Brighton Pride this year had the theme of “Pride Around the World”. After giving it some though we remebered last year’s Pride in Paris as guests of Podium (we had originally hoped they could have joined us, but sadly it was not possible) so we on our “Café de (gaie) Paris” theme. To create the effect, we had suitable music and a wild array of outfits including a French maid, several cabaret dancers, two onion sellers, Marie Antoinette, two French waiters, two phantoms of the opera and two French mime artists.



We’re very grateful to lots of the women in the choir who put in loads of time to make all the lovely cutouts of the Eiffel Tower, Sacré Coeur, L’Arc de Triomphe, Moulin Rouge (and one other I think), organise the PA and drive the truck! Swags and flags completed the scene. We had a wondeful time singing along with the music, Can-Can dancing and acting out bizarre scenes from The Phantom of the Opera! And there’s also a big thanks to our wonderful wheel stewards who didn’t get to rise on the float, but without whom there would have been no float.


We’d also like to thank Brighton & Hove Council for our grant without which this extravaganza would not have been possible.

There are more pictures in the gallery - so have a look.

And of course, we hope you all had a fantastic Pride ...

Yet again, the keen Rainbow Chorus team braved the wind and almost rain to reach the Brighton Marina Bowlplex to 'go for gold'. Ahem. This year our largest choir posse yet was represented by Adam, Michael, Ewan, Gill, Liam and Stephen.



Although we didn't have such a cracking run of strikes as last year, and we're sure lane 23 was rigged so that we ended up with one 'pin' (to use the jargon) standing far too often, the team average was up considerably on 2007 and as you can see at one point here we were doing very well, though admittedly before all the scores were in ...



It was all great fun with all 26 lanes taken up with all sorts of local LGBT groups and even the four members of the Stonewall team who had come down from London just for this event. Stephen amazed himself (and everyone else I think) by actually scoring a strike for the first time in his many, many years! Remarkably, the BLAGSS Bowling Team did not get the title, which this year was awarded to the BLAGSS Tennis Team - a little hard for Liam to swallow as his partner was in their team. However, there was much noshing of sandwiches, wraps and dips and not forgetting some little pancakes as it was actually Shrove Tuesday to help forget that we didn't waltz home with the title.

Finally, where were we placed? Well in a beautiful piece of unplanned inter-choir harmony, we finished joint 8th with the City of Brighton Gay Men's Chorus. Ahhhhh.

We'll be back next year and maybe we'll see you there.

In 2007 the theme of Pride was 'Musicals' - so our performance during Pride week as part of our our ongoing 10th Anniversary celebrations was a mixture of songs including a set of favourites from the fabulous "West Side Story"!

Here's the programme for the evening.

This was a milestone concert for us in that it was the first full-length concert we've given on our own where we ditched our music folders - and what a difference! Not only was the visual presentation of our performance enormously improved but it was reflected in the musical quality too with comments from the audience like "so together", "professional", "when you stop you really stop" and so on. It prompted similar comments from many of us in the choir too and I think it's safe to say that it was probably one of the most musically and personally satisfying and enjoyable concerts we've given.

In the first half we were dressed in our new Rainbow Chorus tops (only seen before on the Paris catwalk!)


After that there was a short interval and then we came back with a vengeance for part 2 - Songs from West Side Story.
We began spread out, relaxed and chatting around the stage, gradually coming together whilst singing the opening number - Tonight.



There was a narrative beautifully read by Simon, Michael and Edana which gave the context for each song.


The up tempo songs such as Something's Coming, America and Cool gave us a chance to join in the action with moving and shimmying and clicking of fingers and the response from the audience showed how much they liked it.


We dressed in a way that's not been seen at any of our previous concerts and it went down a storm so check out the fab costumes worn by the women (strangely none of the men put on a frock ...) straight from the streets of the Upper West Side in the 50s


The audience loved it, we loved it, Glen and Adam played brilliantly, the staff at the Sallis Benney were great, Jess the front of house manager and especially the sound and light man Graham and Tim the technician. Having such helpful people around really made a difference.

Withdrawal is now setting in ...

You can see some more pictures on our Photo Gallery.

Continuing our tradition for LGBT singers to meet and make music together in a supportive and friendly environment we offered a free Pre-Pride vocal workshop in Brighton with an opportunity to sing with us at our Pride concert.

It was led by Guillermo Rosenthuler, a fantastic motivational singer and coach and I think it's fairly safe to say that everyone who attended got a lot out of it. Guillermo tooks us through Argentinian and African songs, a particular type of French spiritual singing with Italian words and even a medieval English song celebrating drink. All in all, fairly international I think! It was lovely to see some new faces (and one familiar one) in our guests and hope that they will continue and join the choir, but even if they don't I'm sure they will have had a lovely day ... and even sun and good weather at lunchtime. And thanks very much to Sé who offered us lovely hospitality at his home.

On the 28th of June most of the choir arrived via Eurostar in Paris as guests of Podium and after a brief wander around Montmartre we went to rehearse with them in preparation for Sunday. They were very welcoming, kindly supplied us with food & drink and we ended the evening with a wonderful and moving singalong around the piano.


Their accompanist Antoine knew all of the accompaniment for such diverse songs as Hey Jude, While My Guitar Gentle Weeps, Supertramp's Downstream(!), The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Otis Redding's Dock of the Bay and so on. Antoine's a star. We then wandered back to our accommodation so generously provided in the homes of our hosts - they are all so lovely. Aaahhhhhhh.


Next day we did our own thing but several of us met for lunch and then that evening went to enjoy "La Nuit d'Equivox" (this link may not be permanent but they're on our links page too) - well, I just cried tears of happiness watching them. They were a sort of theatrical choir and sang around the theme of night and dressed appropriately as burglars, temptresses, sheep, vampires and more. Utterly inspired!


Saturday was Pride and we were on the first float with Podium and each choir took it in turn to do a little singing/lip-synching to our various pre-recorded hits along the parade which began at Montparnasse and wound it way to Place de la Bastille.

The weather was fine, the crowds were out in force, the speeches were spoken and we had a wonderful time, though some of the songs did tire just a tad after the 10th time ... The evening involved dinner in the Marais with friends from the other choirs, a fabulous South American cocktail bar for some of us and a late bed. Zzzzz ...

So, to Sunday. A picnic in Le Jardin de Luxembourg followed by the concert. Melo'men were first on, then us and then Podium. The songs we sang were Let the River Run, Steal Away, My Funny Valentine, Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, Will You?, In This Heart, Some where and Tonight. We also performed Will I Lose My Dignity (from Rent) with the other two choirs.


At the end we all came together to close with Comme d'habitude (My Way) which a friend of mine now living in Paris said "gave me goosebumps".

We had an large and appreciative audience who enjoyed this free open-air concert whilst sitting under the lovely trees around the bandstand.
Then most of us walked briskly to catch the Vedettes du Pont Neuf
for a little Seine sightseeing, again kindly organised by Podium. Sunday evening was our last time with our hosts, so a lovely dinner again (Parisien Pizza I think) and then off to do our own thing on our final night.

For those that had stayed the whole time, this was a last chance for a little browsing, wandering, gift purchases and perhaps a little more food and then finally off to Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar home. It was a fantastic weekend for all of us which we will all remember for years to come. We hope to return the favour next year, so point your RSS feed here to make sure that you won't miss it and have a browse through some more photos here.

Au revoir pour maintenant.

We sang in June at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank as part of Europride Sings. Other choirs were the London Gay Men's Chorus, the City of Brighton Gay Men's Chorus, Diversity, The Pink Singers from the UK and the small, but perfectly formed Mannenkoorts from the Hague. A great concert and the all choirs finale of All Girl Band was quite a choreographic experience!


On our way



So bossy!



Lunch break



What a bunch of smiling faces!



Rehearsal time

We took part in the parade

Craig, Liam and Basil ready for the off



Liam, Adam and Basil in London Road


Tanya engulfed in feathers!

This as I recall was the year of the torrential downpour and ensuing mud bath! Lightning hit the stage and blew the power to the stage - not that it stopped us!



Curiously the picture below is of some members of the choir 'busking' in Preston Park and I assume that it's from 2002 as the 'outfits' match, however, the park looks rather dry... any corrections appreciated as always.

Part of the GLAM Pre-Pride events - the first concert organised by the choir itself :-)

Here's a clipping from the Pink Paper at the time.

Programme outside cover:



Programme inside cover: