Sunny End To Tour!

Well, once again GGCC had the sun come out for them last Saturday! Amazing! The day before was tipping it down but when we all gathered at the Stoke Lane Community Garden opening we were accompanied by glorious sunshine.

A lot of hard work had obviously gone into transforming a fairly derelict piece of land into a beautiful garden for the local community and so it was a real joy to be able to lead GGCC in singing songs of hope to all who gathered. Thanks to Steve for inviting us and for providing rehearsal space in his garden (the neighbours got a bit of a treat!).

Em had a blast leading you all, thanks so much for coming!!!

So, that's the last of the GGCC summer tour dates...we've had so much fun! Have an awesome summer everyone and we look forward to seeing you in the Autumn term...dates coming soon. 

A Diamond Performance!

Well I'm so glad the Priory Road Street party was on Monday and not yesterday!!! Yes, GGCC were on the road again for the Queen's Bank Holiday Jubilee celebrations and really did give a "Diamond" performance of songs old and new. In true GGCC style some of the songs were learned on the day! Was so great to see everyone in their red, white and blue, especially when we all squeezed into Nikky's back garden for rehearsal!

Here are a couple more pics...

Geraldine getting us into position and Em totally focussed...on the camera!!!

S-ooo-n and very soon!

Thanks so much to everyone who came from GGCC and to the wonderful residents of Priory Road for giving us such a warm welcome and hosting such a great street party!

Next stop...Stoke Lane Community Garden opening, wahey!!!

We're in Speedwell!!!

Well, it's a glorious sunny day in May and we had a great morning at Speedwell Methodist Church...here we all are! (Em is hiding in her 'm' bag!!!)

Em was so thrilled when she arrived to see so many happy GGCC faces there, we were literally spilling off the edge of the stage as you can see.

Everyone sang their hearts out and we managed to do loads of songs, both old and new ones. After Geraldine was left with no voice on Sunday at Boiling Wells, Em turned up today with no voice...such a healthy bunch this GGCC team! But, with back up last minute small group for the verses of Blessed be the name and beautiful sponateous humming from the whole choir when Em sang the verses for Here is Love, there was all the support she needed...thanks guys and gals!

Thanks to Wendy for inviting us to come to your church and do pass on our thanks for the yummy breakfast.

So, next stop on our summer tour is the Priory Road Street party on 4th June...can't wait!

Boiling Wells May Day Celebrations

Well I've just got home after a lovely afternoon with the GGCC gang at Boiling Wells May Day Celebrations. I think most of us had never been to "Boiling Wells" but I think we all agreed it's quite a find, a beautiful outdoor venue, tucked away in St Werburgh's. I was certainly glad we had Cliff in the car to point us in the right direction!

We arrived to hear the end of a brilliant Samba band which was followed by a Capoeira display. The weather was good to us all, no rain and the sun even came out for a fleeting moment while we rehearsed! We had a great warm up and rehearsal at the end of the tunnel, dodging traffic and departing Samba band members.

Then we headed off to the ampitheatre to perform

 

Geraldine and Emma were so thrilled to be joined by well over 30 GGCC members (I know that cos I ran out of free drinks tokens and was given 30...cunning!!!)

Even though Geraldine's voice was fading fast she managed to still lead us all in songs including "Soon and very soon", "Steal Away", "Blessed be your name", "Swing Low" and "Happy Day" and Em led "We magnify" and "Nobody Knows".

All in all, a really fun afternoon, spent with lovely people in a beautiful place! It's such a joy to be able to give away something of the adventure and blessing that is GGCC. Looking forward to next Saturday when we're at Speedwell Methodist!

Summer Term off to flying start!

Wahey, it's the GGCC Summer term! It's so exciting because we now have five performances booked where we can share all that we have done with the good folk of Bristol.

We had an amazing refresher rehearsal on Wednesday night at Cairns Road...what a great turnout from Westbury & Shirehampton GGCC! Easton GGCC have a rehearsal next week but there were a few there on Wednesday who did a great job singing Nobody Knows.

It was lovely to see how much everyone was enjoying being back together and even though we've had a 6 week break since our concerts, the songs all came flooding back easily and sounded fab. Some of the songs Geraldine taught were new to folk too but they picked them up so quickly...like a bunch of pros!

Looking forward to our first Summer concert on Sunday at the Boiling Wells May Day celebrations, we'll try and get some pics to put up here.

Cairns Road Concert - What a Finale!

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! Last night's concert at Cairns Road was the perfect end to the most amazing GGCC term. I actually found myself waking up in the night last night, remembering that we'd done our last concert til the Autumn and felt really sad! It has been such a joy to journey with all three GGCC choirs over the last nine weeks, seeing friendships form, confidence grow and being overwhelmed by everyone's total commitment to the choir.

So, highlights from last night then...where so I start? Well I guess for many in the choir it was the first time they got to sing with a live band! And what a band they were! At the start of rehearsal faces in the choir were looking a bit concerned about being with the band but as they sang more and more I could see smiles appear in abundance as it became a joy to be accompanied by such top musicians!

Plus we had an amazing sound engineer for the night who brought all his own kit, set it up in the afternoon and then packed it all up afterwards...thank you John-Marc!!!

Another thing that was really apparant last night is how big the GGCC family is...

...this was in rehearsal and we were still missing quite a few!

The evening got off to a cracking start with "Happy Day/I will sing praises" and "We magnify your name"

There were many moving moments including Westbury GGCC singing "Everlasting God"...actually managed to get a pic or two of them this time, here they are in action

Easton GGCC finally got onto camera as well singing "Nobody Knows"...once again the audience spontaneously joined in clapping along!

The "Our Father" quartet did a fab job...

As did the "Hosanna" posse...

And it was a joy to me (Em) to be able to sing "I just can't give up now" again with my two lovely friends Geraldine & Naomi...

Plus the medley at the end of the three spirituals "Steal Away " (Westbury GGCC), "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" (Shirehampton GGCC) and "Nobody Knows" (Easton GGCC), was once again the perfect end to the evening, all three choirs, singing their own song but together as one. A fantastic sign of a new community from three different parts of the city.

So that's it for GGCC for now. We will be singing at a few community events in the summer which we'll put up here on the blog. Rehearsals will start again in the Autumn so watch this space!

St Edyth's concert...A-MA-ZING!

Well, it's a beautiful sunny March morning, again! Still can't get my head round this 'June like' weather but am loving it!

If you were at the St Edyth's GGCC concert last night, then you were in for a treat! Such an amazing evening, I'm sitting at my computer this morning with so many lovely memories and highlights buzzing in my head. Right from the comedy double act that is Emma and Geraldine setting up the staging trying not to break nails (!), through to the brilliant "secret" finale again. I did manage to get some photos although not all brilliantly in focus (of course it's the cameras fault not my bad photography!) but they hopefully give an idea of what we did. Sorry there are still no pics of Easton GGCC...it's hard for me to take any when I'm leading so if anyone else out there took any can you email me a copy, ta. Same goes for Westbury GGCC actually. One day I might have some actual sound bites to include who knows. So here are some pics...

The combined choirs of GGCC...looking and sounding lovely.

Prizes for guessing what Geraldine is signalling here!

See anyone you know?

Shirehampton GGCC singing "Swing Low"

The colour co-ordinated Shirehampton altos!

And the sparkly Shire sopranos...plus some men!