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2007 was a remarkable year in the life of the Cambridge Chord Company.
We sang our latest comedy number, Bohemian Curry at the BABS convention in
Scarborough to a very appreciative audience, and also led the congregation to sing
Friends in memory of our friend Bob Thornton, one of the chorus, who died
in April. Of course the chorus sang at his funeral two songs he loved,
Once Upon A Time and The Irish Blessing. We miss him.
Our trip to Denver for International Convention in July was hugely entertaining.
We managed to go white-water rafting,
to ramble in the Colorado Rockies,
and to experience a real-life baseball game -
most of us for the first time.
We also managed to fit in some singing!
Click on a picture to see these holiday snaps full size!
We witnessed the Greatest Show In Barbershop,
including the incomparable Westminster Chorus,
who scored not only the popular vote but a gold medal too.
BABS quartet Pitch Invasion did the Brits proud in the quartet competition
and, of course, we had to knuckle down and acclimatise to the lack of oxygen a mile high
to sing in the chorus competition too.
We sang Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? /
Basin Street Blues Medley and our Mother-in-Law medley
(with new lyrics adapted to
the American audience!)
Our position was twelfth.
Not the top-ten slot we'd hoped for, but there were choruses
ahead of us this time who hadn't been in the running four years previously in Montreal when
we came eleventh.
Understandably, we spent much time discussing what it all meant,
and what the 'way forward' should be.
CCC on YouTube!
New Orleans Medley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mldCbmDGEI
Mother-in-law
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GntHGkD8Uhc
Westminster Chorus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6_D2XDuPUo
There were other concerts,
in particular one at Tring, Hertfordshire in September and one
in Stoke-on-Trent in December. The following extracts are from a newspaper review,
by Liz Rowley, in The Sentinel, 10 Dec 07:
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CERAMIC CITY CHOIR, VICTORIA HALL, HANLEY
I Think it's fair to say that Saturday night was the first time
The Teddy Bears' Picnic
has ever received a standing ovation at Hanley's Victoria Hall.
Not the most celebrated or eagerly-anticipated song in the world.
you have to agree,
but after The Cambridge Chord Company added a little touch of magic
to this popular children's tune,
it soon became an instant showstopper.
The concert at the weekend was actually presented by the Ceramic City Choir
but it was the members of the award-winning barbershop choir,
who stole the show.
Original, fresh, witty, charismatic and harmoniously perfect are just a few words
that could be used to describe the company because they gave the hall something
that it had probably never seen before.
They were exceptional in each song they presented and gave pure quality entertainment
each time they entered the stage.
There aren't many people who could get away with a reworking of
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody
but these men, deciding to set it in a curry house with the words
"Korma, you've killed a man"
in it, managed to pull it off a treat
- and their acting wasn't half bad either.
]...[
This was a pleasant Christmas concert which brought in some enjoyable audience participation
during both halves.
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The Stoke concert was significant for the chorus because it was our last
under the directorship of Paul Davies,
who surprised and saddened us with his resignation
at the end of November.
Most of us have become so used to having him in charge that we were
"knocked sideways";
he has been Musical Director of CCC for seventeen years without a break,
and we all now realise just how long that is and that it's not possible to continue forever.
His difficult decision was taken in consideration of a new project he has recently become involved
in - the construction of a home for disabled orphans in Nepal.
Clearly, this will take him away from the country,
let alone the chorus,
in future.
At an extraordinary general meeting
last month the club expressed its enormous debt of gratitude to our departing MD and thanked him
"for his musicality, leadership, inspiration, creativity, humour and humanity."
For a month or so we were wondering what to do next,
but, at the EGM, we happily resolved several
issues for the club and for the future.
We propose to stay together as Cambridge Chord
Company and have elected
Bob Croft
as our new MD,
with Simon Hilton
as Assistant Director.
Bob has been our Assistant MD for as long as we can remember and is Paul's natural successor,
having directed the chorus on many occasions in public and in rehearsal.
Indeed, one of our current up-tunes Crazy Rhythms is arranged and directed by Bob.
Simon has previously stepped into the breach with success when called upon,
in particular at one of our Twickenham gigs. We know we're in safe hands.
All this bodes well for 2008 and
beyond!
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