| | | Penicuik Community Choir - 9th March |
A great crowd turned out for the Guild
social coffee evening with the Community
Choir entertaining us
with a selection of popular songs. Music from the Beatles and
Queen era plus medley's from the musicals and wartime songs brought
back memories for many of the audience. We then enjoyed coffee, tea, and lots of tasty home baking, with members of the choir joining us.
Elizabeth
McKeon once again led the choir opening up with Beatles medley
which had
many of the 'baby boomer' generation tapping their feet and singing
along. First song of the evening was Can't buy Me Love, the Beatles
sixth single penned by th Paul McCartney / John Lennon duo, and released
in 1964. The choir continued with another Lennon/McCartney number 'If I Fell',
from the 1964 film 'A Hard Day's Night'. We were now really starting to
sing along as the titles and words came back into our heads.
Staying in
1964 we listened to the groups eighth single 'I Feel Fine'. Again
written by Lennon/McCartney the song is notable for being one of the
first uses of guitar feedback in popular music. To complete the Beatles
medley we heard 'All You Need is Love'. The song was first performed by
the Beatles on Our World, the first live global television link,
watched by over 400 million in 25 countries, on 25 June 1967. Commissioned by the BBC, who asked the Beatles to write a song for the United Kingdom's contribution.
 After
a cultural classical piece from Mozart, the choir moved on to musicals.
A medley from the sixties musical Fiddler on the Roof, the
story of Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to
maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions, as outside
influences encroach upon the family's lives. The choir started with
'Sunrise Sunset', and the men in the choir stood up to perform the ever popular
and well known 'If I was a Rich Man', where Tevye reflects on his dreams of glory.
We moved in time to the 1970's to listen to 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' written by band singer Freddie Mercury in 1979.
Elizabeth
McKeon took us back to Scottish traditional with a medley of
Rabbie Burn's' songs including 'The Banks O' Doon', sometimes known as
known as "Ye Banks and Braes", after the opening line of one of the
three versions. The singers continued with
'The Deil's awa
wi' th' Exciseman' which first appeared in 1792. Burns himself was
employed as an Exciseman from 1789 until his death in 1796, collecting
taxes and intercepting illegal goods, and knew how unpopular
they were among eighteenth century communities. The favourite 'A Red
Red Rose', written by Burns' in 1794 completed the medley and I
could see a few people singing along.
The choir took us
back to the first world war with a medley of songs that were sung on
the front line across France, and on the home front too. They started
with the Jack Judge song 'Its a Long Way to Tipperary' written in
1912, which went on to become the WW1 signature song. They continued
with the 1916 song 'If You Were the Only Girl', 'Who Were You
With Last night' from 1912, 'Let me Call You Sweetheart' written in
1910, The Bells are Ringing for me and my Girl, Oh You beautiful
Girl and Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kitbag, the WW1 marching
song from 1915. The medley finished with 'Roses of Picardy, and the
Ivor Novello song 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' written in 1914.
We
had heard a Queen song earlier in the evening and we relished a
further short medley that included 'We will rock you', Another One
Bites the Dust, We Are the Champions, finishing with Galileo Galilei,
from Bohemian Rhapsody.
Concluding the evening the choir
finished with their signature song 'You Raise me Up' written by the duo
Secret Garden in 2002, and made famous by Westlife.
The choir
members then joined us for coffee, tea and home baking, giving us the
chance to chat about their repertoire and diary of events across the
surrounding communities, before the raffle winners were drawn from th hat..
Sheila Haig, thanked the choir for a wonderful performance which everyone agreed had been a great success. Once again the Guild had organised a fantastic evening of entertainment and fellowship.
| |
Home
| Services | Church Groups | Events | News
| History| Contact Us 
