In The Pink(ies)

Around The World

2012-07-10T11:40:00.001+01:00

The next Pink Singers concert (which happens this Saturday 14 July 2012 at 7:30pm at St. John's Smith Square) is shaping up to the best yet. In honour of the world coming to London this summer, the Pinkies are performing a range of songs from different parts of the planet, sprouting from very different musical traditions, and incorporating very different vocal styles.

Ever since their visit to Lisbon Pride a month ago, the choir has been hard at work polishing up what promises to be a multicultural show, and to top it off their guest choir this time is the extremely accomplished Gloria, Dublin's lesbian and gay choir. Definitely not to be missed!

The Pink Singers present
"Around The World"
7:30pm
Saturday 14 July 2012
St. John's Smith Square
London SW1P 3HA (map)
Tickets here

So You Don't Have To - Part I

2011-02-16T09:24:00.005+00:00

Hey, it's the summer season and the Pink Insider takes a look at the repertoire. As always, it is hard to find an exact recording of the arrangement we are doing. And I'm not even going to talk about the quality!

You Can't Stop The Beat, for instance, has been done to death by a million show choirs, but not our arrangement. In the end I went for one from NTU who hail from the island state of Singapore. Sunday, from Sunday In The Park With George, does not seem to have been recorded by anyone on YouTube, so I just took the version from last year's Proms featuring the rather yummy Daniel Evans.

This is also not the full repertoire of course, more to come in Part II!

Anything Goes

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

The Evening Primrose

Hello Dolly!

Sunday

To A Locomotive In Winter

You Can't Stop The Beat

A Burst of Song!

2010-11-24T09:24:00.005+00:00

Here's a quick reminder about the Pink Singers' New Year concert. It is called 'A Burst of Song' and we've been working hard to craft the show. This time round we are mixing things up with classical and pop/jazz mixed together, we'll be dancing like Tina Turner and doing the hygeinic form of scatting. What's not to like? Get your tickets on the website.

Time: 7.30pm
Date: 8 January 2011
Venue: Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London SW1X 9DQ

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How Low Can Your Logo?

2010-11-24T09:15:00.002+00:00

Sorry for the relative dormancy, but the Pink Insider has been really busy with other Pinkie buisness. This season in particular has been very stressful, but thankfully things appear to be settling down. I am trying to avoid being overdramatic about it, but after the tsunami of the start of the season we are settling into calmer waters now.

Anyway, this doesn't mean I don't do random websurfing and my current hilarious website of the day goes to How Low Can Your Logo. Have a look at the design brief, then look at this logo (and its comments) to truly appreciare how wonderful it really is!

Soul Wind by Andrew Swain

2010-11-06T09:22:00.007+00:00

The Pinkies are singing this song as our joint number with Manchester Lesbian & Gay Chorus and Gay Abandon. I always like to know a little about the song, and Michael was wondering what the tempo of the song is supposed to be. We ran through it for the first time on Thursday and it sounds a bit of a dirge. So I googled its writer Andrew Swain.

Not very helpful as that appears to be a common name. What I did eventually find, after some sleuthing is a choir in London who have sung it before. They have two links to music here and here. It includes a rather wavery SATB version here.

The only other version I could find was on a CD by a Canberra women's choir call the Cyrenes.

The picture is of the image search I did. Apparently it is Megaman Soul - Wind version. Huh?

It Gets Better

2010-10-01T14:32:00.003+01:00

This brought a tear to my eye today. It is a video basically telling young LGBT people that however bad it may seem in school, it does get better. Why the message? Well this project is the brainchild of Dan Savage, and he puts it thusly:

Billy Lucas was just 15 when he hanged himself in a barn on his grandmother's property. He reportedly endured intense bullying at the hands of his classmates—classmates who called him a fag and told him to kill himself. His mother found his body.

Nine out of 10 gay teenagers experience bullying and harassment at school, and gay teens are four times likelier to attempt suicide. Many LGBT kids who do kill themselves live in rural areas, exurbs, and suburban areas, places with no gay organizations or services for queer kids.

"My heart breaks for the pain and torment you went through, Billy Lucas," a reader wrote after I posted about Billy Lucas to my blog. "I wish I could have told you that things get better."

I had the same reaction: I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.

But gay adults aren't allowed to talk to these kids. Schools and churches don't bring us in to talk to teenagers who are being bullied. Many of these kids have homophobic parents who believe that they can prevent their gay children from growing up to be gay—or from ever coming out—by depriving them of information, resources, and positive role models.

Why are we waiting for permission to talk to these kids? We have the ability to talk directly to them right now. We don't have to wait for permission to let them know that it gets better. We can reach these kids.

So here's what you can do, GBVWS: Make a video. Tell them it gets better.

I've launched a channel on YouTube—www .youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject—to host these videos. My normally camera-shy husband and I already posted one. We both went to Christian schools and we were both bullied—he had it a lot worse than I did—and we are living proof that it gets better. We don't dwell too much on the past. Instead, we talk mostly about all the meaningful things in our lives now—our families, our friends (gay and straight), the places we've gone and things we've experienced—that we would've missed out on if we'd killed ourselves then.

"You gotta give 'em hope," Harvey Milk said.

Today we have the power to give these kids hope. We have the tools to reach out to them and tell our stories and let them know that it does get better. Online support groups are great, GLSEN does amazing work, the Trevor Project is invaluable. But many LGBT youth can't picture what their lives might be like as openly gay adults. They can't imagine a future for themselves. So let's show them what our lives are like, let's show them what the future may hold in store for them.

The video my husband and I made is up now—all by itself. I'd like to add submissions from other gay and lesbian adults—singles and couples, with kids or without, established in careers or just starting out, urban and rural, of all races and religious backgrounds. (Go to www.youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject to find instructions for submitting your video.) If you're gay or lesbian or bi or trans and you've ever read about a kid like Billy Lucas and thought, "Fuck, I wish I could've told him that it gets better," this is your chance. We can't help Billy, but there are lots of other Billys out there—other despairing LGBT kids who are being bullied and harassed, kids who don't think they have a future—and we can help them.

They need to know that it gets better. Submit a video. Give them hope.

Many more videos can be found on the It Gets Better project YouTube channel.

Edit: And you just gotta check out the Pink Singers' own It Gets Better video!

Pinkies' Repertoire Winter 2010

2010-09-27T12:49:00.005+01:00

For Nathalina.

And So It Goes
There are two common arrangements, we are doing the slightly less popular Kirby Shaw version. Bob Chilcott's has the tenor solo singing "And ev'ry time I've held a rose". This is sung SATB in the Kirby Shaw version.

Cantique de Jean Racine Op. 11
Gabriel Fauré, orchestration by John Rutter
I am presuming we are singing this in French.

Come, Sing and Be Joyful
Sorry, this is the only video I could find on YouTube.

Flight of the Bumble Bee
Who suggested this one? By heart?

Härlig är Jorden
Sorry, there doesn't seem to be a version of Lindberg's arrangement of this song. Here's another acapella arrangement.

I Got Rhythm
This is the Mark Hayes arrangement. There are a couple on YouTube - this one is actually better than the other.

Like A Prayer
The other song from Glee which we're doing.

Lullaby of Birdland
Paris Rutherford's arrangements. Has female and male solos, and improv scatting.

Lux Aurumque
Last year's virtual choir piece by Eric Whitacre.

And if you haven't seen Whitacre's own instructional video have a look here:

Of course, if you are interested in joining in this year's Virtual Choir, then check it out here!

Proud Mary
Skip the preamble and fast forward to 1:40 in the video.

Friendship In A Big City

2010-07-21T11:15:00.004+01:00

I just read a rather intriguing article in the Guardian today about the possibility of 'renting a friend'. Yes, you can look at it and roll your eyes at the commoditisation of our social lives, and in this world where everyone appears to have a few hundred Facebook 'friends' you have to wonder why this is even necessary.

The reality though, is that even (or perhaps especially) in big cities such as London, it is possible to be very lonely indeed. Even if you have the odd mate who lives in London, breaking out of the circle of work colleagues is hard, and making friends who you can hang out with because you enjoy their company is a mammoth task. The Pink Insider has been in London now for 8 years, and the first two or three were spent in the company of old college mates.

Now, of course, I look at my friends in London and see that they neatly partition into people from school, people from work, former neighbours (a rarity I can tell you!), acquaintances of acquaintences (who are now my friends) and, of course, Pinkies.

There are many advantages to joining a social group, but particularly one like the Pink Singers, because everyone out of necessity has to work together. This means that you already share something in common such as the love of singing, but your experiences also develop together, which to me is a prerequisite for any meaningful relationship. Picking up someone in a pub can lead to a long-term friendship but, for me at least, is a rather difficult way of going about it.

Reading the article, the writer rents his friend for £40 an hour. In comparison, membership of the Pink Singers is a complete bargain!

What More Can I Say?

2010-07-17T22:51:00.007+01:00

I'm afraid the Pink Insider is even busier now that we are in the summer break than ever before, so things are going to be a bit quiet on this front for a while. Until the winter season begins again, however, I leave you with this wonderful little song by Simon W, accompanied by Ben L on piano. Both Simon and Ben are in the second tenors, and Simon's other half is a first tenor. I know I am biased, but the Pinkies really do put on a good show!

Pride In Yourself, Proud To Be

2010-07-04T18:26:00.004+01:00

There are few things which tire me out as much as a full day of Pride: that is, marching the long two-hour stretch from Baker Street to Whitehall, followed by waiting around to perform on stage. Yet I do it year in year out, even if this year I found it so tiring that after dinner in Chinatown, this Pink Insider wanted nothing more than to conga-line his way through the throngs of Soho in order to get home. Note to self: do not wear flip flops as there is a distinct risk of being stabbed by broken glass from below and a spikey stilletto from above.

So, why do I keep doing it? Well this quote from a commentor (Joanne in Twickenham) in the Metro newspaper really struck a chord with me:

The reason Pride - which is a celebration of all human sexualities [...] - includes a march as well as the rally is because Pride began as a protest march against intolerance and injustice. Nobody marched for any special rights or privileges. The Gay Rights movement worked towards equality, to bring their rights and their place in society into line with the straight majority.

We're almost there and getting closer every day. The freedoms that I enjoy today were won through blood, legal oppression and police brutality. I honour that struggle every year at Pride, while acknowledging that every human is born able to grow into someone to be proud of.

Hooray to Pride, and to many more to come!

Test Post Using Desktop Software

2010-06-26T09:05:00.001+01:00

This is a test post using Windows Live Writer Beta. Checking for display errors and design consistency.

Test of image alignment.

Test of video alignment.

Pride London 2010, Pinkies, GLF

2010-06-23T08:59:00.007+01:00

One of the big problems facing Pride nowadays is that there is a tension between those who see the parade and festival as a celebration, those who see it is a marketing ploy and those who want to use it as a platform for social change. I have no problems with celebration, but the chasing of the pink pound really does grate.

Pride to me is about not having to hide who we are, which as this year has shown, is not something you can do is just any country, nor even sometimes in this one. That we have any kind of security at all now is thanks in no small part to the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) which was formed after the Stonewall Riots in New York in 1969. The first GLF UK protest march in 1971 became the Pride parade we know of today. The Pink Singers were formed in 1983 to add music to the protest and have been marching and singing at every one ever since. To read what Lou T, Kate N and Philip R have to say about the significance of Pride London and the Pinkies, have a look at the article on the Pinkies' website.

Edit: And as if by psychic magic, Paul Burston writes a wonderful piece on his blog about why Pride London is so important.

Time To Say Goodbye

2010-06-22T10:20:00.003+01:00

Phew! What a season it has been. Our first concert at Cadogan Hall, an amazingly supportive audience and so much Pinkie love. Here's a video to tide you over till I catch my breath and write something more substantial.

A Little Light Music - Tonight!

2010-06-19T11:21:00.004+01:00

The concert has finally arrived and kicks off at 7.30pm at Cadogan Hall. On-line sales are now shut, but you can still get your ticket by phone (box office phone line 020 7730 4500 message code L305) or you could try your luck on the door.

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In the buildup to the concert, do stay tuned to the Pink Singers' Facebook and Twitter pages as they will be updated all day today. After the concert, keep a watch on the website and our YouTube channel what's happening next. And of course keep your eyes on this page because the Pink Insider will be giving their view on what is going to be our biggest and baddest concert yet!

See you this evening.

Gleeful Show On Saturday!

2010-06-16T09:13:00.006+01:00

Whatever you feel about Glee (and my own views are mixed - I find it a bit overwrought dramatically and overengineered vocally) those kids really are very talented. So it was with a tinge of sadness that I watched the last episode of the first season yesterday. The kids from New Directions made it to regionals, performed "Don't Stop Believing" and came in second behind the rather scary Vocal Adrenaline. On the way, they learned that it was not about the winning, it was about the getting there. Indeed.

With the Pink Singers' concert coming up this Saturday (tickets here), it naturally got me thinking about the kind of choir we are. When the Pink Singers first began, judging by the archived photos and videos, we were much more of a "cabaret" choir with shows which focused on soloists with choral backing and occasional choral numbers. There was simple choreography, and we'd put on gigs at the London Lighthouse to raise funds for the AIDS charity.

When Mladen came along, with his classical musical training, the choir changed again, this time focusing on the vocal quality. We became nore of a "proper" choir, with more challenging pieces. As we became more confident from that perspective, however, the chorerography started slipping in again, to the point where we now have a choreography team; the second half of the concert, which has traditionally been lighter entertainment, is almost entirely choreographed or staged.

We're not quite a show choir a la Glee yet though, nor do I think should we be. The main appeal to me of the Pinkies, and to the audience as well I believe, is that we are extremely diverse musically. There aren't that many concerts you can go to where the choir sings both Vivaldi's Gloria and ABBA's Does Your Mother Know. That is exactly what is promised on Saturday. So see you there!

Life Could Be A Dream!

2010-06-15T12:25:00.006+01:00

...particularly of you come to the Pink Singers summer 2010 concert extravaganza! Get your tickets here - they're going fast! Here are some photos of us in rehearsal last Sunday to whet your appetite. Album 1 and Album 2.

Flashmobbing Pinkie-style

2010-06-14T18:38:00.007+01:00

It is now under a week to the big concert. The choreography is being polished, the final flourishes on the words are being put together, all we need now are bums on seats. That's where you come in! Do make sure you get your ticket for Saturday's performance at Cadogan Hall. And bring a friend or three while you're at it!

We've been doing our own bit to spread the word, and led by the intrepid Jerome some of the Pinkies decided to brave the stares and mobile phone cameras and walk down Old Compton Street singing songs and handing out flyers. Not being that much of a diva I am always slightly self-conscious when it comes to drawing any kind of attention to myself, but once we started doing "our thing" it was clear that the whole event was going to be amazingly fun. Crowds started gathering and we had applause and cheers after every song, and even the odd smile from the scene queens in Rupert Street!

Playing It Straight

2010-06-14T13:17:00.003+01:00

If there is one adjective which really annoys me, it is the term "straight-acting". To me it carries so much internalized homophobia and self-loathing that anyone who uses it on themselves immediately creates a negative impression. While I do understand that society sets sexuality up as a straight/gay binary, this is completely presumptious. Just because one does not have a penchant for footy team shirts or walks with a certain swishiness does not make one homosexual.

So it was with a mix of annoyance and curiousness that this weekend the Pink insider watched Playing it Straight on 4oD. For those of you who have not seen it before, it is a twist on the traditional dating programme where one girl is sent on a series of dates to find the man of her dreams amongst a bevy of 10 eligble bachelors. In this particular case the twist is that half of them are gay. If she picks a straight man, they get £50,000 each. If she picks a gay man she gets nothing, while he gets the entire £100,000 prize money.

For a good critique on this programme, and on the whole heteronormative dating show genre, do take a look at this rather marvellous All Business article on the contruction of reality dating show heterosexuality. The Pink Insider was most annoyed that the contest required the gay contestants to "go back into the closet", reinforcing the "otherness" of being gay. Yes, the alleged aim of the show, i.e. the breaking down of stereotypes, was noble, but when the gay chap who eventually won it proudly declared that he was not a poof, a little bit of me died inside. Why does anyone need to expurgate these so-called "feminine" characteristics to feel validated as a gay man?

Anyway, I am glad that the two contestants for whom I was rooting - the charming and well-spoken Alex and the exuberant and comic Jonny - both turned out to be homosexual. It had nothing to do with a gaydar, these two were, for me, the most balanced individuals on the show, who also just happened to be gay.

The Advantages Of Twitter

2010-06-12T13:29:00.006+01:00

Courtesy of @brettshane I was presented with this rather lovely photo of rugby players Gareth Thomas and Nick Youngquest today. Gareth Thomas is quite the celebrity at the moment, and has quite unconsciously taken on the role as unoffical spokesperson for LGBT sport. Nick Youngquest is an Australian who is straight, but knows his fan base very well. In any case, I would never have heard of the latter were it not for the wonders of twitter. It turns out that he caused a bit of a furore for the following photo which appeared as the June page of the Naked Rugby League Calendar 2007-2008. The version here is SFW, click on it for a slightly more NSFW version!

Team Pinkies At The Pride Run 2010

2010-06-12T13:20:00.003+01:00

Yay! In what has become a bit of a tradition, the Pink Singers are fielding a team for the Pride Run. This is organized by the London Frontrunners, and is always a fun day, with a run in the late morning, a picnic in the afternoon, and a party after that! At the same time we will be raising funds for the London Lesbian & Gay Switchboard, so it really is all good. If you are Pink Singer, join the Facebook group and register now - places go very quickly.

Compulsory World Cup 2010 Post

2010-06-12T08:58:00.009+01:00

My interest in the football is, at best, marginal, but once every four years the World Cup swings round and everyone goes into this weird state of soccer fixation. It is almost impossible to not be caught up in the action, particularly when there is so much to ogle at. Annie Leibovitz does a great photoshoot over at Vanity Fair. There's even a 'making of' video over there, but here are a few choice shots. Think I'll be keeping my eye on Brazil and the rather talented Ricardo Izecson Dos Santos Leite (a.k.a. Kaká)...

Naturally, if you are sick to death of football (and if you are, I pity the next month for you...) then may I also suggest a welcome distraction on the Saturday 19th of June? Come to the Pink Singers' concert! Get your tickets here.

Pink Insider Goes Facebook!

2010-06-08T12:02:00.004+01:00

I feel a need to explain why the Pink Insider now has a public Facebook page. Until recently there hasn't really been any need for one, but now that Facebook allows a limited amount of coding on their pages (much like MySpace did back in the day) the Pink Insider has decided to take it for a spin. As you can see the blog feed automatically gets posted to the Facebook page, and I am also embedding videos from the Pink Insider YouTube channel onto the page directly too. Everything is a bit of a testbed at the moment. Do check the Facebook page as I try out some cool stuff there. And remember you can still follow the Pink Insider on twitter, by email updates and by RSS.

Sounding Good And Ready To Rumble!

2010-06-07T12:01:00.003+01:00

The Pinkies ran through our entire season's repertoire and the concert yesterday. It was the first time we had properly sung through everything, and worked in the choreography and entrances and exits, and the first real chance for us to see how the whole concert comes together. It feels like ages, but it was really just in February that we started putting the pieces together, and even technically challenging pieces like Eric Whitacre's With A Lily In Your Hand are very close to performance standard. We have just two weeks to polish things up a bit, but otherwise, we are in a pretty comfortable position as things go, and will be ready for the summer gig.

Yesterday was also the AGM, an opportunity for the choir to look back on the events of the last year, and vote in the new committee. It is with a great deal of sadness that we lose Mark as our chair. Mark really has been instrumental in taking the choir in new directions. Our choir has benefitted in terms of organizational structure and better planning, and has more people involved in many more ways than ever before. Yesterday's rehearsal reinforced that level of teamwork we all feel. Our new chair is the eminently capable Max who will undoubtedly take us to new heights!

Now and then I have a tiny complaint, and yesterday's was the coffee left behind in the studio after rehearsal. Drinks are VERBOTEN, and more so if you expect someone to clean up after you!

Just Two Weeks To Go!

2010-06-06T10:08:00.007+01:00

Do you have your ticket to A Little Light Music yet? If not you'd better get one now - tickets are going, going, gone! The URL is http://www.pinksingers.co.uk/tickets so head on over there now!

Since you are reading this on-line, you probably won't need this, but the Pink Insider has been looking at making real world items "clickable" too. There are basically two different types of patterns you can use for this: Microsoft Tag (above) and QR Codes (below). You may have noticed in the column to your right that these colourful or black and white squares have appeared. Basically, these are bar codes which can be printed out onto real world objects. If you see these patterns around you can actually visit the URL they link to super easily.

All you need is a phone with a camera and a web browser (most phones nowadays), then download the software to read the code (via http://gettag.mobi on your phone for Microsoft Tag, or http://reader.kayway.com on your desktop for QR Codes, or check your device's app store), snap a picture, and you're off!

Europeans Have No Taste

2010-05-30T11:56:00.003+01:00

Yes, I realise that That Sounds Good To Me was an extremely derivative piece of work, but it had a decent melody and was so anodyne as to be widely accepted, and Josh perfomed it commendably, so I really don't understand how, at the end of a rather long evening, the song ended up last, behind corkers like the ones from Belarus and Russia as it really wasn't that bad, and at least made no references to "god of mercy" or other deities, so should have done better, and if it had, would not have made me as upset about the total lack of taste in the European continent (although I will add that I thought Lena was an okay winner, conrgats!).