City of Brighton Gay Men's Chorus

Yesterday evening Ping, John H and I were down in Brighton. We had gone to see the inaugural performance of the City of Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus but got there early so we could try out Momma Cherri’s Restaurant. Momma Cherri’s was a place featured on one of Gordon Ramsey’s “rescue” shows so we weren’t sure what to expect. In the end the food was good, although some of the portions were a bit stingy. The service was very relaxed and informal, which can be both a good and a bad thing. The drinks were rather poor though; we opted for a jug of fresh lemonade which was very bland and mostly sugared water. The cokes we had later also tasted very cheap (they definitely weren’t Coca Cola!)

John H, who was otherwise excellent company, managed to drop one his infamous clangers though; as we were paying the bill a couple arrived asking if they could get a table and, after the hostess had told them they were booked, John said sotto voce “Run, run for your lives!” The couple didn’t hear him but the waitress did – and said so. There was a short silence, during which I simultaneously cursed my English heritage for making me so embarassable and wished that the ground would open up and swallow me. Fortunately we were able to make a sharp exit thereafter…

Then it was a delightful stroll along the Prom, eating ice creams in the evening sunlight and enjoying the scenery, as we made our way to the venue for the show.

Several of the LGMC boys are resident in Brighton, so they were all there, plus David S, who is originally from Brighton, had come down from London to see the show too.

In the end I was very impressed. There were about twenty guys singing. They did some quite vocally tricky numbers but were very tight throughout. I’m not sure that the acoustics did them any favours though, as they sounded a bit muffled from where I was sitting. Their Musical Director was a drag act in the Hinge & Bracket vein which was amusing up to a point, but wasn’t what we had come to hear. I was especially disappointed in the finale, which was three pieces from Les Misérables, when she sang the second piece; I Dreamed a Dream. That would have been so lovely and so appropriate for the Chorus to have sung. Perhaps the fates agreed with me too as, during her rendition, the candles on one of the side displays set something alight and there was a momentary scuffle of attendants and the roar of a CO₂ extinguisher being used. Both the dame and the Chorus took it in their stride though and the show came to grand end with One Day More.

If I had to make a criticism of the show it would be that the musical precision, or at least their very strict keeping to meter, lost some of the emotion from the songs. The performance would have had more emotional impact if occasionally they had let a note linger or slowed the tempo a little at the conclusion of the song. Mind you that could also have been due to nerves. I don’t believe many of the performers had sung in public before so I imagine there must have been a lot of nerves on stage last night.

Anyway, they impressed me enough that I will certainly go and see them again. I think they have a bright future ahead of them!