In memory of 'our Katy'

Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singerswww.labbs.co.uk

In memory of ‘our Katy’In April, the Barbershop world, and

LABBS in particular, lost one of its brightest young stars. At just 28, Katy Phillips had touched many of our lives in so many positive ways; as MD of the Red Rosettes, member of bronze medal winning quartet Northern Vibe, a member of The IVY League, LABBS regional rep and all round genuine and loving Barbershop enthusiast.

To honour Katy’s memory and recognise her contribution to barbershop life, LABBS will be establishing the ‘Katy Phillips Young Barbershopper of the Year’ Award and Bursary.

At the request of the Phillips family, donations in Katy’s memory made to LABBS will fund an annual bursary which will provide support for ongoing barbershop education to the recipient each year.

The total stood at £3,896 at the time of going to press but donations can still be made online via CAF Donate – the link is on the LABBS website, or by cheque made payable to ‘LABBS’ and sent to the LABBS Treasurer, Alys Galloway. Please email [email protected] for the address.

Further details on the award and bursary will be shared in coming months but we believe this to be a fitting memorial for a young woman who brought so much to the barbershop world and was so involved and supportive of our ongoing Youth Development Programme.

The Red Rosettes shared this tribute with Voice Box: “Katy, our bright shin-ing star, who passed away on 13th April aged twenty eight years, was the daughter of Eamon and Teresa Phillips our chorus manager and former chairman of LABBS. Katy was also MD of the Preston Ladies Barbershop Singers, more popularly known as the

Red Rosettes, of which her two sisters Emma and Laura and her niece Emily are members.

Katy took up the position of MD ten years ago and during that time has

gained much respect from a wide range of people of all ages who have had the pleasure of working with her. She has been admired for her courage, taking on the role of MD despite her health dif-ficulties, driving twice after serious car accidents – and all these things done cheerfully, without complaint.

Some of our long-standing members have known Katy since she was a babe in arms and have had the privilege of watching her grow into a beautiful, musically talented lady, becoming the heart and soul of the Red Rosettes due to her dedication, diligence, friendship, her abundant love and her terrific sense of humour.

Katy had an amazing ability to make those lacking in confidence believe in

themselves, enabling them to reach their full potential. We were not at all surprised when Katy amassed awards for most improved MD, most improved chorus at Convention in Telford in 2012

and gained bronze medals singing with her quartet, Northern Vibe in 2011 and 2013.

Our Katy was one in a million, truly inspiring and uncondition-ally caring. She was an amazing teacher, friend and singing buddy who worked hard to empower her beloved chorus both individu-ally and as a team. No words can describe the hole that has been left in our hearts.

We’ll keep on shining for you Katy as you will remain forever our bright, shining star.All our loveThe Red Rosettes

A message from Katy’s family

Thank you to all for the cards, flowers and kind words at this

sad time. We would also like to say thank you to Katy’s Aunt Mary for suggesting that donations could be used towards a music project.

After proposing the idea to Brenda Rothwell to donate in lieu of flowers for developing the LABBS youth strategy the LABBS board acted very quickly, even though they were in Spain, with the proposal to have the Katy Phillips Young Barbershopper of the year award with a bursary for education.

Our family have been overwhelmed by your generosity and kindness.

In harmony Teresa, Eamon and family

Summer 2015

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Hello everyone. I am looking forward to the opportunity to help further

develop LABBS over the next two years as your newly-appointed Chairman, having previously served on the LABBS Board as Vice Chairman.

We all share a passion for barber-shop harmony and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible over the coming months. I would like to say a huge thank you to your outgoing Chairman, Alison Harbord for all her inspiration, support and encourage-ment.

I first found barbershop thirteen years ago when I joined Cheshire Chord Company. I was immediately impressed by the exciting barbershop sound and the energetic choreography. Nine months later, I attended my first LABBS Convention in Harrogate and was completely hooked. I loved the buzz of Convention and the chance to watch other performances and make friends from all over the country.

This is an extremely busy and exciting time for LABBS as we approach our 40th Anniversary year in 2016. This will be closely followed by the hosting of the European Barbershop Convention at our Convention in Bournemouth in 2017. Our special Anniversary will be celebrated throughout 2016, culminating in our 40th Anniversary Convention in Harrogate.

We intend to start the celebrations at Convention this year, when we launch our ‘Beacon of Harmony’ which will travel the country from club to club throughout the year and will arrive back at our Convention in 2016. We hope as many clubs as possible will join in this celebratory event and we will track the progress and bring you news of the Beacon as it makes its way around the country. We will be in touch with more details very soon!

In addition to this, we would like a special and striking logo for our 40th

year and we are inviting members to create and sub-mit their design before the end of July 2015. Please see this edition of Voice Box for more details.

I have recently had the privilege of representing LABBS at the Holland Harmony Convention in Eindhoven. A power cut throughout the northern part of Holland meant I was delayed getting there but a bus journey and two trains later, I arrived in time to see Amersham A Cappella and Finesse perform. Both gave stunning performances and were very popular with the audiences. Two weeks later, I was off to the Spanish Association of Barbershop Singers Convention in Benalmadena. This time my travel plans were threatened by the French air traffic controllers strike but all was well when it was called off at the last minute. Both were excellent conventions and a chance to connect with our European barbershop friends.

At the time of writing this article, I have just visited Bournemouth with our Convention Team on a site visit in preparation for Convention later this year. It never ceases to amaze me how hard this team works and the level of detail which needs to be covered in preparation for what I am sure will be another fabulous Convention.

It was with great sadness that I had to write to you all recently with the news about Katy Phillips who passed away at the tender age of just 28. Katy was passionate about barbershop and was involved in and very supportive of many aspects of our activities. Many

of you will know Katy as she crossed the stage many times with her quartet Northern Vibe, achieving a Bronze medal and also as Chorus Director of the Red Rosettes.

Katy was a member of our youth chorus, the Ivy League and held an official role within LABBS as a Regional Representative. We are extremely grateful to Katy for all her support to LABBS over the years. It is very fitting that Katy’s family has asked for donations in her memory to be used for a new award. We are very proud to announce the new ‘Katy Phillips Young Barbershopper of the Year Award and Bursary’ which will be awarded at Convention this year.

May I take this opportunity on behalf of LABBS and Katy’s family to thank everyone for their kind generosity in making donations. Further details of the award will be announced over the coming weeks and months.

I look forward to meeting as many LABBS members as possible over the next two years.

With my best wishes to you all.

Yours in harmony,Brenda RothwellChairman

Sharing a beacon of harmony

In 2016, LABBS will be celebrating our 40th anniversary – and we want

a special and striking logo to mark the occasion.

This is your chance to make an important contribution to the celebra-tions, by submitting your entry for the LABBS Logo competition. All you have to do is:

Create a logo on the theme of our 40th anniversary

Remember to use our brand colours – red, white and blue

Keep it simple and clear – remem-

ber, it will be used in lots of places, some of which will be small

Submit your entry to the LABBS Mar-keting and Communications Director via [email protected] by July 31, 2015. The winner will be announced at the September Council Meeting.

The successful design will be used throughout the anniversary year on our printed and electronic material, on badges, adverts and, well, just about anywhere you could imagine – so let’s make this a year to remember... with a logo to match!

Looking for logo loveliness

It’s all change at the helm of Voice Box as long-standing editor Deborah

Lamble steps down to concentrate fully on her new role as LABBS Vice Chairman. Stepping into her shoes is Sandra Mangan, PRO for Blackpool Soundwaves and a member of the LABBS Social Media team.

Deborah started singing barbershop

with SAI in 2000 and quickly became section leader, Chorus President and Membership Coordinator for Region 31. She then switched to LABBS and was a choreographer, section leader and editor of two barbershop magazines. Deborah now sings bass with Wessex Harmony and bari with quartet Under Pressure .

Deborah has edited Voice Box since

2010 and feels honoured to be LABBS Vice Chairman.

She said: “I look forward to the challenges and representing LABBS to the best of my ability through the new and exciting times ahead.”

Sandra joined Soundwaves just over two years ago and sings lead. Her only previous barbershop experience was with a mixed chorus in Bridlington many years ago.

A former journalist, Sandra has worked for a wide range of publica-tions, from the Knowsley Reporter and Hull Daily Mail to TV Times and Take a Break. These days she proof reads novels, reviews crime books and recently completed her first ghost writing job.

“Deborah is a hard act to follow but I will do my best to be a worthy editor of Voice Box,” she said.FAR LEFT: Deborah LambleLEFT: Sandra Mangan

It’s goodbye – and hello...

In January Gem Connection held our second very successful workshop day

when 55 ladies registered to BE A GEM FOR A DAY.

With over 100 ladies, Rachael, our chorus director managed to run a very tight ship keeping everyone in order demonstrating vocal production, vowels, breathing technique, word shaping and

visual performance including some choreography to fit the song for the day.

The GEMs provided a buffet lunch for everyone and at the end of the day, family and friends were treated to a performance (complete with some slick choreography) of our song Don’t Stop Me Now, arranged for GEM by Heather Lane, our in-house musical arranger.

After taking a year away from the competitive stage in 2014, GEM are working hard and looking forward to competing at convention 2015. We competed in The National Voice Competition final, in Birmingham in April and received some great feedback. Jenny Smedley PRO, GEM CONNECTION

‘GEM for a day’ event a sparkling success

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Delyth Knight – Category DirectorDelyth directs Brunel Harmony

(LABBS – Saltash) and since February, The Pilgrimaires (BABS, Plymouth). She is also the musical director of Western Approach (also BABS, Saltash). She won a LABBS quartet gold medal as the baritone of Bristol Creme in 1983 and sings with husband Dick and sons Joe and Tom in the mixed quartet K4 and, for fun, a ladies quartet called Just 4.

What was there in your musical life before barbershop?

A lot of singing in school – choir, productions and a folk guitar group and I had early directing success when our junior house choir won a cup. More choral singing at Uni, followed by the local church choir, until choir practice clashed with chorus rehearsals. My sight singing improved immensely.

Why did you want to become a music judge?

I wanted to get back to judging, hav-ing been an Arrangement judge in the 80s and chose Music because it allows me to judge but far more importantly to coach. I get enormous satisfaction from making sheet music come to life.

What or who are your major musical influences?

My mother always had the radio on and when I got my own tranny I used to listen non-stop to pop music, preferring bands who harmonised – The Beatles, The Hollies, The Beach Boys. Later, any music from any era with a pleasing melody would capture me.

What is your favourite song and why?The Swingle Singers’ arrangement of

Lennon/McCartney’s ‘Blackbird/I Will’ is what I’d take to my desert island. It was sung at our silver wedding.

Debi Cox – E&J ChairmanDebi is MD of Capital Connection,

based in outer West London. She is often asked what part she sings – to which the obvious answer as MD is of course “all the best bits”!


Recorder was the starting point, followed by piano and then bassoon. Singing was also important from an early age and throughout school I sang

with every different ensemble there was. The barbershop group was the only exception as it was for boys only!


The initial driver was a need to impress my then MD and have my musical ideas taken seriously... which has since changed to a true desire to help people enjoy their hobby more by making better music.


I was brought up on the simple harmonies of Peter Paul and Mary, John Denver, and Simon & Garfunkel. I sang some amazing classical repertoire at school and I also went through an Indie Music and gothic rock rebellion phase – nowadays I appreciate anything with a great melody and harmonies.

What is your favourite song and why?This changes frequently but a song

that has stuck with me recently is a jazz ballad “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life” which has a haunting melody and powerful emotion behind the lyric.

Joyce StroudJoyce sings baritone with The Arun

Sounds and is a member of their Music Team and an assistant director. She has recently started singing in a new quartet – name under discussion – and leads a worship band and choir at her church.


I started learning piano aged 7, which turned into playing organ and keyboard for church services as a teenager. I also sang in school choir, various church choirs and choral groups and dabbled with playing guitar.


When I got into barbershop I wanted to understand how the chords worked and how the amazing sound was cre-ated – and to use this knowledge to help groups make even better music.


Probably what started me with har-mony singing was the ‘Carols for Choirs’ arrangements by David WiIlcocks

Meet the Music

ABOVE: Delyth Knight

ABOVE: Joyce Stroud

ABOVE: Debi Cox

and John Rutter used in school carol services. Special barbershop influences have been Tom Gentry, the late Roger Payne and the late Ed Waesche.

What is your favourite song and why?My favourite barbershop song/ar-

rangement is ‘Love Me and the World is Mine’ arranged by David Wright. Another favourite is David Wright’s arrangement of Beethoven’s 5th Sym-phony for The Gas House Gang.

Heather Lane – Assistant Category Director

Heather sings tenor and is resident coach with Gem Connection as well as recently joining Phoenix as lead. She spends a lot of time arranging modern pop songs in an acappella style for barbershop voicings – including Daniel Bedingfield, Madonna and Enya.


My Mum bought herself an old piano which coincidentally arrived on my 5th birthday – I interpreted that as my present and pestered my family until they got me lessons! I carried on playing the piano in school and added cello and percussion. I was introduced to barber-shop at the age of 21 via my Dad.


I loved the way barbershop harmo-nies are built and structured and wanted to find out more so that I could have a go at arranging myself.


My youth was in the 80s/90s and so I grew up on a combination of manu-factured pop and boy bands! I still love singing along to their music.

What is your favourite song and why?It changes regularly! I’ve been listen-

ing to some of my Beautiful South CDs recently – there’s some quirky songs as well as harmonies I’d forgotten about.

Jenny MillsWhat was there in your musical life before barbershop?

I was a seasoned musician and trum-pet player before stepping across into barbershop. Having started at the age of six, I played in many youth ensembles

before specialising in jazz and big band music. I currently play with the funk/soul group The Soul Providers.


I wanted to understand what made barbershop barbershop!


If I have to narrow it down to one name, it would be Chet Baker.

What is your favourite song and why?At the moment it is Victor Wooten’s

solo version of the song ‘Overjoyed’. Victor Wooten is an astonishing, virtuoso bass player and his rendition brings me to tears every time.

Alex de Bruin – TraineeAlex directs Avon Harmony (LABBS),

is Lead section leader in The Great Western Chorus (BABS) and sings Baritone in QuarteTones (BABS), as well as helping to lead The University of Bristol Barbershop Singers (TUBBS).


I played baritone horn in a brass band and alto saxophone in a swing band, as well as singing in various choral ensembles.


I found myself drawn to the Music Category thanks to its in-depth ap-proach to analysing what makes good music. As a scientist by day, I feel at home in the more technical aspects and as an arranger and musician I love the analysis of the expressiveness and emotional impact that our songs release.


The brass band music of William Rimmer, sacred choral music, big band swing and the classical/metal fusion of Apocalyptica.

What is your favourite song and why?Land of Confusion (originally by

Genesis but I first encountered it as covered by Disturbed). The raw vocals, powerful rhythmic beats and strong political message opened my eyes to the emotional impact songs can have.

Category Judges

ABOVE: Heather Lane

ABOVE: Alex de Bruin

ABOVE: Jenny Mills

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It is with much sadness that we announce the death of

our dear friend Anne Kohler on April 21. She was an active member of the local singing community, not only being a long standing member of Cascade but also participating in about five other choruses and U3A singing groups in the Ports-mouth area.

Anne joined us from Pitchpipers and very quickly became the Lead Section Leader. Her obvious love of music was infectious and her patience and encouragement made a huge difference to those in her section and beyond: she was the leading light behind our afternoon group “Just Us” which per-formed for daytime singouts as a small group and during these regular afternoon practice sessions she took the time to encourage others

and overcome challenges with songs that we found more difficult. She used her experience from the various singing groups to find differ-ent ways of helping us learn and would often introduce new tags that she had learnt from the other choruses into our warm-ups.

We will always remember her gentle tone, caring nature and her warm smile; she will be greatly missed.

Caroline ClackSouthdowns Ladies Harmony Club

The end of January saw Bristol Fashion appoint our new commit-

tee. Kate Tivney stepped up to the plate as Chairman again after more than 10 years.

Her first task was to nominate the Chairman’s Charity for the year. She chose MacMillan Cancer Support and members are already collecting small change in water bottles, to be returned full. It’s surprising how quickly the pennies add up!

The main event will be our Summer Concert on July 11, where we shall be sharing the bill with Hot Tubbs, from The University of Bristol Barbershop Singers and the talented young singer Charlie Green, who at the age of 10 years reached the semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent in 2008. We were privileged to sing with him last year and are delighted he accepted our invitation to take part in our concert.

Our fundraising efforts for MacMil-lan continue with several members intending to participate in the Race for Life. We hope our friends from Avon

Harmony will join us as they did last year, singing and walking their way to a great fundraising effort

In February we were invited by TUBBS to take part in their workshop and evening performance at The Har-mony Explosion UK Youth Convention

with quartet champions Park Street Hot, Note and the Great Western Chorus.

It was wonderful for us to work with so many young and enthusiastic tal-ented musicians. Simon Arnott arranged the Clean Bandit song ‘ Rather Be’ for men’s and women’s voices which we performed together in the show. Students really know how to party, resulting in a fantastic afterglow!

Brenda Roberts and Geraldine Davies-Carr have recently retired from the chorus and were presented with Life Membership in recognition of their services to the chorus over the years.

At the other end of the timeline, we are delighted to welcome Ruth Fowler’s baby daughter, Bella, and Sophie Chapman’s baby son Blake into the world.

Maggie ProomBristol Fashion

LEFT: Kate Tivney

Kate steps up to the plate

Greatly missed

Somerset Hills Chorus based in Taunton With the impending retirement of our long-serving Director, we are

seeking to appoint a Musical Director

This is an exciting and rare opportunity to join a friendly and enthusiastic women’s chorus. We sing a varied repertoire of songs in Acappella harmony.

We require a dynamic Musical Director with a good musical background and some experience in directing. Experience of Acappella singing would be desirable but is not essential as this can be acquired. Opportunities exist to further your musical career within an International Association

Please contact Wendy Marchmont for further information

Email: [email protected] or Telephone: 01823 413625

What am I doing here, looking up at four ape-man skeletons peering

down from a gallery, (one – ouch – looking rather like a former boyfriend!)? We are in the Grant Museum of Zool-ogy in London, on an early evening in February celebrating the launch of an intriguing, thought-provoking, haunting new book.

I hear you ask - why is Amersham A Cappella involved in this launch? The author just happens to be one of our baritones, the lovely Antonia Honey-well, who has proved her talent as an author by getting rave reviews for her first novel, The Ship.

“This is a nugget of delight from an impressive first-time author”. (House of Blog)

“… ambitious and well written and provides endless possibilities for debate.” (The Guardian) - definitely one for the book club ladies.

We looked round the bottles, bones and beasties in the Museum’s exhibition, ate some lovely canapés and drank some wine and met some of Antonia’s friends and family, including her delightful children. We queued up to buy our own, signed copies of the novel (which really is gripping). Antonia made a speech and then joined the chorus, who had carefully positioned themselves to be near her, to sing Feeling Good as a complete surprise for the audience, who responded enthusi-astically. We also treated them later to a rendition of One Moment in Time which

went down equally well.We are incredibly proud of our

talented author and I believe there is another novel in the pipeline – I can’t wait for another good read, another three o’clock in the morning job I am sure!Marion MorleyAmersham A Cappella

Amersham A Cappella members were delighted to appear as guests

at the recent Holland Harmony Conven-tion in Veldhoven. An early morning flight from Stansted, for most of us, was the start of our latest adventure – how lovely to start a journey surrounded by happy faces and purple hoodies! A smooth flight and a coach journey from the airport got us there safely.

We were due to make three appear-ances: one on the Friday night show, “European Delight”, as mike coolers after the chorus contest on Saturday and on the Saturday night show, “Show of Champions”. An afternoon rehearsal, a quick welcome dinner and one last rehearsal and we were off to the stage for our first performance – our gospel song, Daniel, All of Me with Ron’s lovely solo and Dancing Queen with our amazing Justine coaxing (for want of a better word) the audience to join in and do the moves, all under the direc-tion of our wonderful Helen. What a fabulous audience reception!

On Saturday we had a chance to watch a bit of the competition (and it is wonderful to see how ladies barbershop is flourishing in Holland), then more rehearsing and off for our slot as mike-coolers, with our silver medal Conven-tion Package – and another standing ovation! We floated off the stage to shouts for more!

The evening show performance was just as successful, with a repeat of our ballad Some Enchanted Evening, our fun number Love is in the Air and our anthem to hope and aspiration One Moment in Time, always such a crowd pleaser!

A wonderful afterglow was the only way to finish such a fabulous day and we partied with our lovely Dutch friends until we were politely shown out of the hall at 3am. (actually 4am as the clocks went forward!).

After a hearty Sunday brunch some very welcome free time gave us the chance to watch a bit more barbershop, then snooze, walk, cycle, have a dip in the pool, or just sit with a coffee and a scrumptious cake and talk about anything and everything – no prizes for guessing what I chose to do!

Our journey home was quite event-ful, with a performance of Dancing Queen in the airport, then a quick dash to the plane through a howling gale and freezing rain and embarking like drowned rats, our glamorous diva image just a wee bit tarnished!

Still, can’t wait for the next trip with my fabulous chorus.

Marion MorleyAmersham A Cappella

Amersham A Cappella go Dutch

Bari brought to book

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Do you like to be beside the seaside?

Soundwaves Blackpool harmony chorus, is looking to recruit a new musical director. We’re a long-established chorus with a new lease of life after a

successful learn to sing event last year. Our ladies are a friendly and enthusiastic bunch with a wide ranging repertoire of a cappella songs in four part harmony.

. We require a dynamic Musical Director with a good musical

background and some experience in directing. Experience of a cappella singing is desirable. Interested? Contact Sue Andrew by email at

[email protected]

The ladies of Cheshire Chord Company headed out to Spain to

compete in the International Chorus competition at SABS (Spanish Associa-tion of Barbershop Singers) in April and were proud to be awarded International Chorus Champions.

The perfectly sunny weekend started with the Quartet competition on Friday and our very own quartet Close Encoun-ter were very pleased to receive 4th place with their highest score to date, plus the highest overall score for singing in the competition.

It was also a great day to catch up with friends from across the globe as members of LABBS, BABS, SABS, IABS, SNOBS and SAI all came together for the convention.

On the Saturday, 55 Cheshire Chord ladies woke up extra early for their morning rehearsal and then later took to the stage and sang their hearts out to win gold medals with a score of 80.5.

We would like to send our con-gratulations to Silver Lining Chorus and The Clywd Clippers who won silver and bronze awards in the International Competition and also to Spangles, Bella A Cappella and Barberidad who won gold, silver and bronze respectively in the SABS National Contest.

That evening we took to the stage to sing in the show along with the other medal winners and special guests Lemon Squeezy. An afterglow full of singing, fun, laughter and maybe one or two sangrias followed.

We were also joined on the day by some extra visitors who happened to be filming two of our members for a TV programme to be aired in the summer – more exciting details on this coming soon!

On the Sunday it was time to go home and most of us grabbed the last chance to sit out in the sun before jetting back to the UK.

We are now preparing for an excit-ing summer where we will be guests and performing at BABS in May and then in June we look forward to record-ing a brand new CD!

Janine GilbertPublic Relations OfficerCheshire Chord Company

CCC takes Spanish gold

RIGHT: The Ladies of Cheshire Chord Company celebrate their win in the Costa del Sol sunshine

Cheshire Chord Company performed for a full house at their ‘Celebratory

Show’ in February. We were also pleased to be joined

on the night by the Greater Manchester Police Band, which performed some swing and show numbers; as well as the 2013 European Ladies Quartet Champions, The Mix, 2014 UK Mixed Quartet Champions, Hannah and the Hurricanes and the UK’s highest scoring Men’s Quartet, Reckless.

Cheshire Chord Company opened the show with some of their more well-known songs, before introducing the audience to a brand new original song written and arranged by one of their very own talented chorus members, 18-year old Hannah Braham (pictured right).

It was a very proud moment for her family and, in particular, her music teacher who was in the audience and was completely unaware that the chorus was about to debut the song that Han-nah had written in her class.

The chorus then ended their first half set with the popular ‘One Day Like This’ and the audience couldn’t help but sway and sing along.

The night ended with an Afterglow and involved more sing-ing from the CCC ladies and their friends. Teresa Phillips, a guest and representative from LABBS summed up the evening, “the chorus was fantastic, what a great night’s entertainment!”

As well as being a wonderfully successful night for all involved, the show also helped raise money for the chorus’ chosen charity, Elsie Ever After (www.elsieeverafter.org.uk) and after very generous donations from the audience, they raised an incredible £230 on the night.

Janine GilbertPublic Relations Officer Cheshire Chord Company

It’s a ‘hobby’ that we all love to share with our family and friends but what

if your family suddenly becomes part of the chorus you share the risers with?

That’s the case with 12 of our members at Cheshire Chord Company, where we now have six pairs of Mothers and daughters in the chorus! That’s right, SIX!

Jo Braham, our Musical Director and her daughter Hannah joined the chorus together in 2011, as did Kiera Berry whose mother Lisa Berry had already been a member since 2002.

Charlotte Duffy and Kirsten Bottom joined last year as part of our ‘Learn to Sing’ course. Charlotte sings bass, the same as her daughter Terri-Anne who

had already been a member since 2010. Kirsten decided against singing tenor

with her mother Sue, a member since 2006 and instead joined the baritone section. Kirsten is the youngest member of the chorus and at just 12 years old was the youngest member of LABBS to have ever won a chorus champion gold medal last year.

Cath Fisher and her mother Jude Dadswell joined the chorus in 2007 and 2009 respectively and now Cath’s young daughter is also showing an interest in joining the singers when she is older.

The newest Mother and daughter pair are Lynn and Andrea Day. Andrea, our Assistant Music Director, joined in 2006 and was very pleased when her mother, Lynn, decided to join earlier this year.

Janine GilbertPublic Relations Officer Cheshire Chord Company

LEFT: The proud Mums and daughters

Keeping it in the family

New song is music to Hannah’s ears

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They’re celebrating 40 years of Avon fun in Bristol!

The idea for a ladies’ chorus was born when the Great Western Chorus of

Bristol was formed in 1974 and a group of nine wives and girlfriends realised that the men were having so much fun, they decided to form a barbershop chorus of their own.

At that time, the organisation promoting women’s barbershop was SAI and the chorus was known for the first few months as Avon Sweet Adelines. However, the women’s barbershop movement was taking off in the UK and in February 1976, the chorus became a founder member of LABBS and changed its name to The Avonbelles. For four years in the 1990s, the chorus was known as Western Connection but reverted to the Avonbelles in 1999 and then became Avon Harmony in 2010

Over the course of 40 years, the chorus has, of course, seen many members come and go and has had at least 8 Musical Directors, the first of whom, Sheila Rice, came to the chorus in its early months. Following her previous barbershop experience in America, Sheila was the ideal person to inspire the chorus in the early days.

The 1970s and 1980s were the most successful period in terms of national competitions, when the Avonbelles won three second places and two third places at convention, under the directorship of Sheila Rice.

The chorus has performed at many different events and venues over the

years. One occasion fondly remembered by Mike Peters, the Chorus Director from 2001-2004,was a concert at the Colston Hall, Bristol with the White Russian Army Band from Minsk: “A load of very young soldiers who not only wanted to chat up the girls but also wanted to sell their illicit vodka. (I think they did quite well.) At the concert, the band was on the stage, and the Belles were in the choir seats behind them, from where they also sang. Unfortunate-ly, the only place to conduct them was from the front of the stage, in front of the band. Can you imagine me directing the chorus with a full military band between us, watching my every move! But we did it. At the other extreme, I remember us

performing in a field on the back of a lorry at Clevedon. Instead of smiling, they were looking worried in case I stepped back into a six-foot drop. We do see life!”

Another memorable time for six of the chorus members was a visit to Indiana in 1999, as guests of the Heart of Indiana Chorus, during which they visited Chicago and also sang with the Village Vocal Chords. On the last evening of their visit, the sextet gave a rousing rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in four parts, and received a standing ovation. As they were all basses, this was quite an achievement!

Several previous members have moved on to form other choruses, and there are now three other ladies’ choruses in the Bristol Area, as well as many further afield, which have former members on their risers, or directing them. We are proud to be founder members of LABBS and of the contribution that many of our members have made and are still making, to the organisation over the years.

The first celebration of this an-niversary year was a dinner for chorus members. On September 5, our brothers in Great Western Chorus are joining us for a celebration concert in Bristol, at the Newman Hall.

Jackie BoffinAvon Harmony

They’re celebrating 40 years of Avon fun in Bristol!LEFT: Avon Harmony members at their 40th anniversary dinner

RIGHT: Clowning around at

the LABBS Convention of

1992

LEFT: Pictured at Delyth and Richard Knight’s wedding in 1984

BELOW: Convention, 1986

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Wessex girls in SABS debut

50 tailor-made fully lined jackets.

Wide & varied size range 10 -22+, fully

washable, well cared for & in good condition

£5 each, any number may be bought.

For more information contact Jan, The

White Rosettes at [email protected]

Now we know what Spain is all about!! Wessex Harmony has just

got back from their first trip to SABS. We all arrived and left at different times but we all had a fantastic time. There was lots of lovely food consumed, vast quantities of sangria drunk and lots of singing at a variety of venues.

The advance party soon found out that if they sang in the restaurants they were offered free sangria! One evening they sang and drank their way all along the beachfront, great fun.

Then there was the serious part, the competition, which all went very smoothly apart from one of our mem-bers getting stuck in the loo!

SABS was a new experience for Wessex Harmony and one that members are now keen to repeat. The shows were very entertaining, especial-ly the comedy show on the Thursday and the scratch quartets on the Saturday night. The award for the “Best use of the Scooter” will be etched on my brain for a long while. Also the moment when a French woman latched onto my arm and started singing random notes in my ear whilst I was trying to sing a lovely balled in baritone. I guess no one no-ticed the extra notes!!

Both the chorus and quartet, Under Pressure, improved their scores, made new friends and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We are awaiting the official photographs so here are a few remind-ers of our trip

Deborah LamblePRO Wessex Harmony

GREAT FUN: Sun, sea, sangria and lots of singing on Wessex Harmony’s first foray to SABS

Making waves in Blackpool

Green Street Blues made a New Year’s resolution to widen the range

and increase the number of perfor-mance opportunities in 2015.

In a small chorus, a few changes within your membership can have a significant impact. We had some new girls on the risers in 2014 and had a couple more pass their auditions in early 2015 so we resolved to ‘say yes’ to festivals, competitions, singouts, shows and whatever interesting opportunities we could juggle into our calendars.

The results, so far, of The 2015 Plan have been encouraging! We went up to Manchester in early February for the Manchester Amateur Choral Competi-tion (with a slightly Lead-light lineup) held in the gorgeous Northern College of Music. There was a large audience and a strong panel of adjudicators – perfect to test the nerves of our newbies – and we came away pleased with our performance.

Since then we have been out and about locally in Kent and Bucking-hamshire (courtesy of our MD, Mark Grindall’s men’s chorus, The Knights of Harmony) and in London. Over Easter GSB sent a group to join The Big Sing

on the South Bank. The girls sang in the Purcell Room and the lovely Jenny Potts stepped up to be MD for the day.

We are back in London in early May as part of the Voices Now festival at The Roundhouse in Camden and really looking forward to that challenge.

We have a mix of other outings planned for the year: competitive, festivals, social and charitable.

Mark might quietly worry about preparation time for LABBS along the way but we are all feeling stronger and more confident in our GSB ‘small but beautiful’ way about our singing and our chorus.”

Lucy BullPRO at Green Street Blues

Green is for ‘go!’ in 2015

Blackpool Soundwaves are making a habit of performing in some of

the resort’s most iconic venues. Just before Christmas, the chorus

was asked to sing for LeftCoast at the gorgeous Grundy Art Gallery, then we were thrilled to do a singout in

the Winter Garden’s amazing Spanish Hall on International Women’s Day.

Best of all though was a special date at Blackpool Town Hall, where we were honoured to sing at the wedding of lovely lead Gill and her new husband Steve Lang.

ABOVE: The new Mr and Mrs Lang RIGHT: Soundwaves in the Council Chamber

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I’m writing this at 5am on Monday morning, having just arrived home

last night from a brilliant weekend at “En Armonia” the Spanish barbershop convention. I appear to have got into the habit of being up half the night and then getting up and ‘at it’ early in the morning, although you wouldn’t have thought that 24 hours ago.

Yesterday was the morning after my chorus Bella A Cappella and my quartet Cleftomania celebrated our double silver success in the competitions. We had a well-earned and wonderful meal in a lovely little restaurant down on the beach – the same little restaurant we went to after Bella won its first silver medal at ‘En Armonia’ in 2012.

That was the chorus’ first ever experience in competition and they were a very raw, timid group of nine who had previously never even heard of barbershop let alone sung it.

On this, our second experience of competition, it was a very different cho-rus that stepped onto the stage – sorry, that is the “Big Scary Stage”, a brave little group of 16, seven “old hands” and nine “Contest Virgins”.

When we competed the first time, my mainly Dutch and German ladies didn’t really get what it was all about. In a very practical sort of way they all

considered it a lot of fuss for six minutes on stage but that was then.

Three years later, the chorus has grown into its identity and the people within have developed a strong sense of family and are proud to be barbershop-pers. The more experienced ones were happy to sell the idea of convention to the newer ones and we worked really hard as a team to get our convention package up to competition standard.

There were only three choruses in this competition and so we could have just taken it easy in the knowledge that we’d get the bronze just for turning up but since we were up against the previous gold and silver medallists, we worked like mad to get the best score we could achieve.

Of course, once you set foot on a big ‘dead’ stage after the lovely resonant warm up room, all the niceties you put into your performance get forgotten as you absorb and try to adjust to the new environment. Blend and balance can

be lessened and minds blur so that up tempo songs can take off at a trot and end in a canter but for all that, to our surprise and delight, we got second place – just think what a little more experience and confidence will do!

Our quartet Cleftomania has also learned and grown in the past year. Sometimes, as well as all the techniques and tips, what singers really need is encouragement to believe in themselves and once you can believe in yourself you can put that belief into what you’re singing. A real personal milestone for me.

A shame now, for me to end on a rather sad note: Ralph and I are leaving Portugal to start a new adventure on the UK waterways in May 2016. Is there anyone out there who fancies the chal-lenge of taking over the directorship of Bella A Cappella? See below for details.

Sylvy Hinton-KeenanBella A Cappella

MUSICAL DIRECTOR – OPPORTUNITY IN THE ALGARVEThe current SABS National silver medal chorus is looking for a new Musical Director.We are based in the beautiful Eastern Algarve of Portugal, with lovely beaches just 15 minutes away, great wine, fresh fish and wonderful coffee at just 85 cents a cup and not £3.00!!The chorus is made up of mainly Dutch and German people whose understanding of Eng-lish slang has improved immensely since 2008. They know what ‘a fag paper under the note’ means and take the odd telling off with very good humour and only occasionally swear at

me under their breath in their own language. We rehearse in a beautiful old Olive lagar in a village called Moncarapacho, near Tavira and we get a whole month off every August to lie around on beaches or in bars listening to our songs on mp3 and driving away the other customers by singing along slightly off key.

Please contact Sylvy Hinton-Keenan for more information:

Email: [email protected]

Blue skies and silver linings

LEFT: Hannah, Sue, Lucy and Joan, in-house quartet champs with their certificates

We recently held our annual in-house Quartet Day with the

majority of Fascinating Rhythm taking up the challenge. Such a worthwhile and entertaining day and all who courageously attended stepped up to the mark, learning a short song beforehand and assigned to their new quartet on the spot.

The morning was for rehearsal and putting the song together. We had 12 break out rooms with individual mini-coaching sessions from our Music Team. The afternoon session was styled as a mini convention, complete with “Stewards, would you close the doors please and may we have the house lights down”. Every bit as nerve racking as the real thing when you’re waiting in the corridor to be announced.

Jo Dean (MD) and Ali Jack (Chorus Manager) were our judges, both gold medal winners with Havoc! and they now know how hard judging can be! The top scoring quartet received a gold (chocolate) medal.

Junior FR’s hard work under the direction of MD Wendy Howse and her dedicated team of helpers paid off in March when they competed in the U14 class at Thornbury Eisteddfod, singing a 3-part a cappella arrangement of ‘Who’s The Best’ followed by ‘Edelweiss’ accompanied by Jo Luddington on the piano. They won their class with an improved score of 87% and were awarded a Distinction. There were gasps of delight when the winners were announced and a good celebration had at their next rehearsal!

Adjudicator’s Comments: ‘Who’s The Best’ - “What a lovely opening! It had character, style and a very free feeling. Very well rehearsed and the part divisions secure too... lots of good character shown.”

‘Edelweiss’ - “Again, a good secure quality was shown. Tone was pleasingly strong and it had a real performance to it. A good ending! Well sung and very much enjoyed.”

The youngsters of Junior Fascinating Rhythm are excellent representatives of our vocal craft and ‘Senior’ Fascinating Rhythm are very, very proud of them!

It’s our 20th anniversary this year and to mark the occasion, on Saturday June 27 we’re putting on a show: Fas-cinating Rhythm – The Musical! Expect the Unexpected …

Performances are 2.30pm and 7.30pm at the Olympus Theatre, Wise Campus, New Road, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS34 8LP. Tickets can be booked at our box office via www.fascinating-rhythm.com

Fascinating fun for all ages

FR have two quartets entered for Prelims in June – ‘Free Range’ (above) and ‘Chord en Bleu’ (below), both only recently formed. Good luck, girls!

Sheer Havoc!Havoc! has been together for over 12 years, 2015 being our 10th year as a LABBS registered quartet and still enjoy singing together. We often support the Great Western Chorus and Fascinating Rhythm as well as having our own gigs, and we’re guesting for The Rivertones later this year. We keep trying to cut songs from our repertoire but love them all too much – currently we’ve got 35-plus songs to keep polished! We love weddings … we flash mobbed one as a surprise for everyone except the bride’s Mother who booked us. We sat with the congregation then got up and – ta dah! – sang, much to everyone’s surprise and the total disgust of the organist.Here’s to the next decade – and hope-fully we’ll still be creating Havoc!

Donna, Ali, Linda & J

ABOVE: Junior FR have been putting in some great performances

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The Red Rosettes held a very successful Singing Workshop in February, where

38 ladies tried out their voices singing ‘Hey Soul Sister’ in a four-week course led by Katy Phillips, Musical Director.

Not only did they learn to sing the song, choreography was also part of the package. A good number of the ladies have now passed voice tests and have become very keen members of the Red Rosettes with more ladies to follow.

A number of marketing tactics were used to promote the workshop – includ-ing social media, press releases, radio interviews, singing in shopping centres, leaflets and word of mouth.

The Red Rosettes have celebrated the arrival of two baby rosettes this year – welcome to Joshua Alan Jones and Jessica Rose Haslam!

Sandra HaleMarketing Co-ordinator, Red Rosettes

Soul Sisters sing and strut

Newcomers Cleeve Harmony continue to wrestle trophies from the clutches of other well respected contestants.

Most recent was the coveted Helen Cass Cup for Adult Choirs in the Worcester Music Festival, in a very close contest.

Next up for grabs is in The Ladies Choir section of The Performing Arts Festival. Look out Cheltenham here we come!

Gillie BowerCleeve Harmony

As usual we have been driving around the South East of England

getting together for rehearsals and a Victoria sandwich as often as we can.

In February we went to Bristol to take part in Harmony Explosion UK. We taught ‘Mr Sandman’ to the female chorus members, who did a very good job indeed! There was a fabulous show in the evening and we appeared with TUBBS A Cappella, Park Street, Bristol

Fashion and the Great Western Chorus. In March we were invited to appear

on BBC Radio Kent to link in with International Women’s Day. DJ Julia George was bowled over and cried when we sang ‘To Make You Feel My Love’. We were delighted to represent

LABBS and to talk about women’s barbershop.

In May we will be competing at SAI

Region 31 and representing LABBS at the BABS convention in Llandudno.

We're looking forward to seeing the competing quartets at prelims in June. Gaynor, Rowena, Christine and ColletteHOT NOTE

Cleeve quest for trophies

ABOVE: The ladies are put through their paces at the Red Rosettes Workshop

Hot to trot! LEFT: Hot Note with BBC Radio Kent DJ Julia George

Crystal Chords has chosen to support Stockport Cerebral

Palsy Society throughout 2015 (http://www.stockportcp.co.uk/).The charity was suggested by chorus member Michelle Roberts who has dealings with the society on a personal level.

She explained: “Stockport Cerebral Palsy Society does some fantastic work in supporting over 900 disabled children and adults in the local area and I was really keen to nominate them to be the Crystal Chords Charity this year.

“I have had the personal pleas-ure in volunteering for this charity on a number of occasions at their events to help raise funds and I am delighted we have chosen them as they are a local charity.”

Stockport CP Society as it is most commonly known provides a wide range of activities and support for adults, children and young people with physical and/or learning disabilities and autistic spectrum conditions. They particu-larly focus on individuals with the most complex needs.

Adrian Rigby-Bates, the charity fundraiser said: “We would like to thank the members of Crystal Chords for kindly choosing Stock-port CP Society as their nominated charity for 2015. This means a great deal to the charity and it is a fabulous opportunity for us to raise some much needed funds and build awareness about the good work that we do in supporting disabled people in the local com-munity. All the funds raised will go towards equipment and activities for our service users”.

Stockport CP Society was up against Beechwood Cancer Care and The Not Forgotten Association, both very deserving charities but in the end the vote from Crystal Chords’ members at the AGM was overwhelmingly in favour of Stockport CP Society.

By the time you read this, we will have had our first fundraising effort. All proceeds from the sale of our 35th Anniversary Concert programme are going toward our fundraising effort. Here’s hoping that hundreds were sold!

New charity for Crystal Chords

Crystal Chords recently moved to a bigger rehearsal venue, providing an opportunity to recruit. We plan a big recruitment event early next year but decided to test the water a bit with a “Bring a Singer Friend” evening.Members of the chorus were asked to bring a friend who could sing to rehearsal on April 23 for a taste of Barbershop with a fun night of singing – plus a cake sale and raffle. We had 28 visitors.After physical and vocal warm ups, section lead-ers demonstrated in quartet the song to be taught to our guests – “Tonight” from West Side Story.Nancy Philbin, Chairman, said “It was a fabulous evening, full of fun and enthusiasm and we just loved sharing our fantastic hobby with our friends!”

ABOVE: Adrian Rigby-Bates, Stockport CP Society charity fundraiser and Nancy Philbin, Crystal Chords Chairman

Bring a singer

Wessex Harmony started the week of February 23

by appearing at the Pavilion in Bournemouth as the backing group for Richard and Adam, who came third in Britain’s Got Talent and had a number one selling album for four weeks last year. They have been touring the country and using a lo-cal chorus in all their performances.

We spent a lot of time backstage, had a sound check at 5pm and didn’t go on stage until 8.15pm. We then sang with them and we were allowed to do one of our own songs so we did ‘It’s Raining Men’. Their Mum told some of the girls in the interval that we were the best choir she had heard!

Praise indeed.It was a really great way to spend a

Monday evening, singing with friends and having a good laugh.

On Saturday 28th, a group of us

went to the ‘Diva Day’ in Ports-mouth organised by Marilyn Pen-keth. It was an intense day learning a song and choreo and understand-ing how it all goes together. Lots of good stuff to take back to the chorus and it has encouraged some of our new members to stand out the front and talk about it to the chorus.

On Sunday March 1, we were back in Portsmouth again at the Portsmouth Music Festival and came away with two ‘Honours’ and

a huge cup! Another great barbershop filled day.

Deborah LamblePRO Wessex Harmony

What a busy week for Wessex!

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On the last Saturday in February, the dressing room was buzzing

with excitement and nervous chatter as Tyneside A Cappella Ladies made final adjustments to their outfits and makeup. For many of our 19 new members, this was their first experience of “singing out” and then to be appraised on their performance.

Here we were at Ryton Music Festival giving a demonstration of close harmony a cappella singing. After our performance we received some very pleasing and complimentary comments from the adjudicators and won the category section trophy cup. An added bonus was the invitation to close the Saturday evening competition with a selection of songs.

We proudly took to the very limited stage space and assembled our 40 com-peting members. Singing to a delighted and packed audience, we sang songs from our new repertoire and sent the

audience away with a good example of a cappella harmonies.

A month on and the chorus was invited to share and provide the en-tertainment with Compass A Cappella men’s chorus at a local Rotary Dinner. A great night was had by audience and singers alike especially for some of our new ladies who got their first chance to watch the men’s chorus perform.

Our new members are now really hooked on a cappella singing, while etablished and previous Tyneside members have played a huge part in encouraging all our new recruits.

Looking forward to many more years of a cappella singing!

Bunny Bainbridge PRO, Tyneside A Cappella

Crossing borders, winning prizes

Spirit of the South teamed up with a lovely chorus from the Scottish

Borders when One Accord came to sing with us in the Portsmouth Music Festival – and together we became Crossing Borders.

What a wonderful weekend we had! After only four hours’ training together we were ready to enjoy the competition on the Sunday.

This was One Accord’s first experi-ence of competing and they were very impressed with the overall standard. Together in the Barbershop section, we sang At Last (My Love Has Come Along) and Taking A Chance On Love, which won us a trophy. The look on the Scottish ladies’ faces was priceless.

As Spirit of the South, in the Oppor-tunity Knocks section we sang And So It Goes and With A Little Help From My Friends, which was quite apt really and won us a cup. Also in our programme we sang One Fine Day, Lean On Me, Lord’s Prayer and Irish Blessing.

The fun started on the Friday when our visitors were collected from Southampton Airport and taken to their hotel, then our girls joined them for a welcome meal – the perfect way to break the ice.

Their Saturday started with a bit of sightseeing, then we all met at St Joseph’s Church for a bit of light lunch. ‘Light lunch’ is obviously not a phrase our girls were familiar with – there was

mountains of it! The afternoon’s coach-ing with John and Nickie was fun, then we all retired to the Rusty Cutter for our evening meal. To round the day off, John and Lucy invited us all to their house to sing and relax, which was a very welcome idea.

Sunday arrived and you already know how well that went. So back to the Rusty Cutter for a farewell drink be-fore the girls were taken to the airport.

I’m sure they went home with plenty to think about and work at. Our thanks go to all who made this competition such an enjoyable experience.

Sandra StrawnPRO, Spirit of the South

Tyneside takes the trophy

LEFT: Spirit of the South

RIGHT: Crossing Borders

In October 2014, plans began to take shape for two education days in early

2015. The idea was to encompass as many people as possible so that we could forge new links between clubs from all associations; to become more socially aware and learn from each other – and of course have some FUN along the way!

First port of call was to Theresa Weatherbee, friend from Nova Scotia, Canada – a Harmony Inc. Presentation Judge and coach to many BHS choruses and quartets. Not only is Theresa a Presentation Judge but she coaches performance technique and has ap-peared in TV and films. OK – flights and dates confirmed!

What should we sing? Toni-Ann and Karen Penketh – bass and baritone from our gold medal winning quartet Jambo-ree! in 1997 – collaborated, wrote and arranged a barbershop, contestable song telling of unrequited love for an American quartetter which they called “Barbershop Joe”. We’ve all been there, haven’t we – drooling over those gor-geous ringing chords!

Now to put the music into action and an email to Anne Bureau – a Harmony Inc. friend in USA – produced some fantastic recordings for us to distribute.

Emails were sent out to 34 clubs and also publicised on the LABBS Facebook page and at Council.

Rosamunde Pope and Marilyn Penketh were cajoled into fulfilling the administrative rôles. The Pitchpipers and The Chordettes agreed to be hostesses

with Karen Penketh directing at both events.

On February 28, more than 100 la-dies – and one man – met at Horndean College at which we were delighted to have both composers present. On March 14, more than 100 ladies met at Seale Hayne, Newton Abbot. In all, 20 clubs were represented .

As participants were asked to bring their own lunch, both host clubs produced the most amazing array of delicious cakes and served teas/coffees and biscuits.

Both days covered the same format – ice-breakers, section rehearsals, warm-ups and then onto performance coach-ing from Theresa. With her expertise, she talked us through choreography and also imparted performance tips.

We all had the opportunity of watch-ing some BHS contestants on screen too. At the end of the day, all clubs and

quartets were offered the opportunity to sing to the rest of us before the final filmed performance took place. These videos were distributed to all par-ticipants and also posted to the LABBS Facebook page.

Feedback was asked for via Survey Monkey and so far has been excellent. It was a pleasure to be part of both these Diva Days. We had so much fun!

Our thanks to LABBS for their financial support which allowed the days to break even. Thanks also to our host clubs and to those who loaned their risers.

We aim to sing Barbershop Joe on Saturday night at LABBS Convention 2015 – so watch out for the notices!

If you would like to purchase your own copy of the music, go to www. barbershoparrangements.co.uk where you will find it listed under Karen’s arrangements.

Hello to Barbershop Joe!

RIGHT: The Chordettes

welcome their guests in Newton

Abbot

BELOW: The Pitchpipers and guests at Horndean College

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Please respond to raffle tickets request

Hello everyone. Way back in March (at the AGM on the 21st) I

distributed the raffle packs to the choruses present on the day and posted the remainder by 2nd class post to those not at the meeting.

Each pack was addressed to the club Chairman and the guidelines letter inside requested that the contents should be checked and ackowledged, together with the name and contact details of the person in the club who was nominated to look after them.

At the time of writing this letter, there are still over 30 clubs who have not responded in any way at all.

David and I have tried to make things as easy as possible for the person concerned and are on hand if you have any problems or queries. My email address and phone number are in the letter.

All we ask in return is one quick email or phone call – surely not too much to ask, however busy we might be? If you haven’t received your pack yet, may I suggest that you ask your Council Reps where they are!

Thank you to those who responded so quickly. You all did a wonderful job last year and we had one of the best results in a long time – can we do even better this year? I look forward to hearing from you, as soon as possible, please ladies.

Anne (Withnall)LABBS Raffle Organiser

Diary DatesJun 20-21 LABBS Quartet Prelims and Coaching Day

Jun 27 Fascinating Rhythm The Musical! 20th Anniversary Show,

Stoke Gifford, BS34

Jun 28-Jul 5 BHS International Convention, Pittsburgh

Jul 17-19 LABBS Director’s Education Weekend with Jim Henry

Jul 19 Convention Team meeting

Aug 1 LABBS E&J meeting

For more dates and information see our website www.labbs.org.uk

Deadline for Next Issue

FridayJuly 24th 2015

Please supply photographs in the highest resolution possible, in colour, as separate Jpeg files not in a Word document. Expect the file to be bigger than 300Kb, probably more than 1Mb. If it’s not then it’s probably low resolu-tion and won’t print well. Send articles

to [email protected]

Albacappella recently enjoyed a weekend retreat at an awe-

inspiring location with gold medallist coach, Neil Firth.

We meet in Aberdeen but we were lucky enough to be allowed to use some of the amazing facilities at the Balmoral Estate, in Aberdeenshire, for our annual retreat. Having doubled in number over the past twelve months, we had expected a fun yet hard-working weekend but Neil Firth’s leadership enabled us to take our singing to the next level.

Neil, musical director of the multi award winning Cottontown Chorus, kindly agreed to come up to the north-east of Scotland to help us focus on the

songs we are planning to perform at convention in October.

He helped us to refine the songs and introduced new (extremely fun) vocal exercises to energise our sound.

We were able to take time to go back to basics to help our newest singers and revise simple yet effective techniques that are key to helping us improve all our songs, not just the contest ones. Neil has an excellent reputation for guiding singers to perform at the highest level and he certainly delivered.

Gillian Thomson, Albacappella

A right royal retreatLOOKING REGAL: Albacappella members with Neil Firth (right) at Balmoral

In memory of 'our Katy'

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Transcript of In memory of 'our Katy'