Tag Archives: sing-a-long

Singsational Nottingham! – A Great Success

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We had a great time on Saturday night!  An enthusiastic audience had a great sing and raised £740 for our charities.  Thank you to everyone who came along, participated so willingly and donated so generously.

And thanks too, on your behalf to the wonderful cast, musicians and crew.  And to all the people who helped behind the scenes (we raised £70 selling mini knitted Hops!).

If you would like to see some pictures of the evening click here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/123988951@N03/

And I’ve had a moment of inspiration!  Singsational Nottingham! is not a sing-a-long, it is a Community Musical.

Why?

  • A Singsation event has a story
  • A Singsation event has a cast, a script and is staged (complete with props, sound and lighting)
  • A Singsation event is accompanied by live music
  • A Singsation event has a lot of singing
  • A Singsation event involves as many aspects of the local community as possible
  • A Singsation event is fun!

So watch this space to see what the next Singsation community musical will be!

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Singsational Nottingham! 2014 – Starts in exactly one week

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In exactly one week from now Singsational Nottingham! 2014 will be starting.  And, in the company of ‘Hop’ the Pigeon, we will be singing our way through the story of WW1.

There will be a lot of singing!

But you don’t have to do all the singing yourselves.  You will also be able to listen to the children of the WHP Federation School Choir and the chamber choir, “Harlequin”.

You will be able to buy your very own souvenir hand-knitted ‘Hop’ .

You will be able to study a display about Beeston during WW1 which has been prepared by the local history society and to see the work of the school children during the interval.

You can show off your “Edwardian” flat cap or shawl if you decide to come in contemporary costume!

And you will be able to give generously to our three charities:  Hope Nottingham; the Friary and Help for Heroes

SEE YOU NEXT SATURDAY!

Singsational Nottingham! will commence at 7.30pm on SaturdayMay 17th at Chilwell Road Methodist Church, Beeston, Nottingham, NG9 1EH. Tickets will cost £5.00 (£2.00 for children) and are available on the door or in advance by contacting 0115 943 1164

(If you do not know the area well, park in “Foster Avenue” car park, because the tram works are making it hard to get to the church by car at the moment).

Singsational Nottingham! 2014 – Why not come in costume?

1914 costumes

I hope that you are all continuing to “warm up” your voices ready for lots of singing in three Saturdays time.  We’ve had a technical discussion this evening, so that we know that we have all the lighting, sound and projection equipment that will be needed – so things are progressing nicely!

If you are able to join us on the evening, why not add to the authenticity of the event by coming in Edwardian garb?  At its simplest, this could be a flat cap for the gents and a woollen shawl for the ladies.  If you fancy going to town a bit more, I’ve collected together a few ideas on this document which you can download.  Costumes – suggestions

We are also fortunate enough to have a small display about Beeston during WW1 which has been prepared by the local history society.  It will be available for you to take a look at during the interval.

Singsational Nottingham! will commence at 7.30pm on SaturdayMay 17th at Chilwell Road Methodist Church, Beeston, Nottingham, NG9 1EH. Tickets will cost £5.00 (£2.00 for children) and are available on the door or in advance by contacting 0115 943 1164

Singsational Nottingham! 2014 – Can you knit?

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As you will have noticed by now, Singsational Nottingham! is subtitled ‘”Hop” the Pigeon’ on this occasion.  And for good reason because our WW1 sing-a-long will indeed feature a pigeon called “Hop”

I’m delighted to say that there will be some miniature “Hop”‘s for sale during the interval on May 17th – all proceeds will go to the three charities that we are supporting – The Friary; Help for Heroes and Hope Nottingham.

If  you would like to do your bit to raise funds and  you can knit, why not make a (few) “Hop”‘s to sell?  Please download the pattern and bring them along to the evening – you can donate them to the stall before we start.  Don’t worry if you do not have the correct coloured wool – I think a flock of rainbow coloured pigeons would look very nice!

Hop the Pigeon knitting pattern

Singsational Nottingham! will commence at 7.30pm on SaturdayMay 17th at Chilwell Road Methodist Church, Beeston, Nottingham, NG9 1EH. Tickets will cost £5.00 (£2.00 for children) and are available on the door or in advance by contacting 0115 943 1164

Singsational Nottingham! 2014 – The list of performers is growing

School Choir

I’m delighted to announce that the WHP Federation of Schools Choir, featuring children and staff from Alderman White and Bramcote Hills Schools will be taking part in “Singsational Nottingham! 2014 – Hop the Pigeon – a WW1 sing-a-long”.  The young people will sing us some songs from their repertoire as the story progresses and help make the evening into a true community event.

In addition, there will be a display of their school work – Newspaper front pages, inspired by the men of Bramcote village who went away to war – for you to look at during the interval.

Singsational Nottingham! will commence at 7.30pm on SaturdayMay 17th at Chilwell Road Methodist Church, Beeston, Nottingham, NG9 1EH. Tickets will cost £5.00 (£2.00 for children) and are available on the door or in advance by contacting 0115 943 1164

Singsational Nottingham! 2014 is part of “Trent to Trenches”

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I’m pleased to be able to tell you that “Singsational Nottingham! 2014 – Hop the Pigeon – a WW1 sing-a-long” has been accepted as part of the Nottingham City and County Council “Trent to Trenches” series of events commemorative events.  You can find more details of all the events and other activities here:  http://www.experiencenottinghamshire.com/trent-to-trenches

This means that the event was listed in the Nottingham Post yesterday evening, so hopefully that will lead to an even bigger audience.

If anyone thinks they can help with the organisation of this year’s Singsation! over the next ten weeks, please let me know.  If you can help with publicity, props etc. I’d be delighted to hear from you!

Singsational Nottingham! will commence at 7.30pm on SaturdayMay 17th at Chilwell Road Methodist Church, Beeston, Nottingham, NG9 1EH. Tickets will cost £5.00 (£2.00 for children) and are available on the door or in advance by contacting 0115 943 1164

Back to normality

Now that Singsational Nottingham! over my family and I can get back to normality!

We’ve just eaten Sunday lunch at the dining table for the first time since mid-January (it was too full of script drafts, copies of music and endless “to-do” lists before) and I’ve actually been into the garden to see if there is anything growing out there (there is – mainly weeds and the grass)!

I hadn’t realised how much the organisation of the event had taken over my non-work life for the past few months and whilst there is not a Singsational Nottingham!-shaped hole there yet (there is still plenty of post-show stuff to do), I know that within a very few days I will be wondering what to do with my evenings.

However, after the success of last night I can’t believe that there will not be another performance sometime soon.  I’d like to do another one somewhere around Nottingham, but if anyone out there fancies using the script, format etc., somewhere else in the country (or in the world!), get in touch.  It really was a great evening and not too difficult to put on.  And the audience loved it – I’ve had emails and facebook messages from people of all ages saying what a brilliant time they had and asking when the next Singsational Nottingham! will be.

So the formula is well and truly tested and the public have spoken.  Time to get back in the shower now and see where I’m going to take Singsation! and Singsational Nottingham! next!

Singsational Nottingham! founder finds inspiration!

Singsational Nottingham! founder finds inspiration!

Singsational Nottingham! gets a new logo

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Ready for the show on Saturday night, we’ve got a proper logo (instead of clip art) to put on the programmes etc.  It has been created for me by a wonderful, talented, generous colleague, Emma.  Thanks Emma.

Now I need to go into facebook and update the various pages.  That’ll keep me busy for the next few minutes!

And my younger daughter has made me  a baton to conduct the singers on Saturday out of a garden cane-stuffed art straw, some drinks bottle lids and red insulation tape.  It looks brilliant and works perfectly.  Singsational Nottingham! is certainly pulling on talents from all directions.

Next up it’ll be the musicians that take centre stage – singers and instrumentalists from our community here in Nottingham.  That’s what the evening is all about.  That and fun!

Singsational Nottingham! is raising money for Water Aid.  If you want to give some money to support their work please go to http://www.justgiving.com/singsational-nottingham

Five days to go. Nearly there!

The final countdown has started. Here is what is going on!

We finally made the local paper on Saturday, so a few people may see that. I’ve written the programme and prepared the word sheets for those in the audience who don’t want to use the screen. I have created a “Just Giving” page for people who can’t come to be able to make a donation to Water Aid and I’m listening to BBC Radio 2 which happens to have a week of programmes dedicated to the voice, ending on Saturday! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p017q214

Friends have put all the words for the songs into a presentation package so they can be projected; collected numerous props (including a bucket, axe and several dozen shower caps); arranged to record and video the evening that it can be loaded on You Tube and built a “shower cubicle” (which has a significant role to play in the proceedings).

If you want to know why we need a shower cubicle, you’ll have to go onto You Tube next week. I’ll blog when there is stuff to see.

What am I worried about? Actually it is mainly the traffic and parking. Beeston is currently in chaos because a new tram line is being built – and it is this week that things have really “kicked off”. So no-one really knows what the traffic will be like on Saturday evening, but it is crazy during the day.

Here is my message to myself at 2.00 in the morning!

Here is my message to myself at 2.00 in the morning!

And some really good news. You may remember that I wrote to Helen Chadwick,the “Water Aid “composer”, telling her about Singsational Nottingham! and asking her what her favourite warm up is. She sent me a lovely email today, wishing us luck and telling me about a “call and response song” OLEO; I’m going to look it up!

One week to go. Let’s start raising funds

Over the past few weeks of organising Singsational Nottingham! I have spent a fair bit of time writing this blog (www.singsation.org), updating the Singsation! facebook page (www.facebook.com/singlikeyourintheshower) and sending out emails to my contacts via Mail Chimp. I know that everyone who has been “following” the development of the event would love to be here in Beeston, Nottingham, next Saturday, April 20th, but unfortunately for many of you, it will be too far to travel.

But fear not!

I have created a Just Giving page which will enable you, at the click of your mouse, to make a donation to Water Aid, just as if you had been with us!

After the event I will upload some photos (and hopefully video) so that you can see exactly what we got up to. They might inspire you to donate even more (there will be no refunds, whatever happens!), so expect to continue to receive these updates even after Singsational Nottingham! is over.

Here is the link to the Singsational Nottingham! page, on Just Giving, for Water Aid. Please use it 🙂

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