Barbershop

Barbershop is singing done by men without the accompaniment of instruments. It is also very very very camp. By way of illustration, here is a selection of lyrics from some of the songs we sing:

"Yes sir, that's my baby. No Sir, don't mean maybe..."
"Rum te dum, te dum, te dum, te tiddle-de-tiddle-de-dum"
"We were gathering up the Roses, all on a merry Summer day"
"Heart of my heart, I loooooooooooove you"

Practices are quite hard. I've never performed barbershop before- well never done barbershop before - actually never actually sung in front of anyone before. At any rate, two of the others have, one of whom did music at Cambridge, and the other who has sung in choirs before. Of the other two, Drummond is a talented musician and experienced performer and Edward is a computer. So practice consists of James and Ciaran already knowing the piece; Edward cheerfully humming to himself, right hand playing on the organ, as he computes the manuscript in front of him; and then Drummond and I having to sing our parts over and over again. I should add that Drummond twigs his part faster than me. I also have a tendency to wail when I get nervous and don't know the part. Thus the string part in Stand By Me sounds like a man having his nose cut off. Anyway, before drowning in the swill of my own self-pity, it's good fun and everyone is very patient. But, as they argue in practices over whether a note (just plucked from the air) is an Ab or not, and tell me when I ask for help to "just stick to the tonic and follow James - you're in thirds all the way", I feel a bit out of my depth.

We've now performed two shows. The first was at the school concert, where we were given tie-mikes which of course we didn't know how to use. So the (perhaps inevitable) arguments over whether another air-plucked note was Ab or not, was relayed to the large audience gathered before us.

The second show was in a dark bar called Voodoo Lounge, with drum and bass/ garage chest-thumping away in the background. About ten people could hear us as we frolicked around in our bowties and plastic top hats, singing "Rum te dum, te dum, te dum, te tiddle-de-tiddle-de-dum".
Still lots of fun though.

Will keep you updated.