Tuesday 2 June 2015

In Fog 2: An Engineer Who Loves to Sing

This is part of a series of posts telling my stories as a choir member in York Theatre Royal's show "In Fog and Falling Snow" (tickets available here). 

Given there are 150 people in the cast & choir, there's not much room in the programme, so here's my long answer to the question people are frequently asking me at the moment: how exactly did you get into singing at the National Railway Museum?

My first theatrical outing in York was the Poppleton Panto in Feb 2013 shortly after we moved here, where I played a “Scottish Doll” and rather surprisingly managed to convince quite a few local people I was Scottish (much to my amusement). This was where I first formulated the York Railway Game: since it is impossible to attend any social function in York without encountering someone who works on the railway, the game is to see how long it takes to find that person at any given gathering. Being in panto means that whenever I need to talk to Network Rail’s Head of Track for the whole North East region, our conversations now start with “How’s your daughter doing with her singing?” Based on her star performance as the lead in this year's Sleeping Beauty, I’d say rather well…!

My band The Spectacles features my husband Ed on guitar, folky vocals from me, with songs mostly written by Ed inspired by Dido and Kirsty McColl. We've played several gigs in York, including events for York Fairtrade Forum and Christian Aid Collective at City Screen Basement and at various open mic nights. If you're looking for a band for an event you're planning, feel free to leave a comment! 

I also had the privilege of singing a solo "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" in an amazingly resonant spot in York Minster as part of the 2014 Good Friday Service.  


As well as singing solo, my most recent community choir event was with a dozen kids, two dozen adults and a full band in Acomb Methodist Church's choral nativity play "Holy Boy" in December 2014, which inspired a series of reflections you can read here. It was amazing to see people with a wide variation in musical experience flourish as we practised together under the skilful musical direction of Jo Lindley, bringing out hidden talents with difficult solos. It was a family affair, with many parents and children in the choir, so the children also gained confidence, becoming self-organising under our teenage leaders for the hour and a half when they needed to amuse themselves while their parents rehearsed with the adult choir. 

We're looking forward to trying this again next year, potentially with an Easter choral piece. Meanwhile, several months of rehearsing together and Friday nights which finished in the pub created an appetite for doing things together that has led to our garden project and a regular monthly social every second Sunday. In recent months, this has seen us try a variety of things from playing board games, barbecues, building bridges from spaghetti and visiting Helmsley Walled Garden! 

See also

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