It’s that time of year again, or it will be soon! Music! Music! Music!  is both the title and theme for P&P Singers’ summer concert, taking place at the Layard Theatre, Canford School, on 10 July 2010.

Eclectic, it says in the dictionary, means ‘deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources’. In the case of this concert, the description could be said to apply as much to the method by which the music is delivered as the content. Not only is there chorus singing but duets, trios, quartets, even dectets (can you really have a dectet?). But all these methods have but one aim, to deliver the music.

And choice of music there is aplenty, with show tunes ranging from extracts from ‘Les Misérables’ to a wonderful arrangement of ‘Carousel’ favourites. Classical numbers include a full chorus of  ‘How Lovely are Thy Dwellings’ contrasted with a duet, from the poem by William Butler Yeats, ‘Down by the Salley Gardens’. Then the men are let loose and musically deliver ‘Viva L’amour’ and ‘Brothers Forever’ while the ladies, in response, fight ‘The Battle of Jericho’ and then deliver the much gentler and beautiful, ‘Ave Maria’ by Saint-Saens. There is – to coin a phrase – of course, much more. 

An important part of any concert is the ambience and if you have not made your way to the Layard Theatre yet, it is worth the visit. Set in the beautiful grounds of Canford School, the theatre is a gem of a place in which to perform and listen to, music. So please come and enjoy an evening with us. 

The concert starts at 7.30pm and tickets cost an incredibly reasonable £7.50.

Singers and Hoard at the Supper Concert

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It's funny when you think about it, although modern instruments and modern halls exist, most choirs work with battered pianos, tatty rehearsal facilities and depend on the talents of their director and accompanist, to see them through. The same thing with travel: a few years ago, when singing at festivals, out would come the maps for directions and for comedians, ones partner's navigating abilities were a rich source of material.  

Have things changed? Not much. 'Singers' were due to sing at two festivals, one in Portsmouth, the second in Exeter. For Portsmouth the Sat Nav delivered the car I was travelling in, admittedly very precisely, to a firmly locked and barred gate, while for Exeter, this modern form of communication was no match for the good old fashioned traffic jam that greeted our arrival on the outskirts of the city.  

Despite the panics we arrived on time. Portsmouth was a familiar stamping ground for us as we had sung there a couple of years ago. 2009 was almost a reversal of our fortunes of the previous visit. We were, let's confess, just a bit shaky, at the beginning of the day and after two classes we had not won a thing, although we had picked up two 'highly commendeds' (84-86 points). It was frustrating, we knew we could do better, but we were not delivering and the excellent adjudicator was picking out our weak spots with unerring accuracy. Late in the morning we sang in the 'Own choice' class and this ended with a distinction (87-89 points) and a subsequent win, cue collective sigh of relief, although it was tight decision.  

Now came the important bit, lunch. We set off in convoy to a welcoming hostelry that brilliantly fed and watered us in very short order. Thus fortified, we made our way back to the festival for the afternoon session. I don't know what it is about pubs and P&P and I am equally sure it is not for everyone, but, not for the first time, the choir went to a pub for a break and came out in championship form. The ladies started off by winning their class with a 'highly commended'. The whole choir followed with a distinction and a win in the 'mixed bag' class and this was followed, for the first time, with the Singer's men entering a class (Male Voice Choir) on their own.  

Now the men have never been allowed off the leash before, so perhaps we had a point to prove. Setting off with 'The Gendarmes' and accompanying choreography (not a pretty sight), this was followed by 'Why we Sing'. We knew that the boss was not particularly happy with our performance - because you can't keep anything secret in P&P - but we had had a thoroughly enjoyable time and we knew we were good and the adjudicator agreed and thought we were brilliant (What a wonderfully ramshackle lot! He wrote) and gave us a 'distinction'. So that's all right then!    

But it was the Singers, as a whole, that left the best until last, with the final competition of the afternoon, (the recital class) and without boring you too much with self-congratulatory, back-slapping copy, we won it with 'Honours' which in points terms, is 90 plus and not many of these get handed out. After we'd had our photographs taken with the trophies and the adjudicator, we climbed on board our various modes of transport and, with silver clanking, made our way home,  no SatNav necessary!  

Exeter
Later in the month we entered the Devon Performing Arts Festival. This was held at South Street Baptist Church in Exeter, a perfect complex for a festival of this nature with a good acoustic in the church. Once attired and ready, we were ushered in to sit at the side of the church prior to our classes and we listened to a good male barbershop chorus from Plymouth who went on to win their class. Returning the compliment they then sat down with the rest of the audience and listened to us. First up were P&P Singers' men.  

Now I realise I have already waxed eloquent about the men, but the fact is you don't see many male choirs, other than barbershop groups, at festivals, at least not the festivals we enter, so I guess there is a bit of a scarcity. This results in interest when an all-male group gets up to sing. We sailed through our two numbers and at the end received a standing ovation from our fellow competitors. The adjudicator advised us to stick to the day job and cut the choreography - she may have had a point - but then said our singing had made her cry and gave 91 points, honours again, ooops, that would set a target for the ladies. In both the 'mixed choir' and 'small choir' sections we received 90 marks (honours) winning the former and jointly winning the latter with the Bishop's Palace Singers. Lastly P&P Ladies went up to sing 'Linden Lea' and 'If my friends could see me now' in the 'ladies choir' section, 89 marks, it's tough at the top but 89 marks is still a very fine score. 

As we split up to travel home our separate ways I was struck by the incredible generosity of the people who arrange these festivals. They may not be the best-organised festivals in the world, but they prepared by people who put in an enormous amount of unpaid time and effort into presenting them. They introduce a large number of children (and adults come to that) to music and constructive criticism and, most of all, they engender a friendly spirit competition in the choirs and musicians that take part and help keep music live.

P&P Singers are available for private functions including singing during the signing of the register at weddings etc...

We are always looking for new members especially men so if you would like to find out more or would like to join us please contact us.  

For over 20 years P&P has been presenting some of the most popular concerts the South of England has seen. These began as traditional concerts consisting mostly of static chorus numbers and solos. As years went by more movement and dancing were introduced and the concerts gradually evolved into spectacular shows.

Many people have expressed a wish to sing our kind of music but cannot dance, so we decided to form a choir, which sings a wide range of music from "pop" and show tunes to classics. Since coming into existence in April '98 P&P Singers have gone from strength to strength performing a host of concerts throughout the year, raising funds for charities, culminating with it's annual sell out concert at the Barrington Theatre in Ferndown.

Crispin Goodall

Jean Chambers
(winner of the Chris Shiner Cup for Best Musical Director 2005)