19th October at Brooklands info

A bit of info for those performing and/or helping at the First Ever Pop Up Proms concert on 19th October.

The venue is Brooklands residential home, Costessey Lane, Drayton, near Norwich. Here's a link to their website:

http://www.carebase.org.uk/homes/brooklands/

The timings are not confirmed yet but it will be early evening due to the age and fragility of our audience- I would estimate starting the show at about 6.30pm. 

I am visiting Brooklands on 27th September to finalise the details, so I will issue a full update after that!

As per yesterday's FB post, I'm asking everyone to prepare two songs to sing. As we go through the year, and depending on how many performers are able to do each show, I may have to ask you to do more or less than two as the occasion demands, but two will do for starters.

I assume everyone knows the tunes of 'Jerusalem', 'Rule Britannia' and 'Land of Hope and Glory'. 

Just in case, here are some links to You Tube showing them from this year's Last Night of the Proms:

Rule Britannia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZofobwEepg

Land of Hope and Glory  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQVEWW-MA50 (starts at 2.02mins)

Jerusalem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g74Kr8xgZiE (starts after Marin's speech, at 8.00mins)

Heather or I will be doing the verse of Rule Britannia, depending on which of us is present. We will not be doing Auld Lang Syne or the National Anthem, even though they are included on the You Tube clip.

Poster for Pop-Up Proms Bookers

I have created this simple poster for use in whichever venues we visit. As you can see, it has a blank section so that bookers can fill in details of their venue, date, time and any other necessary details. 

If you are a booker and you would like to download this poster to print off, please do!

If for any reason you are unable to, please email me at rachel@rachelduffield.co.uk and I will happily send you an attachment by email to print off. I'll even email you a black and white version if you don't have a colour printer! 

The Pop Up Proms Project Reminiscence Archives

"Ah yes- I remember it well" or so the song goes.

Avid readers of this blog (and we've had a whole 165 visits, so I'm hoping to have stirred up some avidity amongst my readership) will know that as well as the entertainment side of the Pop Up Proms Project, there is the audio archive side.

The idea of the audio archive is to produce a record of the impact and benefits of the entertainment.

It is also to create recordings of our elderly audiences talking about the role music may have played in their lives.

I'm thrilled to say I've been working with the Norfolk Record Office on this side of it, and their sound archivist, Jonathan, is more than happy to make our recordings part of the official archive FOREVER.

Jonathan gave me some practical advice on doing the recordings, and this will stand us in very good stead. More on that as and when required.

He also said he's particularly keen to record older Norfolk voices in order to study the variations in dialect from place to place within the county. Most born and bred East Anglians recognise the difference between a Norwich and a Norfolk accent, for example, but Jonathan wishes to trace examples of more subtle variations while they can still be heard via the older generations, before we all start speaking like what they do in 'Essicks'.*

I will continue to update this blog with detailed info as it becomes apparent it is needed. And I will, of course, continue to harangue you all mercilessly via social media and possibly even in person.

Again, thank you all so much for your support and enthusiasm for this project. It goes without saying that I couldn't do it without you, but I'll say it anyway. Thank you, thank you, you lovely lovely bunch of Divas and Divos.

*I am allowed to do Essex jokes 'cos I live with an Essex man. Essex is lovely apparently.



  

Suggested (not suggestive!) Songs for Pop Up Proms

People are asking me for suggestions !!

Here's a list of the types of songs I think would work for our Pop Up Proms audiences. It's not exhaustive, it's just a list to get people started, but it gives a good idea of what's suitable. The over-reaching theme is 'WELL KNOWN' for people born in the 1920s and 30s, with a chorus or 'hook' they can join in with. You'll notice there's no Thrash Metal or Punk, for example...

Of course if you've got an idea to do a song (or indeed a poem - think Stanley Holloway) along these sort of lines and it's not on this list- that's fine.

Remember you will need to get hold of a backing track on CD for your song if you don't already have it.

Good places to get hold of backing tracks are, in the first instance, ME ! So do ask. Also you can try Martyn Shults, Michael Dann or Tracy Melton (we're all on thePop Up Proms Facebook Group so you can contact any of us that way).

In the unlikely event that between us we don't have your choice, most popular tracks can be very easily obtained from websites like Ameritz or NAP Music for literally a matter of about 79p.

Here are my suggestions, anyway:

• Gilbert & Sullivan e.g.  Modern Major General/ I've Got A Little List/ The Nightmare Song etc

• Old Time Music Hall e.g. My Old Man said Follow The Van/ Down at the Old Bull and Bush etc
• 1920s /30s e.g. Fred Astaire film music eg Top Hat/ Puttin on the Ritz etc, or Judy Garland eg Somewhere Over The Rainbow

• 1950s /60s Anything by Doris Day (Que Sera Sera?) / Cliff Richard/ Bing Crosby/ Sinatra/ Matt Monroe etc, or Flanders & Swann eg The Gnu/ The Hippo ('Mud, mud glorious mud')

• Showtunes:

Rogers & Hammerstein style rather than Kander & Ebb or Sondheim!
I suggest songs from
Oklahoma (Oh What a Beautiful Morning)
Showboat
Carousel
Annie Get Ya Gun
Calamity Jane
My Fair Lady (Danced all Night/Wouldn't it be Luvverly)
The King & I (Whistle a Happy Tune)
Oliver (Oom Pah Pah)
South Pacific (Happy Talk/ Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair)
and so on...

Picture from http://sunshinegirlnicola.blogspot.co.uk/p/sewing.html 

And then at the end we will finish with all of us singing together
Land Of Hope And Glory
Jerusalem
Rule Britannia

Thank you all once again for your enthusiasm and support- hope this list helps with finding your songs.

Here are some songs people have already told me they're doing (these are all well known but at the moment we still need more participatory stuff ) :

• A Policeman's Lot is Not a Happy One (G&S)- Gus
• This Nearly Was Mine (South Pacific)- Gus
• Born Free/Portrait of My Love (Matt Monroe)- Martyn
• Be My Love (Mario Lanza)- Martyn
• Secret Love (Calamity Jane)- Heather
• The Guinea Pig (F&S) -Selwyn
• Albert and the Lion (poem)- Selwyn
• If I Loved You- Izzy

I will just fit into the gaps...!