Geoff's Birthday Party (1st July)

One of the really good things about singing in quartet is seeing the smiles on peoples faces, and one of the best smiles we have seen for a long time was this evening, when we walked in and suprised Geoff!

Geoff saw us perform at the Heanor show back in February, and said it was the best show he had ever seen, so his daughter Susan contacted us about his 80th birthday party. We thought it was a great idea and hid behind a fence before walking into his back garden singing (Only for 5 minutes - not from February!!!). 

It was brilliant! Excellent audience, we sang both outside in the garden, then later in the house. Geoff was grinning from ear to ear throughout the evening.

A particularly touching moment was when we sang Heart Of My Heart to Geoff and his beautiful wife Mary. I explained that we always sing this song to the bride at weddings - but as we weren't around when they got married (1953), we'd do it for them now.

One of the most enjoyable evenings we've had for ages.

Many, many thanks to Susan for inviting us.

Singin' In The Rain

After the University gig, we hot footed it into the suburbs for another performance. This one was a Diamond Wedding Anniversary at Brinsley.

The party was supposed to be outside on the lawn, but as it was raining cats and dogs, it had been moved into a  plastic marquee on the patio. All well and good, except that the rain was VERY LOUD!! Still, we sang and sang, and everyone had a great time. We also had one lady get so emotionally involved in one of the ballads that she had tears running down her cheeks. Lovely!

It was a privilege to be allowed to share Margaret and Vics' special day, and many thanks to David and Karen for such a brilliant evening.

Special Blend go to University

This was an extremely interesting gig that we shared with our friends Revised Edition. The occasion was a champagne reception for the graduates of Cripps Hall in Nottingham.

Both quartets sang a few songs individually and then we all joined together as an Octet for a few final songs, culminating in The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

The grads loved this, all joining in.

What made this gig so memorable was the way the Grads were dressed - chaps in Dj's and the ladies in the some of the most gorgeous outfits we've ever seen. Picture eight middle aged guys trying to sing with their eyes popping out of their heads and you've just about got it!!
 
Many thanks to Katherine for such wonderful organisation. 

Newark - The Quartet that was nearly a trio!

I suppose it had to happen eventually. On the morning of our performance in Newark, Rob had a minor accident and was taken to hospital with a suspected broken leg. Frantic phoning round resulted in Steve, the bass from our brother quartet and very good friends Revised Edition hot -footing it from their rehearsal in Nottingham over to Newark to stand in for Rob - and a very good job he did too!!

We sang as a trio for about 30 minutes - which was interesting - and then Steve joined us for the rest of the afternoon.

As we were singing at a Barbershop, I took the opportunity to have a quick haircut, and can highly recommend their services. Besides cutting hair, they also provide a shave with a cut-throat razor, and a full face hot towel treatment. Sadly, there wasn't enough time for that, but I'm going to have one in the future!

Who says Barbershop is just for older people? Not Victoria, pictured here, who was transfixed watching us, and then badgered her mum to come back so she could listen again. Many thanks to Victoria, and also to her mum for allowing us to reproduce the picture here.

Many thanks to Marion and the girls for making us so welcome, and for really entering into the spirit of the occasion, and a huge thanks to Steve of Revised Edition for helping us out at such incredibly short notice.