We Rocked Nottingham!!

I bet you thought it was an earthquake eh Nottingham? Well no it was actually Rock Choir Live in concert at The Albert Hall Conference Centre and what a concert!!

This was the scene we were greeted with when we first walked into the Main Hall, yes confronted with a huge big organ (so many jokes, so little time), our stage for the evening. The Derbyshire Choirs performed on Saturday (14th) and the Nottinghamshire Rockies performed last night (15th). Two years ago we all performed on one night at The Royal Concert Hall but this was so much better, a little less hectic shall we say.

We were not just randomly chucked into our places here, oh no there was a plan. Time was taken to get us all in our harmony parts and in a position we could all see our choir leader and be seen by our audience. That's important, we need to show off our beautiful singing faces and show off our moves we've worked so hard to perfect. After all this was done there was a chance to soundcheck a few songs, get the levels right you know.....oh get me - I am not just a gal talking about tea, I'm now a performer (who loves tea).

Next came the rehearsal of everyone coming off stage and then everyone leading back onto the stage. We had this fabulous walking on routine, singing as we go which just worked with perfection (well done Jennie). What a way to enter.....this was just getting so exciting beyond belief. An hour to go until we needed to get back into position so now was airtime to eat our tea and then get into our Rock Choir uniform ready for the big show.

Now I'm not going to tell you that we had a bit of a panic before we lined up because that would be daft, no one in the audience knew so why mention it, well I fear if I don't tell you my friend Lesley will. When we rehearsed this line up thing we got used to the person in front of us and who was behind but then when everyone changed into their uniform they all looked the same. So there was a bit of a ka'fuffle about where in the line me and Lesley were, well after a dash panic up and down the stairs we settled in the right place but for a moment I had visions of having to sit on someones knee, completely ruining the logistics of all this carefully choreographed routine because I had got in the wrong line up. Phew it was ok in the end........we laugh now.

Boom the lights went down and off we went. My heart nearly pounding out my chest but once we got going it felt just awesome to be on that stage doing everything we had learnt, practiced and put together. With added extras from choir leaders Jennie and Kat, the solos from the very brave Rockies who stepped up to that challenge and the magnificent poem read out by two of our members it was night to be so proud to be a part of Rock Choir.

We were also joined by two volunteer representatives from The Alzheimer's Society who talked about the charity and how it helps people with the condition. There were also collection buckets there to raise very valuable funds.

I can't tell you how great it felt to take part in this show. To some it may seem no big deal but for me and a lot of others it is. Rock Choir is not just a bunch of people turning up to sing every week, we have become great friends. We socialise together, we help each other out when times are tough and I suppose you could say we have become one big family. To get up on stage and sing these songs for some takes a huge amount courage and confidence and we had a lot of members who were taking part for the first time and guess what? We were all there to help the newbies pop their performance cherries .......as it were.

I would like to thank my fellow members because you mean so much to me. I would like to say a big thank you also to Jennie our choir leader who is just amazing, without her we would never have done this. She gives us confidence but keeps us relaxed to believe we can do great things. Jennie's mum Sue is lovely and her organisation makes us look as good as we did that night. Just don't tell her I lost my place!!! Jennie's dad takes photos for us which we all appreciate when we have all calmed down and able to look back on our time here and also choir leader Kat who gave us beautiful piano accompaniment to some of our songs.

I still need to come down from this experience and will do eventually but I will, like most other Rockies look back on this as just one of the best experiences ever........what World Cup? Who won Wimbledon? Who blooming cares now............we are Rock Choir and definitely ROCKED!!!!

If you would like to join in the fun then why don't you come along for a free taster session in September? Go to www.rockchoir.com for more information and to find your local session. We also have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/rockchoirderbyshireandnottinghamshire/ so if you want to see what we actually got up this weekend then do feel free to take a look. Take a look at some of my Music Monday posts as they do feature Rock Choir a lot. I do try to give to an idea of what goes on and a taste of life as a Rockie.

Thanks for reading today, please join me again tomorrow for Teapot Tuesday but for now......

Take care.