Category Archive: Gigs

We had a great day at the Blackheath Choir festival, such lovely venue and audience. Plenty of support from the audience with this one, always a crowd pleaser. Especially the line about the bonus for the Chairman of the Board…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5CECfgzV4E&w=560&h=315]

We’re learning 2 new songs for Blackheath, and here are some practice tracks for you.

Comrades! The May Day toast is on! Off to the Hellenic Club we go. As per tradition, we warmed up in the Disabled toilet, prior to our performance. (Great acoustics!) This year, Arthur (MC) got me a microphone, and I used it to grab attention, announce the songs, and get the crowd involved. Zlatco sang his solo on mic also, to loud rousing cheers of appreciation. Coal Seam Gas went down very well. Run list was: Step by Step, Non ngayajeta, Coal Seam Gas, Solidarity, Internationale.

Mairi’s thoughts on the National Folk Festival in Canberra (and photo courtesy of Bill and Diane):

Singing on the stage with so many people – even if the stage collapsed towards the end – was an amazing experience and one which I will remember for a long time.  Even our quick exit off stage seemed as if it was planned.  Many of my friends thought that was in the plan – that we would sing the last couple of songs down with the audience!  We were so orderly getting off stage it was amazing.

Our street choir gigs went off well I think.

So, a huge thank you to all of us who went to Canberra

I feel so very sorry for those who could not make it.  You missed a great weekend.

A huge thanks also to Catherine’s Mother who made such a lovely banner for us.  We proudly carried it along the street, and it was greatly admired.

When we sang our first streert choir numbers a woman from Dubbo invited us to a Singing Workshop weekend at Dubbo on the first weekend in May.  It sounded really good, so we might like to think about it.

As well, I noticed there is a Dorrigo Folk and Bluegrass Festival on October 26th-28th.  Dorrigo is a beautiful little village on the north coast of NSw.  Maybe we might like to think about that too.

As we said last week, we will not have Choir this coming Thursday.  I think we deserve a bit of a rest.  So see you all on Thursday April 19th.

Regards,
Mairi

First half of the year we have

• Cobargo Folk Festival, 25th & 26th February
• Coledale Public School 150th Anniversary, 31st March (Date to be confirmed)
• National Folk Festival, Canberra, Easter weekend
• May Day Toast, (Date to be confirmed)
• Combined Choir’s get-together, Newcastle, Sat, June 2nd & Sunday, June 3rd

It was fantastic to see the singers from Sydney, Newcastle and even one from Tasmania arrive and get organised to sing together for the Illawarra Folk Festival. The weather was not kind, heavy rain since before 6am today, so we ran through our songs in the grandstand. Then up to the Miners Camp venue, which we squeezed into with a bit of chair rearranging. Bread and Roses and Four Strong Women subg en masse got me all choked up and emotional. Our 3 songs sounded great, and the new Coal Seam Gas protest song very well received. Sydney’s 2nd song “I ain’t afraid” was a stand out for me – I think we can learn it for the National Folk Festival. Thanks to Gabrielle and Margot for conducting the combined songs.

Combined choirs warmup

Great first gig at the 2012 Illawarra Folk Festival. With 3 new/returned members and Bella in her new t-shirt, we were at full strength and ready to roll after a quick warm-up and run through this morning. Interspersed amongst the reading of Fred’s bio (what an amazing life and an incredible contribution to change in QLD and beyond, I learnt a lot today) we sang It’s a Long Way to Cunumulla, The Red Flag, Stand Together (choruses to backup Bernard Carney), and of course Solidarity and Internationale (with much singing from the audience.) A range of other performers sang songs as well, and the guy who sang Joe Hill just blew me away. Well done everybody.

and here we go onstage with Bernard Carney during the Fred Paterson Tribute

Bernard Carney and the Illawarra Union Singers

What a shame i did not get a photo of us all looking fabulous at the Art Gallery today. We had just about everybody there, a full contingent of singers and all parts well covered. We sounded great and thanks to Brian for sorting song order, and Zlatko for warming the group up and practicing a few numbers before i arrived. We sang: Let’s Pretend, Last Night i had the strangest dream, Step by Step, Mnogaja Ljeta, Banaha, and Solidarity. I think it gave the audience a taste of what we’ll bring to the Folk Festival in january, as well as give us confidence. Next step – finalise that new Coal Seam Gas song…

Another good night out at the Hellenic Club. We did a great job, sang 4 songs: Lets Pretend (with the kazoos) which certainly got everybodys attention; Imagine (in 3 parts, quite tricky, well done!); Solidarity; and The Internationale, featuring first verse and chorus sung solo in Serbian by Zlatko. Very appropriate to emphasize the global nature of the day, and I think much appreciated by the international guests from Chile and Palestine.

These photos were taken after we’d warmed up, and while we had something to eat.