The Final Fling

The Song:

Adelaide's  Lament from Guys and Dolls. Actually I think she got the words slightly wrong in the second verse, but I am sure that, if I don't mention it, no-one will notice. She recovered well.

This isn't exactly the most representative version of the song, since it is taken entriely out of context from the musical, but it is difficult to find decent renditions of songs on YouTube and she does perfrom it very well.

 Nearly There...

After months of not having any evenings to myself, I have finally come to the last show for a while which is tonight at Middlesbrough Town Hall. We are going to be the support band for the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Alright, we are providing the background entertainment in the bar before the show and during the interval.

The relevance of the clip above it that I have developed a cold. If I had to have a cold, I would rather it had waited a week when all this stuff was past, but there you are: these things never seem to ask permission first.

But this is the first time I have really sung with such singiness to the accompaniament of a cold and it makes me a trifle nervous. I have done solo parts in musicals before but that was just me vs the orchestra and I have a certain amount of acting latitude to make up for any vocal shortcomings. This, however, is a small a capella singing group called Carillon - 6 singers, of which I am the lone tenor - and I feel far more exposed. I have been taking advice on how to make sure my voice behaves itself when the time comes, so it should all go well in the end.

Actually I am really loking forward to tonight. I love singing with this group. We listen to each other and now, after a year of working together,we are starting to respond and feed off each other. It is such a long time since I was in a regular musical group that played together rather than alongside each other and that is worth all the colds in the world.

I actually trained as a flautist, not a singist, so I feel very flattered that I can be part of this group. And, now that I think about it, the last group I felt such an affinity with were the wind quintet I was in while at school. There also, we were playing together for several years and, in the end it was just a marvellous experience - it was one of the biggest wrenches of leaving school.

Off to make some more hot honey and lemon....