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...!






  

What is The Pop-Up Proms Project?

The Pop Up Proms Project is something I've been thinking of doing for ages. Initially, I'll run it from September 2013 to the end of August 2014.

I've got together a group of performers who are all happy to offer their time and talent completely free, to go out to residential care homes and day-centres for the elderly people of Norfolk and have a good sing.

It's not designed as a performance where we sing and the audience applauds at the end. The whole point is for the audience to join in. For example,

You know the brilliant joiny-inny bit at the end of the Last Night Of The Proms? That.

Fans at a football match lustily serenading their team? That.

Finding yourself enjoyably warbling along to Songs Of Praise on the telly? That.

That is the spirit of what we're trying to do with Pop Up Proms. All of that joy and exuberance that a shared experience of music creates, that's what we want to create for our audiences.


So our aims are simple:

• To provide free entertainment for the older ladies and gents in our county.
• To provide the elderly with an opportunity for participation in uplifting singing in a relaxed and familiar environment.
• To give opportunities for extra social interaction.
• To give opportunities for personal reminiscences and sharing memories

There'll be more on that last one later.

I'll be using this blog as a notice board and information centre for performers and bookers alike, so do please come back for updates!