8th October 2010 Who Canny Sing?

The Hubettes- Tom, Maggi and Martin- are Britain’s Eurovision hopefuls for 2011.

Who is that shouting “Nil points?”

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Maggi Boyd is one of Buddy Beat’s greatest friends and supporters and Martin Denman likewise, having taken part in a few of the regular weekly drumming sessions. Maggi and Martin have a vision where they wish to establish a series of Senior Forum choirs throughout Renfrewshire. Singing is a great way to make friends, release tension and enhance concentration and singing in a chorus appears to benefit the elderly particularly well. Buddy Beat had joined up with Maggi and Martin in May of this year for what we like to call “Maggi Boyd’s Quest for a Choir” and that was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon which many of the Buddy Beat gang look back on fondly. And so, a place was found in the Festival timetable for another chance at community singing and the Festival Hub was the scene in the Paisley Centre and started at 11am. Tom and Jeanette came along to lend their support and Martin had enrolled a friend from his time in another choir, Catherine Scott who played the keyboards in accompaniment. Catherine brought five men from her choir to help boost the numbers and give us a good base sound. Singing booklets with 23 songs had been printed up for everyone to help smooth the process.

And they’re off!

Martin kicked things off by taking centre stage and announced the event well and truly open and it was suggested by Catherine that we begin with The Carpenter’s “There’s a Kind of Hush” and this was a lovely song to start, one that everyone knows well enough although the high notes were a challenge while the “la la la’s” were really rather melodic. The singers applauded themselves and then Angela McCallum, OTYS leader, suggested we up the beat and asked for “Mhairi’s Wedding”. Off we went, giving it gusto and by now people were starting to stop outside and listen. Next up Tom suggested “Here Comes the Sun” but the printed lyrics didn’t quite marry Catherine’s sheet music and despite starting strongly it kind of sank in the middle, much to the choir’s amusement.

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“Right boys; give me your ba-ra-bums!”

Wasting no time we marched straight on and into “Morning Has Broken” which sounded smashing and we were shown appreciation by the people gathering outside. Jeanette and Maggi tried to bring some of the passersby in and she was able to do so on a number of occasions and at one point there were almost 25 in the choir. Next on the hit list was “Fly me To the Moon” which went down very well and we repeated this a second time, but with a little more tempo. Angela then suggested “Stand By Me” but this classic song that you would imagine being known by almost everyone was a bit of a struggle and kind of fell by the wayside until Angela took to the floor and using the microphone brought it back round with the men singing the “bar ra bums” continuously, leaving the women to deliver the melody. The gentlemen in the choir laughed, despite being of a certain age as Angela referred to them as “boys” claiming she is too used to dealing with younger men in the OTYS choir! Martin then produced more song sheets and we drove straight into “Oh my darling Clementine” and this switch really suited and it sounded great. From there we tried “California Here I Come” and this very jazzy, stage musical song was a tad high for some of us. Then we tried our hands at “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” which we delivered in style with Maggi taking to the floor adding two further verses, “He’s got all our sisters in his hands” and “He’s got all our brothers in his hands.” Lovely stuff! Martin then announced that comfort breaks were available but pleaded that no more than two go at any time, as he didn’t want to loose too many of his new choir. No one took him up on his offer due to the fun factor being right up there and, eager to get back into the songs, we launched into a stirring rendition of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” while Jeanette played maid by pouring out cups of water and waiting on the choir. Catherine then suggested a song called “She’s a Lassie from Lancashire” but told us to change the shire to Renfrewshire. Few of us seemed to know this little song, but we quickly picked up the tune and did it justice.

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Still no signs of flagging, Martin pushed onto the perennial favourite “Daisy Daisy” and just like the title itself, we sang it twice over. Another song with a name in it came up next but few of us seemed familiar with “Sweet Rose O’Grady” and we then heard one of the gentlemen at the back asking for “Lilly The Pink” and that is one of those daft songs that cannot fail to make you smile and it was no surprise when Martin suggested we repeat it without breaking. Smashing! It was now nearing noon and we tried “Getting to Know You”. The end of the first verse lost some of us but after that hiccup we flowed into it and it went down rather well with the choir and the shoppers listening. Martin then asked for “Dream a Little Dream of Me” and wow, this was pure magic. Great song, great melody and great singing! Inspired, Martin and Maggi had us standing as we delivered “Oh When the Saints got Marching In!” which was quite superb and we remained on our feet for “Mhairi’s Wedding” once again. Martin then announced that the morning session was about to close and we finished by singing “The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen” and we didn’t need the words for that old nugget as we swayed from side to side. All that was missing was lighters in the air! And so, after 20 numbers, the choir took a well earned rest, giving the songsters a chance to shop, have lunch and chat away.

Who needs The X-Factor anyway?

The second singing stint of the day began just after 12.30 and we were joined by Buddy Beat’s Marion Mullen and Martin introduced Maggi who took to the floor and she sang “Paddy Lay Back” which we can only guess is one of her party favourites. This song not only requires the choir to echo the last few words of each line, but also a bit of theatrical thigh slapping is thrown in too! This was great fun and Maggi quite rightly received a great show of appreciation. Apparently she is available for bookings!

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Maggi leading her aerobical “Paddy Lay Back” song

Martin took us into what can only be described as a “Braveheart” segment and we battered off a lovely version of “Westering Home”, followed by the stirring “Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond” and you couldn’t help be proud to be Scottish. Och aye, the noo! That was followed by Paul Simon’s “Homeward Bound” which was excellent and then we tried “You’ve Got a Friend” but our hopes of pulling that one off kind of fell to the wayside as we struggled to get to grips with it. One lady asked for Stevie Wonder’s “You are the Sunshine of My Life”. Flicking through our song books, Martin asked if we were all singing from page 19, to which Maggi quipped “We are all singing from the same hymn book!” That raised a laugh and then we tried the song, but by gum it’s a tricky one! Catherine asked if we would like to try “I’m a Bachelor” and not many of us knew our way around this little ditty, although Marion Mullen gave a good rendition, laughing at the end saying that it had been many years since she had last sung that one! As time was marching on, Angela McCallum then took to the floor. At The Festival launch on 30th September at The Arts centre, Angela’s choir OTYS had closed the event with a superb rendition of “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from the musical “Hairspray”. This is a fast paced, audience participation number and after plugging in her I-Pod, Angela instructed the choir on the various moves before announcing that it was time for the Who Canny Sing Choir’s big number. The looks of concentration on the choirs faces was something to behold and as they got either tong-tied on the lyrics, or limb twisted on the moves, or sometimes on both counts, the song built up to it’s big finale and ended with a terrific round of applause and more then a few giggles and some quick intakes of breath!

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Angela is either swearing in some sort of Oath of Allegiance or showing some moves

Martin then gave thanks to Catherine our pianist for her playing and encouragement and to her male friends for making the trip to join us. Maggi then spoke and asked everyone to take a look at the back page of the song book and look at the list of local choirs, some of which are actively seeking new members. Maggi suggested that if any of us enjoyed ourselves then perhaps we should think of joining one of these local choirs or even better forming our own community choir! To round the event off, we appropriately sang “Show me The Way to Go Home” and as the song came to its conclusion, the band of gentlemen had us all chuckling as they rose from their chairs, and still singing, marched in time slowly out of The Hub, waving their goodbyes! Well, that was terrific fun and very uplifting. It is true that singing lifts your soul and helps release stress. We ran through 30 songs, some were great, some a challenge, some downright magic and there couldn’t have been a single person at The Hub who didn’t have a great time! Martin commented at one point that we would need to rename ourselves “Who Can Sing”. Got that right, Martin!

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“Hands up if you had fun!”

Words and pictures by Tom Chalmers