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A Gay Yuletide

The last time I mentioned Christmas and the Chorus, we had just started our series of performances at Selfridges. The Christmas season is now well and truely over (only for a short appearance on Sunday on LBC).

Selfridges, as usual, was fun: Unlike any other gig, you get to interact with the audience (albeit in a limited way simply by smiling and waving at them as the slide past on the escalators). This year we did not get a heckler but I did spot a few faces going quickly from a smile to a frown as their owners finally read our name. Most people are however please to hear and see us. We even caused a couple of lesbians to kiss, which was rather sweet.

Celebrity spotting count: one half (no idea which) of Ant and Dec.


Extract of Make the Yuletide Gay 2006, Christmas Medley (6:13)

Wednesday 20th was the busiest day for the us, I think. After our last four short gigs at the store, those taking part had to rush to the Barbican to the tech rehearsal (some pictures available at the Chorus' Flickr pool) of our sold out Christmas concert at the Barbican, hosted by Sandi Toksvig.

The theme of the concert was "party" and as such was rather on the light-hearted side of things. From where I was standing (on the back row, towards the middle of the 170 strong Chorus), it looked and sounded like our best performance since I joined. The audience seemed to agree. Singing in London (mostly to friends and families) usually means that you don't have to win your audience; they are already rooting for you by the time you get on stage. This is great. The audience on that night however, was perhaps the most demonstrative and noisy I have seen while in the Chorus. They loved us!

A positive outcome of this concert is that we got a very decent (even enthusiastic from what I have heard) piece of PR on London Tonight with about four minutes of rehearsal footage, live interview and singing! There will also be a picture of some of "the boys" with Sandi in the Pink Paper later this week. I'll try and post more soon...


Extract of Make the Yuletide Gay 2006, Coming Out on Christmas (3:25)

The next day was rest, although I ended up in Brighton, helping RS a fellow chorine carrying and building (so butch!) a futton sofa bed he had received for the lovely flat he just bought there. We also had a stroll on the sea front and food in a Lebanese restaurant. When I left for the station, RS was in a gay pub taking part in a Christmas pub quiz with people he had never met before and wondering whether Monopoly or Scrabble had been invented first.

Spotted in a shop window: a series of posters screaming "Happy Birthday Santa!"

On Friday, the Chorus was back at the mill. A bunch of us was sent out to BBC Radio1 to take part in their Christmas Party, singing 5/6 musical interludes from our repertoire throughout the day. In the evening, about 30 of us serenaded 150 punters at XXL. We were then free to collapse.

And of course, you already know about my Christmas.


Extract of Make the Yuletide Gay 2006, special arrangment of Silent Night (5:44)

The full DVD of the show is available for sale here until the end of January.

And if you are wondering, Monopoly came first, apparently.


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