Rocking Your world 2018: Week 47

Hi everyone. It seems like an age since my last post. I have had a very exciting two weeks away visiting, London, Birmingham, Denmark, Llanymynech and Manchester, and I have a shed load of photos to sort through. As I haven't had time since I got home to do this, and I am still collating pictures from each of my sons, today I will concentrate on the main event which was my visit to London.

Those who follow my blog regularly will know that I went to London with my choir, to sing at the Gala Concert for Cancer Reasearch UK, at the Royal Albert Hall. And what a privilege it was to be a part of this prestigious event. We left Spain as a group on Friday 2nd November. The organisers of the concert had arranged a package deal to cover our transport from Gatwick airport to our hotel on Canary Wharf, and the next day, from our hotel in the morning to a full rehearsal at RAH, back to our hotel for lunch, and back again with our supporters, for the concert in the evening. It was a pretty full on day, but I loved being a part of it. Most of us folk from rural Spain, have forgotten about city life, the traffic, the high rise buildings and all the lights, so we enjoyed our ride to the hotel as night was falling, and when we were assigned to our room on the thirteenth floor, this was the view from the big panoramic windows, as the sun set in a blaze of glory.

Before long the sky was dark and our view was lit up by the myriad lights from the streets and buildings.

We were tired after travelling most of the day, and we had a good night's sleep but I woke up early enough to peep round the curtains and take this lovely photo as the sun rose.

Our coach was picking up up to go to the rehearsal at 7.45 so we had first use of the breakfast room which was on the 38th floor. I sat with some lovely ladies from Kidderminster choir, and together we gazed at the magnificent view over Canary Wharf.

From the end window I looked down between two tall buildings to the dark water below.

My son Tom came to visit us at our hotel in the afternoon, and he took this photo of the Wharf. It has obviously been edited, but it shows the skyline at its best.

Before long it was time to don our 'posh frocks' (waistcoats and bow ties for the men) and get back on the coach to go to the concert. As we drove through London I tried to get some photos but there was too much reflection from the coach windows, and too much movement, but I did catch one of the London Eye, and New Scotland yard lit up in blue.

It was nice to see some of the shops had their Christmas windows on show. Others were covered as the windows were prepared. It is a bit too early I know, but it was nice to see them all the same.

Soon we reached our destination. I wanted to wait to see the boys as they arrived, but we were ushered straight to our seats, so I left Chris to greet them.

All five of our boys and their partners, had booked to come but sadly one son was unwell with a bug he probably picked up while gigging in Europe the week before,  so he couldn't come. Our oldest son came with our grandson who has an interest in music and wanted to be there. When we were seated everyone started frantically trying to spot friends and relatives around the arena. The house lights were quite low but we knew more or less where to look. Most of our supporters were in tier 2 which is small boxes, quite high up,  each seating five people, so our 'gang' had two of them. My friend Chris' family were in a box immediately opposite us so we soon saw them. Then we had to decide how to get their attention.

Some of my folk were in a box to my right, fairly central to the hall, and we picked them out quite easily. Of course the singers were not allowed cameras, but the visitors all had them, and they managed to zoom in our little group of Altos.

They also had a good view of the whole choir. Basically the basses were up high on one side of the organ, and the tenors were on the other side. The baritones were central below the organ with the mezzo sopranos in front of them. The soprano ones were in the side rows to the left and us altos were on the right. In the centre there was a dais for the Musical Director, and two of England's top brass bands/orchestras.

From where we were sitting, we were able to watch the percussionists for the bands. They play such an important role, but often have to wait patiently for the moment when they can clash the huge cymbals, or bang the gong. They had a wide range of other instruments to look after too, and it was interesting to see them move from to another.

My second family group had a box immediately above us, so they looked down on our heads. I could hear my son joining in with the community singing at the end.

The concert was amazing. I felt less overwhelmed by my surrounding than I had expected. We had learned our pieces well, but it was still quite something to be singing with 1500 other people instead of our usual little choir of 20-30. There were some traditional pieces like The Hallelujah Chorus, and Gloria from the 12th Mass, right down to a gospel spiritual and a Scottish folk song. At the end of the second half we did a rousing round of Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory, where choir and audience alike, waved their flags and joined in with the refrains.

The most poignant moment was when we sang a simple song called Calm is the sea. We sang the first verse with the bands, the second verse with the organ, and the third verse unaccompanied. Before we sang the MD spoke a little about the charity - Cancer Research UK - that the concert was raising money for, and then he asked everyone to turn on their twinklers. These are the small, round, white badges you can see on our dresses. They lit up and sparkled as the lights in the auditorium slowly dimmed so that there was only a spotlight on the MD at the end. Then we had two minutes silence to think of all those we know who have been affected by this horrible disease. It was very moving. There was a lovely video of the whole of this song, but I don't know who owned it so I couldn't link it here, though it was shared on my Facebook page. But to give you some idea, you can click HERE for a short video of just the last verse.

Another short video shows the ladies singing one of their songs. (There were four songs for ladies only and four for the men, and the rest were the whole choir) You can see our's HERE:

And finally HERE is our rendition of Rule Britannia, when you can see we got quite animated.

Now I have to include this picture of the iconic ceiling of the Royal Albert Hall. The round baffles were added to improve the accoustics. It is quite something to see.

These pictures are what I call my groupies.

Of course I have always gone to support my boys in anything they have done throughout their lives, but I was still touched when they all said they wanted to come to support me. I hadn't expected them to do this!

Four boys and their dad (far left). And on the backs...

Quite amusing when I had warned them all to look smart for the occasion, but it was a laugh and raised some smiles among my fellow singers. After the concert I had a few minutes to say 'Hello' to them all before hurrying to get our coach back to the hotel. It was half past midnight when we got back, so I am glad we didn't stay chatting and miss the coach. Of course I was scheduled to visit each of them in turn during the following two weeks, so it didn't matter that I only had a few minutes on the night. Dad was returning to Spain the next day, but he was with them all evening.

Unfortunately one son had gone walkabout when this was taken and we couldn't wait for him to return, but it does include our Grandson and two partners.

And that's about it for this week but I will close with this big smile. It really belongs in my UK folder but I can't wait until I post that. One of my sons lives fairly near to our very own Annie, so he dropped me off to have a chat with her, before whisking me away to catch my next train. She is every bit as smiley and lovely as I perceived her to be from her blog. I love the way Blogging has introduced me to so many new friends, and it is even more special when we can meet them face to face.

And now I am going to link up with her blog at A Stitch in Time, and see what others are smiling about this week, and also link with Virginia on Rocking Your World, though her post isn't up yet. But I can check back later. Next week I will give you a quick tour of Arrhus in Denmark, and maybe Birmingham and Manchester as well.