April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, Pictures, The Tour, Travel
You had to be there
View from the CN Tower
It’s a long way down! This is the glass floor at the top of the tower.
I love heights – really I do!
The lake
Farewell Larry!
Flaps down on finals for LHR – it’s nearly over
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, People, Pictures, The Tour, Travel
Vincenzo has been our tour photographer – there are hundreds of pictures on Facebook – again he also had this burden on top of all his work on tour. At the end of the day he woud have to upload 50 – 80 pictures a day.
Thank you Vincenzo.
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, People, The Tour, Travel | 1 Comment
Chris Bruerton has been our Facebook reporter all through the tour. I can only imagine how hard this job was because at the end of the day you are exhausted – but he kept the faith and we now have a record of the tour like no other.
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, People, Pictures, The Choir, The Tour, Travel
Tireless boys and Sophie who took this last picture
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, People, Pictures, The Tour, Travel
It was a lovely clear sunny day as you can see – here we are loading the bus for the last time. Larry will have to drive all the way back to Charlotte on his own.
Matron (Lorna) and Clive hanging on for the last day too – they brought them all home and a special thanks to them and to Sophie.
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, People, Pictures, The Tour, Travel
Chris and Tim sing for their breakfast at the Hope’s in Toronto – William is being tempted to join the Grace Church Choir.
Our hosts had a wonderful time and you can see here how sweet the choir have been in return.
Chris getting ready to sing treble again!
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, Open Rehearsals, People, The Choir, The Tour, Travel | 2 Comments
Some of the choir went down to the falls this morning. Others of us slept in. It was another pleasant day and the short journey to Toronto was welcomed. Upon arrival at the Grace Church on-the-Hill, we unpacked our stuff and chilled out for over an hour. The foosball table became a popular way to pass the time. Tim Hawken certainly excelled as the ‘king of the table’. I’m pretty sure he ended the day as the undisputed heavyweight of table football!
Everyone was feeling relaxed going into the concert as we had sung the repertoire already and had performed it well. It was just a matter of getting used to the new acoustic. As it turned out, it was a favourable one in that it offered a little bit to the singers and was easy to hear ourselves and the ensemble.
In the concert we were joined by the men and boys of Grace Church on-the-Hill for a rousing rendition of Balfour Gardiner’s Te Lucis and Walton’s Jubilate. The rest of the concert programme was just like that of New York. The difference being that this time the Canadian audience were even more fantastic! After their standing ovation they were treated to two encores: Ave Maria by Parsons and Somewhere over the rainbow. Everyone in the choir who I spoke to about the concert said that it was our best performance and best audience. We all just stepped up and gave it one last really good effort which was hugely satisfying to be part of from a musician’s point of view. What a way to finish the tour – a real high!
The reception was great – Trickey couldn’t get enough of the Brie and Greg Skidmore enjoyed talking to his Canadian fan club!
It’s a been a tour full of highs and only a handful of lows. We’ve had a lot of fun and there’s been a fantastic vibe about the place. The organists have been impressive at adapting to the different instruments; Clive, Matron and Miss Biddell have organised the boys left, right and centre and have been a fabulous team; the boys have sung better and better throughout the trip and the gents have been the epitomy of solidarity! Last, but by no means least, Dr Darlington has been at his superlative best, leading from the front with good humour and patience.
Tomorrow we’re heading to the CN Tower and then setting off to the airport at 3pm.
I know people are keen to head home and see loved ones and just get back into their own bed. In saying that, I can’t remember the last time I stayed in such a series of amazing houses! Every host has been incredible and a massive thank you to each host city and those who have made this trip possible. We’ll be reminscing during our tea breaks for months! Hope you’ve enjoyed reading these blogs and thanks for supporting the tour. Till next time, cheers!
Chris Bruerton
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Broadcasts, Memories, The Choir, The Tour, Where we perform
Here is the link to the site that has an exceptional interview - Dr Darlington, Josh ‘I want to be a Policeman’ Hirst and Tom Bennett were interviewed by the radio host Cathy Fuller.
Here is what the site looks like
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, News, The Tour, Travel
Today was not as entertaining as some of the other days due to the length of the bus trip from Boston to Niagara. However, the one exciting thing that happened at each stop was the race to log onto the available WiFi! I’ve never seen people so reluctant to leave the bus and eager to stay off it – facebook, emailing and general surfing the Internet made up for the time in between toilet breaks!
Kicking and Screaming, Chicken Little and Shrek helped out as well. The patches of ice and snow when we drove through the Berkshires were slightly foreboding despite the sunshine. However, upon arrival at Niagara it wasn’t too cold and there was enough light to take some pictures of the falls. We then headed to Betty’s Restaurant for a buffet dinner before going back to the hotel to settle in for the night. It was a great relief to finally hit the hay – amazing how tiring sitting in a bus all day can be!
Chris Bruerton
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, Organists, People, Pictures, The Music, Where we perform
Michael Hope has created an 82 picture album of the Toronto rehearsal and you can find it here.
Some shots are of all the group like the one above and many are also intimate shots of members of the choir like this one.
They are very high resolution so you can make nice prints of them. I used my screen capture tool to copy them.
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, News, The Tour, Travel
The boys began their day with an early start and sang at the assembly of a local school. Meanwhile, the gents slept in and rocked on up about 11.30…well, most of us…It took about 80mins to get to the WGBH Studios and after a quick sound check we were ‘on air’. It was a really interesting experience and in between pieces Dr Darlington, Josh, ‘I want to be a Policeman’, Hirst and Tom Bennett were interviewed by the radio host Cathy Fuller.
We headed up to the Trinity Church, Copley Square, to have an early dinner in the undercroft before rehearsing in the choir stalls. It was a challenging building to sing in due to the distance between the stalls. However, the packed Evensong congregation actually improved the acoustic. The service music was:
Introit – Christe Jesu, pastor bone (Taverner)
Responses – Clucas
Psalm 84
Canticles – Chichester Service (Walton)
Anthems – Salvator mundi (Tallis), Justorum animae (Stanford)
We were joined by several boy choirs from Boston for the Stanford. Afterwards we hopped back on the bus to the Green’s house in Marblehead for some delicious shepherd’s pie and refreshments, which went down a treat. No one is really looking forward to the eleven hour bus journey tomorrow but I’m going home to my hosts to watch Man Utd vs Chelsea!
Chris Bruerton
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, People, The Tour, Where we perform
Melva Graham and Peter Walker at supper with Stephen
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in People, The Tour, Travel | 2 Comments
April 11th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Open Rehearsals, The Choir, The Music, The Tour, Videos, Where we perform
This is in HD – so if you can adjust the setting to HD
April 8th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, News, The Choir, The Tour, Travel, Videos | 1 Comment
The still morning at Marblehead
Behind the scenes
The trek to the bus – this time not in the rain
Loading
The Falls!
The Rockers – Niagara is a honeymoon destination!
A “slabup” meal”
April 7th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in The Tour, Travel
April 7th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in The Tour, Where we perform
April 7th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, News, People, The Choir, The Tour, Travel, Where we perform
April 7th, 2011 | by Robert Paterson | Published in Memories, News, Travel | 1 Comment
Today began on a bus and it finished on a bus. In between, there was a lot of bus-ing, more than perhaps planned is the most tactful way of putting it. The gents were picked up from outside the Blakeley Hotel before going to pick up everyone else. The journey to Boston was about seven hours, slightly more than expected, but Hugo wasn’t worried given that we stopped off at Wendy’s for lunch!
We eventually found the home of Nathaniel and Louisa Green at Marblehead. Their home is enormous, so much so that the playroom is being used as a bedroom for seventeen choristers! The bus couldn’t get up to their house so we got dropped off close by and had a short walk with our luggage in the rain and wind to their house.
Due to the late arrival we had to scoff down pizza and get changed in double time. Back on the bus the next interesting part of the day was just about to begin. The unplanned sightseeing tour of some of lesser well-known surburbian parts of Boston was unexpected and we eventually made it to the British Consulate for our reception.
The eager and, by now, somewhat more high-spirited guests were relieved to see us and very much enjoyed listening to our well-prepared programme. This was now the third time we’d sung at a reception so it was a slick performance. After a much needed drink we re-took our places in our now-moulded seats and headed back to Marblehead for some milk and juice refreshments before being picked up by our billets. The day ended as it began with fourteen very weary men and seventeen excitable boys.
