Ireland!! What can I say except, WE WON!! What a great few days. The
scenery was lovely and apart from the first day when we arrived in
Dublin for a nice bit of shopping and ended up walking back to our hotel
in the pouring rain, absolutely soaked to the skin and deeper and not a
taxi in sight. We then thought to make up for it we would go out for a
seafood meal and were ushered into the side door of a pub, then had to
climb four flights of stairs into what looked like my grandmother s
sitting room. At this stage we were quite relieved to find out it was
fully booked so we fled downstairs and made for the nearest pub, which
turned out to be decked out as a castle inside. However the food was
great!
Then on to Sligo and more fantastic food and after that there
seemed to be the endless huge plates of food everywhere we went. We did
have a chance to wear some of the food off during the competition. The
dressing room was miles from the competition hall and I lost count of
the number of times that I walked back and forth. The Surrey Harmony
spirit prevailed throughout, even when the competition was delayed and
we didn't actually go on until 11.30pm ish. On the way to the hall we
had to queue up backstage and I have to admit that there was a bit of a
tussle for the seats for a momentary rest before the performance. Once
onstage it was as if it was early evening and not nearly midnight,
everyone pulled out all the stops as usual and we put on a great
performance.
We were very grateful to our groupies for all their
cheering and support throughout the whole weekend. One of the highlights
for me was singing in the Tesco Arcade. It was great to be able to sing
to the general Irish public and we attracted quite a crowd.
There was
even a hat being passed around and we collected £40.00. It was a really
good atmosphere and even better to then move on to the pub next door for
more singing and then on to a few more pubs, eventually ending up at the
Sligo Park Hotel where we sang to the hordes of people there and then
everyone else took it in turn to stand up and sing. It seemed to round
of a marvellous few days in Ireland, everyone was enjoying themselves
and so friendly. So where next? Where ever it will be I am sure Surrey
Harmony will take their usual sense of fun and happiness with them and
hopefully win a few more awards!!
The corridors and stairs leading from dressing rooms to stage were
reputed to be a quarter of a mile each way! If this is the case then we
all walked about 2 miles in the course of Friday evening. The quartets
had their own dressing rooms for changing and rehearsing and getting
nervous. Both quartets encouraged each other, and luckily there was time
for the Chorus to watch the quartet competition. Everything was running
very late owing to the very unpleasant tradition of reading out all
adjudication marks and remarks about every song – nerve racking.
After
interminable waiting, finally we were on the very attractive friendly
stage, receiving a lovely welcome and getting fully into performance
mode. Our judge was none other than John Grant, erstwhile Director of
such giants as Hallmark of Harmony and Grand Central Choruses, and a
respected BABS judge. (British Association of Barbershop Singers) He is
also married to the baritone singer in Eu4ia UK, winners of our UK
Quartet competition in Glasgow this year. So his remarks are not to be
taken lightly, and he obviously enjoyed both Hunky-Dory and Zig-Zag, and
placed them third and First respectively
He wishes for the cloths of Heaven
Hath I the heaven’s embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W B Yeats - Son of Sligo
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