Waterside Singers News

Waterside Singers

 I am making one last call for you to buy your tickets for you and your friends for the “Christmas in the Park” Concert on Saturday 11^th December at 7-30pm at the Park community centre, Chelmsford Street, Weymouth.

This is the Concert by the “Waterside Singers” joined by many friends as promised under the Lottery Bid for the project “ Can’t Sing…. Neither Can We “.

We would like to know how many people are coming for refreshment purposes. Tickets available from the Centre Thursday 10—00am until 12-00pm, Friday from

 9-30am until 7-00pm. Lots of time, hope to see you at the show

Forget the X Factor Final, you can always record it and I promise not to give out the results.

Original posting:

What do you get when you cross an aging rock stars anthem with a group of 30 local residents and a whole lot of wind and brass, not to mention the odd percussion and stringed instruments?

No it’s not a riddle but if you had popped along to the Weymouth Bay Methodist Church on Wednesday 24th November you would have heard the latest performance by the Dorset Symphonia together with The Waterside Singers, the local community choir, initially funded by the lottery and now seeking new financial support in the coming months. (Is there anyone out there who can make our Xmas wishes come true?)

But back to the event… Somewhere down under, there seems to be a slightly mad physics professor who wondered what it would be like if Beethoven for instance had written Led Zeps Stairway to Heaven, and then he went on to do just that, & with a number of different composers. As a choir we sat down and listened to the orchestra play various versions, my particular favourite was the Carmen Stairway mash up, and then it was our turn and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, or rather ode to insanely high notes for the sopranos and an off beat rhythm for the bass section, we’ve only been going for less than a six months! Some thought we were trying to go to far too fast, yet with only 1
hour a week for 9 weeks max, and not more than 15 minutes each week spent on the work, and it wasn’t that long ago it was brought up as a project, and I must say, we did achieve what we set out to do. The sky really isn’t the limit, there is so much more out there. Especially when you set your mind to it.

There was some sterling soloists, Pat Lea even sang hers in German. We started with our old faithful “swing low sweet chariot” with Barbara Woodward singing her soulful rendition with true empathy. Then into the realms of the unknown with The Stairway Suite And ending up with one carol that some of our older singers knew quite well but was a total unknown entity to another 50 percent of us, however with the help of the audience and You Tube, we got there eventually. It must be said there was some absolute wicked playing by the orchestra as well; it wasn’t just the choir who exceeded expectations.

But what next?

Well there are a few more concerts in the imminent future.

11th December sees us singing our hearts out at our home of The Park District Community Centre at Chelmsford Street

12th December and we are singing in Greenhill Gardens, lets all pray for mild weather for that one.

15th and 16th and its carol singing in the Park district.

As far as I am aware Santa hasn’t booked us to cover up the sounds of Rudolph’s hooves on the roofs, but the way things are looking up I wouldn’t bet on it!!