Aaaarrgh ! ! NO PAPER ! ! !

I've been a trifle too efficient and cleared out all the paper.
Yes Stephen you were right!
Apart from betting on the flies on the window, what else am i finding to do ? !
So this piece, that just HAD to be written, is appearing free form !


I am a pessimistic person and throw in a bit of pain; facing the thought of cancelling our scheduled family visits and Stephen pondering upon a job somewhere near Bahrain my spirits had plummeted today.

Looking to inch them up, I went looking for Elaine Page.
She has a great Sunday afternoon programme on radio 2 featuring showtunes and everything Broadway.
Brilliant for driving home to, eh Pol ? !

I was too early but lucky me was just in time to catch Michael Ball and his guest . . .
Gasp . . .
Gareth Malone ! ! ! YAY ! !

I love Gareth Malone ! !

I never did understand Marion Appleton's passion for Elvis.
I didn't really get the Beatles!
I liked them but that was it. A club I wasn't a member of.
Then I found Gareth Malone and became a groupie overnight!

He is that smart looking posh lad who took a boy's secondary school and persuaded some of them, tough knocks many of them, to sing as a choir and enter a choir competion in China of all places !

He also formed a choir wth the community of South Oxley. All of them !
I think their trophy moment was appearing at the Albert Hall singing 'Walking on Sunshine'.

So this was a reality television show (the only one worth watching; I think) about a young chap with virve and vigour for music in all its many forms, tackling an unlikely band of people and producing harmony on a grandish scale.
It worked !
Go check out Youtube. Just type in The Choir.

Today I discovered Gareth is, big gulp. . .
a composer, choir master, singer, pianist and outreach worker, taking music into schools, oap homes etc., with a passion.
He has also picked up two baftas along the way, whilst still in his early thirties !

I think his secret is doing what he loves and believing in people and passing his passion along.

He is a very lucky lad to have so many options to choose from.

The Choir is a brilliant project that should be attempted everywhere !

I was worried that I had flat-lined !
My music mojo is still there !

I've had a good bop around the room to Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, singing my head off, ouch!, sounding like Jim Royle !
It must be the Mersey sound !

I remember now the fun of singing, the getting it right and cracking it !
The feeling of community with a bunch of people I scarcely know and also of developing another facet to my identity.

He's introduced me to a band called Fleet Foxes and a song White winter Hymnal.
Lovely !

Do yourselves a favour;

GET INVOLVED IN MUSIC !

EXCELLENT ! ! !