Sunday 19 February 2017

Harmony Tour of N.Germany

Five concerts on a tour of the beautiful north of Germany...
Sharing the stage, as part of Stimmflut 2017, with Viva Voce & Acoustic Instinct...

Both other groups wonderful and splendid in their own ways... Viva Voce, 5-part & Acoustic Instinct 2-part (beatboxing, but not only!)  We all joined together at the end and sang Stand by Me... marvellous.
The audiences have basked in a feast of vocal music; we enjoyed ourselves immensely - as this is the 10th year of the Stimmflut tour, Viva Voce who created this series, have developed wonderfully knowledgeable & enthusiastic crowds!
They loved all that we did - from 16th-century French music (Thoinot Arbeau's Belle qui tiens...) to Tiger Rag and Strangers in the Night... and finishing off with the German tongue-twister, wenn ich vergnügt bin muss ich singen.
Wonderful to watch and listen to the other two groups, Acoustic Instinct's dynamism, rhythm & fun; & Viva Voce's melifluous beauty & harmony (& fun too!)

We performed in Buchholz, Stade, & Wolfenbüttel (two nights...); tomorrow we complete this part of the tour in Wolfsburg - the only one of the places we have been to before (in 1999).
(More coming in March)...

There was a street in Stade which suggests (making sure you use German pronunciation) that there may have been a campaign to use more than 140 characters in communications, even many years ago...


Beautiful places indeed...
Stade (an old Hanseatic League port & once ruled by the Swedes and then the Danes)



Wolfenbüttel


Corny joke (another):-
Do you think they have any of the below in red?


Thursday 16 February 2017

Dinner for 4 in places beginning with 'B'

So two performances of Dinner for 4... in Baden Baden and Brackenheim...
Delightful both.

The audience sat at tables and enjoyed food and wine as we gave them Dinner for 4... and a great time was had by all.
For Baden Baden, we were in a hotel in the splendour of Rastatt, complete with red Baroque castle (our desires are widely known!)


As to Brackenheim...
We had not visited this venue since the year 2000 - well, Mike and Mark had! - such joy in inviting us back so soon!  The guestbook from that year with photos made us feel a wee bit worn! (Mike was reminded of his accident with a basin which flooded the hotel... they were amazingly pleased to see us return!)
But a full to the rafters house was full of joy and acclaim

A meal for the entire administration of the concert club after the concert was not only excellent to digest, but most convivial and happy!
Thank you to all who helped our evening be so terrific - Joachim, Martin, Christina et al....

Oh and a small thing I noticed in Brackenheim:
The bus stop outside the church was clear that anyone wishing the 666 route had to carry on with their journey...

Now we are back in Germany for five concerts shared with Viva Voce... more details anon!

Tuesday 7 February 2017

German joys... more to come

To Lüdenscheid for an a cappella nacht; sharing the stage with two other splendid vocal groups...
The Junction from the Netherlands
&
Bliss from Switzerland
We had previously shared a gig in the summer sunshine at Friedrichshafen, but it was a winter wonder this time.

Glorious, as often in Germany, to have Bettina looking after us - thank you... Our German agent, Peter Martin Jacob is slumming it in Los Angeles!

We had an excellent time in front of a very enthusiastic audience - they did especially enjoy our instructions as to how to make a cup of tea, but all was great!
We must give many thanks for Mike who so gloriously did our sound and lights, he was very kindly lent to us by The Junction... hooray!

Great to hear the other two groups of course... a feast for the audience of 120 minutes of a cappella...
As the final act of the night, we sang all together Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry, Be Happy - and marvellous it was!

And here is the view from my hotel window... a little bit of Wald for you!



We have lots more German splendour for the next two months... look on our site, but this week on Thursday and Saturday, we're in Baden Baden & Brackenheim doing Dinner for 4; then on to Buchholz, Stade, Wolfenbüttel & Wolfsburg for some more shared gigs...

Ausgezeichnet!