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May. 28th, 2019 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestBeast is no longer a Convention Virgin.
We spent the weekend in Bournemouth, at the BABS Convention (the men's convention, ours is in October). After a bloody awful journey—*so* many hold-ups—we pretty much arrived in Bournemouth in time to pick up our lanyards and programmes and go out to eat, before returning for the Friday show.
His chorus was the first to perform on Saturday morning, so poor Beast was up very early, breakfasted on flapjacks (the English kind, not pancakes) and went off to warm up/rehearse while I enjoyed a much more leisurely and proteinaceous meal at the hotel, then wandered along the beach to the convention centre. After a bit of a mix-up (it turns out there are two Riviera hotels) we ended up staying half an hour's walk away from the centre, but the weather was at worst overcast, and often lovely, so the walk wasn't a problem. Lots of families and dogs enjoying the sun, sand and sea during the day, lots of teenagers clustered around firepits at night. (?)
The boys sang well, and Beast was able to join me after the second chorus had done their stuff, so we watched the first session of the competition together. After that, lunch, then the session with Crossroads (awesome 2009 international champion quartet) talking about how they rehearse and run their quartet and generally go about being awesome together, considering they live in three (originally four) different states. Meep. (And I thought a forty-minute drive was a long way to go to practise.)
We watched the last of the four chorus competition sections (thirty-five choruses in total during the day!), and stayed for the results. I was impressed by the way the award ceremony was organised—far better than the LABBS one as all the MDs go up onto the stage before the announcements, so that the winning one is *right there* instead of somewhere at the back of a very large hall.
Had dinner with NH friends at their hotel, which was very good. Then back to the centre for the Saturday show: the LABBS champions opened it with an extended version of their winning set from our last convention. It was a bit disconcerting to find that listening to a women's chorus sounded quite strange, after a day of men singing! But their set was excellent. It was followed by The Real Group, four Swedes and a Latvian, who did, well, extraordinary things with voices (and bottles of water). Really clever. Watch them.
Sunday morning was spent warming up and rehearsing with the mixed chorus, and we performed ninth out of the ten competing mixed choruses, which was a pity as it meant we only got to see one other, the tenth. We sang, I thought, exactly as we had planned and hoped to, although perhaps we didn't 'perform' quite as well as we could have done. We scored 65.4%, which seems pretty respectable for a first outing, and as we'd only had six full rehearsals together, there's definitely room for improvement.
Beast and I took our stagewear back to the hotel and succumbed to the lure of tea before we ventured out to find a late lunch. In consequence we didn't see the quartet competition - apparently the standard was very high, but I do find I have a limited ability to absorb barbershop! We did, of course, go to the Sunday night show, which featured the winning men's chorus, the winning LABBS quartet (who have the cutest baritone ever, she is adorable), the winning mixed chorus, who were indeed excellent, and the winning quartet. And then, at long last, Crossroads, who were charming, funny and incredibly good. OMG.
A much better journey home on Monday, and my cats even condescended to be petted when we got here.
We spent the weekend in Bournemouth, at the BABS Convention (the men's convention, ours is in October). After a bloody awful journey—*so* many hold-ups—we pretty much arrived in Bournemouth in time to pick up our lanyards and programmes and go out to eat, before returning for the Friday show.
His chorus was the first to perform on Saturday morning, so poor Beast was up very early, breakfasted on flapjacks (the English kind, not pancakes) and went off to warm up/rehearse while I enjoyed a much more leisurely and proteinaceous meal at the hotel, then wandered along the beach to the convention centre. After a bit of a mix-up (it turns out there are two Riviera hotels) we ended up staying half an hour's walk away from the centre, but the weather was at worst overcast, and often lovely, so the walk wasn't a problem. Lots of families and dogs enjoying the sun, sand and sea during the day, lots of teenagers clustered around firepits at night. (?)
The boys sang well, and Beast was able to join me after the second chorus had done their stuff, so we watched the first session of the competition together. After that, lunch, then the session with Crossroads (awesome 2009 international champion quartet) talking about how they rehearse and run their quartet and generally go about being awesome together, considering they live in three (originally four) different states. Meep. (And I thought a forty-minute drive was a long way to go to practise.)
We watched the last of the four chorus competition sections (thirty-five choruses in total during the day!), and stayed for the results. I was impressed by the way the award ceremony was organised—far better than the LABBS one as all the MDs go up onto the stage before the announcements, so that the winning one is *right there* instead of somewhere at the back of a very large hall.
Had dinner with NH friends at their hotel, which was very good. Then back to the centre for the Saturday show: the LABBS champions opened it with an extended version of their winning set from our last convention. It was a bit disconcerting to find that listening to a women's chorus sounded quite strange, after a day of men singing! But their set was excellent. It was followed by The Real Group, four Swedes and a Latvian, who did, well, extraordinary things with voices (and bottles of water). Really clever. Watch them.
Sunday morning was spent warming up and rehearsing with the mixed chorus, and we performed ninth out of the ten competing mixed choruses, which was a pity as it meant we only got to see one other, the tenth. We sang, I thought, exactly as we had planned and hoped to, although perhaps we didn't 'perform' quite as well as we could have done. We scored 65.4%, which seems pretty respectable for a first outing, and as we'd only had six full rehearsals together, there's definitely room for improvement.
Beast and I took our stagewear back to the hotel and succumbed to the lure of tea before we ventured out to find a late lunch. In consequence we didn't see the quartet competition - apparently the standard was very high, but I do find I have a limited ability to absorb barbershop! We did, of course, go to the Sunday night show, which featured the winning men's chorus, the winning LABBS quartet (who have the cutest baritone ever, she is adorable), the winning mixed chorus, who were indeed excellent, and the winning quartet. And then, at long last, Crossroads, who were charming, funny and incredibly good. OMG.
A much better journey home on Monday, and my cats even condescended to be petted when we got here.