -
Website launch
Welcome to the new EGMC website! Here you can find out more about the chorus, view pictures, and see when we're performing next. -
Rehearsal Tuesday 24th of March
Tantrums. Tiaras. And cycling shorts. And that was just the car journey home! What a fun rehearsal — insomuch as they are when you're learning new songs. But the harmonies always make up for it. 'With a Little Help From my Friends' and 'Breaking Up is Hard to Do', sounding nice already. During our break, we giggled at the choir's need for a 'pianist'. Say that ten times fast and try not to laugh. We laughed. We giggled a lot. Fun times. Dance For All is our shiny new rehearsal venue. It's not camp at all: It has pictures of ballet dancers, lavender walls and a whole lotta mirrors. Paranaoia or what! Us queens do love to stare at ourselves while we sing. Sort of. We toiled over the theme for the summer concert. Somone mentioned a saucy photoshoot for the cover. We could be described as pretty: pretty out of shape! But I shouldn't generalise. As usual it was down to the barony for a gin and tonic, Guiness, or whatever it is homosexuals are supposed to drink these days. There were some more double entendres that are too filthy for public consumption. You'll just have to join up to find out! Till next week my pretties. Ciaran, 2nd Tenor/PR Guru/Soloist in training
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