Running With Cheese

Such a pleasure to be back in Sydney and to reconnect with the Café of the Gate of Salvation and all the ex-members who turned up at rehearsal and to the gig at the Factory, Marrickville. There may have been chaos at the soundcheck, but once they hit the stage the choir sounded beautiful, and I'm very appreciative of their keeping on with so many of my songs and arrangements, some of which I hadn't heard for a few years.   
As well as the choir (and the expanded choir), the bill included the quartets that have grown out of the choir: Resurrection Shuffle (a superb version of I was praying), Sorelle (beautiful), the Gospelettes of Metropolis (faithful homage to the Gospel Harmonettes of Demopolis) and the Heavenly Lights, reunited with Wi Selwyn. The night finished with everyone on stage backed up by DIG, funking it out on Spirit in the Dark and others. Wi Selwyn, in particular, sounded gorgeous - his version of The heart of Jesus in rehearsal was the high point of the reunion for me - very moving, I had a tear in my eye and I wasn't alone in that. Also hearing Brendan Mooney (up from Adelaide) singing I was praying was outstanding, in a gig where every soloist was hot. Coming the longest distance to be there was the friend of the choir, E. Patrick Johnson who flew in from Chicago, and who led Heaven on my mind with effortless charisma. My congratulations to the choir and to Dynes, Fi, Frank and Judith and all the members.

After France, six weeks in the UK: 14 workshops and a lot of travel - as far north as Edinburgh, as far south as Penzance, in venues ranging from village halls and arts centres to a barn in the Esk valley and a medieval church in Norfolk. Because there is such a thriving choir culture in the UK, a lot of great singers turned up (some travelled great distances) to my workshops, including some professional and highly-experienced performers, like Chris Rowbury, Maya Waldman, Joanna Foster, Candy Verney, Jane Harris, Una May, Alice Robin, Hilary Davies, Bruce Knight, Nick and Fiona Mills; plus I had the pleasure of running a workshop for Edinburgh choirs Loud and Proud and Harmonise (thanks Karen and Jane). A big thank you to Maya, Naamah, Clive, Jo Budd, Jo Ludbrook, Emily and Liz, Jane Schonveld, Alice and Hilary, Alex and Elgiva, Jane Harris, Kathy and Nick Prater for all your help. A further big thank you to Steve Hemmens, Robyn Litchfield, Anne Marie Bostyn and Sara MacLean. for hospitality.
In beautiful Cheltenham, at Alice Robin's instigation, I ran a Freeing the song workshop, a master-class for choir directors and song leaders, which seemed to go pretty well. It's the first time I've run a whole day on choir directing, and typically I sought a lot of input from the 30-odd participants, and learned a lot myself. 
At the Barbican we heard the wonderful Le Mystére Des Voix Bulgares, sitting three rows  from the front. Ear-boggling clusters and gorgeous voices. Splendid traditional costumes in the first half, and daggy western recital gowns in the second.
Later, We got to meet Larry Gordon, Patty Cuyler and Mollie Stone from Northern Harmony in the café at Foyles Bookshop in London for a brief yarn, and we took in their concert that night: a great mix of shape-note, modern compositions, early music, Georgian, Corsican, gospel quartet and South African gospel sung by an ever-shifting formation of 15 singers. Sometimes only three would sing, for instance. Beautiful voices and an obvious love and deep familiarity with the material and the different genres.