Aberdeen Revelation Rock-Gospel Choir

2004-11-27T20:03:00.000Z

Well, apologies for being a bit slow with the blog entries this week – it’s been all go in the world of AbRev!!

On Monday, we had our first taste (in many years!) of dance from Gayle, which was great fun! Gayle taught the first part to a very funky hip-hop-style routine (stay bouncy!), which we’re hoping to learn in time to perform for the concert on the 13th. Although some of us discovered we had two left feet (I know for a fact MY brain just would not connect with my feet, let alone my arms…!), it was still great fun, and a great opportunity to try something different. Hopefully most of us will stick with it and end up looking very funky indeed in the concert…!

Once we were sufficiently warmed up with all the boogieing and bouncing, we decided to start singing!! (Speaking personally, I’ve no idea how I managed it, being so out of breath from dancing – I am SO unfit!) We achieved a first for AbRev tonight, which surprised us all – we covered a mammoth SEVEN songs in one rehearsal! So, here goes… We did:
- Be Like Him
- Steal Away
- Rejoice Rejoice
- Sisi Dolada
- Shackles
- Sanctuary
and last, but definitely not least…
- Ain’t No Rain
It was amazing! HUGE thanks to the whole choir, who put in an incredible amount of effort to learn three new songs (Sisi Dolada, Shackles and Sanctuary – all brought home from the Training Weekend), as well as remember the other four perfectly!

After such a productive rehearsal, a trip to the pub was definitely in order to re-hydrate ourselves, so off we went to the Red Lion for drinks, chat and (most importantly!) DARTS!! We had an impressive darts tournament, though I can safely say – I still SUCK!!! ;)

So, that was Monday… But this week, for the first time this term, we had an extra rehearsal on the Wednesday to help prepare for our concert. And it turned out to be another really great rehearsal!

We started a bit earlier than usual, at 7pm, to practise our dance. We all impressed ourselves with how much we’d remembered from Monday, and even had time to learn a new section. The new bit seemed complicated at the time, but I’m sure we’ll get the hang of it, and when we do, it’s going to look so professional when we come to perform it! I can’t wait!

At 8pm, we moved onto singing. Easter, the University Chaplain, came to visit us to chat about our preparations for Sunday’s singing, so she stayed to listen for a couple of songs too, which was really nice. We started with a nice easy one, Sisi Dolada, and then moved onto Jordan, which Astrid did a great job of conducting.

After the break, we decided to run through a couple of the songs for Sunday in the Chapel, so we quickly went through Steal Away, Sanctuary and Be Like Him, before moving onto a new song (for our new members, but a firm favourite with our older members) Eyes On The Prize. Despite the song’s many sections, everyone picked it up really quickly and gave the song some real energy and “oomph” – just what it deserves! Hopefully it’ll become a favourite (and mantra!) with our newer members too. “Everything is gonna, everything is gonna, everything is gonna be alright…” :)

So, as I said earlier, it’s all go in AbRev at the moment. On Sunday (tomorrow already!), we’re singing in the Chapel’s Student-Led Service at 11am, and hopefully as many people as possible will turn up to join in the fun! We’ll let you know how it goes!

Real men sing in Revelation!

2004-11-16T11:31:00.000Z

Yes it's true!! Two real (as opposed to honorary) men definitely kept all the girls going last night. ;) We would simply not have been able to do "Wimaway" without them!! You did a great job guys!!!

We also saw our first volunteer (*ahem*, of course he volunteered...!) for a solo last night!!! Daniel agreed to star in "Steal Away", and what a fantastic job he did of it! Our men save the day once again! ;) The solos are being snapped up thick and fast now so step forward if you want to secure the solo in your favorite song!!! The sooner you do this the more time you have to rehearse it...! ;) Plus, Christmas is here sooner than you think (or is that just us old fogies who think that?!) which is when we hope to perform the majority of the songs we know in our Christmas concert- complete with soloists!

It might have been Gayle's first rehearsal last night, but when she admitted to be a bit of a dancing queen she was immediately roped into preparing a little number for physical warm-up next week. Who knows, it might lead to us finally doing more than just singing - we are supposed to "incorporate other performing arts" after all...! I did ask her to keep it simple as I for one have at least two left feet, so not to worry if you're not a Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers. If you have any hidden and secret talent(s), don't be shy - we'd love to learn from you too! It will also hopefully make warm-ups more intersting as the same people tend to do the same things for warm-ups - we need new blood and new ideas (no offence intended to music people!!!!) :) (Kelly: none taken! Cheeky...!)

Less than two weeks remain until our next gig in the University Chapel for the Student-Led Service. We have a lot of songs to choose between, but the decision itself will be left to the choir so be prepared to vote for your favourites (we'll need two or three songs) although we know it will be a very difficult choice of course!

The training weekend is nearly upon us so make sure you've booked if you want to go. If you are lucky enough to be going please remember to think about things you could mention in an article about the weekend to our very own Gaudie. As I (bananne) am unable to join you for the weekend I'd definitely like to read about it!

Lastly, I just like to ask folk to try to turn up on time. Not only will that help us to start on time but it will also ensure that we don't give all the Haribo to the folk who turned up on time...hint, hint and wink, wink :)

That's all for now. No doubt we will see some tired faces on Monday at rehearsal, after a sleepless weekend of fun in Edinburgh...!

Have fun!!!

Confessions from the committee, more sweets and socials all in this week's post!

2004-11-09T11:26:00.000Z

Rehearsals kicked off last night with a smallish group (later more joined in) who were obviously the best singers as we (yet again) sounded absolutely fab :) There was also a lot more sweets for everyone than usual ;)

Emma took us through "Swing Low", "When The Saints Go Marching In" and "This Train Is Bound For Glory" as a round for warm-ups. It is great to have newcomers full of energy and ideas who just join in and make suggestions! We like it! More more! :D Then Cat had another go at "Oh Happy Day" with a much happier outcome! That is what I call positive mood induction. Then Kelly took us through "Down by the Riverside" (which sounded TRULY fab, by the way!)

In the second half, we sang our old favourites and other requests ("Ain't No Rain", "Jordan" (not the lady with the big boobies!) and "Heaven Is A Wonderful Place"). We now have quite a few songs with parts for a soloist so if you have a budding soloist in your tummy don't be shy, just give it a go, who knows Pop Idol might be next! (or "who knows, Aberdeen this week and the WORLD next!")

This week we, the committee, had a confession to make. (dan dan DAAAAAAAN!) T-shirts have not yet been ordered which has left us with more time to re-think what they should look like! This was done on the premise that if we're going to change them we might as well do it properly. Kelly (the stinky one) presented our new design about which an email will be sent out shortly. The new design will involve a new colour and here we were thinking purple of the Cadbury chocolate wrapper kind. On the front will be a Revelation logo with our web address (how cool is that!) while on the back we have all the things that Revelation means to us, what we do and where we are (cities) under the heading "all things in life are learned from Revelation" (how true!). Let us know what you think ASAP (by Monday 15th November) so we can change or order them.

We also discussed the date for our very own Christmas concert. Tuesday 14th Dec has been suggested but there have been a few objections to this date so our new suggestion is Thursday the 16th Dec. We are planning to have it in the uni chapel where we always sound fantastic.

This week we are also going bowling on Thursday night at 7.30pm, at Megabowl on George Street. Come along and see Kelly bowl Cat off her feet (Kelly: "hmm, we'll see about that...!") while everyone else manages to actually aim the ball in right direction and knock some pins over...! Guaranteed live comedy - you couldn't make it up yourself. You simply do not want to miss this one!

Sang in Crown Terrace Methodist Church Today

2004-11-07T21:18:00.000Z

Ten Revvers turned up to sing at the long promised gig at the Crown Terrace Church. What a success - they asked us back and we were approached by another church to sing THERE! There was nothing but praise for us so they had a hard time getting rid of us as we couldn’t get enough ;) (hehehe, you could almost see our heads growing as the compliments flooded in...!)

We sang Amazing Grace with the first verse in the traditional tune, then the rest in our usual funky style. Astrid did an excellent job in conducting us and even kept smiling all the way through :) Rejoice Rejoice came second and was received with another (almost) standing applause.

Why is it that when you really, really need your Ipod to work it won't? Good job Smelly also recorded the gig!

Before the gig we had had a much needed breakfast although the place that calls itself Aberdeen’s best kept secret will STAY a secret because we waited outside their door for 20 minutes before they told us they wouldn't open until an hour later... Could be why they are a secret - if they don't let folk in! At least you can trust Ottakar's to serve you breakfast at 10 am on a Sunday morning! (mmm, muffins!)

Thanks to all of you who made it, you did well!! We ROCKED!!!!

A post about life without Revelation

2004-11-04T21:02:00.000Z

Yes, it is possible to survive the week without your Rev fix but it was a somewhat sorry state affairs for me all week because I missed my Rev :( I had the shakes and all!

I went home for five days (that is about as much time away I could afford from halls and my thesis) for a family party (yay!) and to see my wonder boy nephew who is now 5 months old (and just soooo cute!). I'm sure he grows to become a Rev addict just like his auntie as he is already showing a clear preference for live music :)

I returned Tuesday and spent the remainder of the week being completely confused as to what day it was as I hadn't had my usual Monday with Rev!?! Also, singing on a Monday is just such a good start to the week so I've been feeling bad all week without it :( (could possibly be due to the chapter I'm writing at the moment about mood induction but I don't think so).

Get your Rev fix - you know you need it!

Yours truly,

Ms Bananne
(el Presidente)

Singing on Sunday! Yay!

2004-11-01T23:44:00.000Z

Hooray, less than a week until our first real performance!!!! Hooray! And we're going to sound soooo good! :)

It will be an Aberdeen world premiere of (cue fanfare!!!):
Amazing Grace (with new verses!)
Rejoice Rejoice

If you're an A-person there is an obligatory (tee hee hee!) option of breakfast at 9.30 am, meeting outside the Music Hall otherwise at the Church at 10.30. If you're a B-person there is compulsory breakfast at 9.30 meeting outside the Music Hall. Erm, did we mention there would be breakfast...??? ;)

This is an event NOT to be missed: breakfast, gig and church in one - that is three in one! Not to mention tea and biscuits after the service... what more of a bargain could you possibly want?!

Erm, ooh, writer's block! Don't want to sound boring writing the same stuff, week after week, but week after week we ROCK!! For some reason (and I'm not complaining!), AbRev are sounding wicked this year - even better than previous years! (and you thought that wasn't possible...!)

This week at rehearsal, we decided to start with a "quick" run-through of our songs for Crown Terrace, which all went swimmingly (I know...! Us being so fabulous must be so boring for everyone else...!). I say "quick", as our choreography for Rejoice Rejoice was a tad confusing... I had never thought there could be so many ways in which one could raise one's arms... Turns out there are so many ways! I think we got it sorted in the end, though! We'll just have to see how it turns out on Sunday! (and if we all actually remember which particular arm-raising we decided on. I know I'm confused!)

Then after the break, Astrid and Cat started to teach Oh Happy Day. However, it wasn't long before a feeling of "this isn't right" was spreading throughout the choir (see? We're not perfect all the time, just most of the time...!). It certainly wasn't sounding like a very Happy Day at all... Eventually, after some plinky-plonky-ing on the keyboard, we realised that one of the notes in the arrangement was written wrongly, and that teeny weeny little note was making Oh Happy Day sound like Oh Crappy Day. (Bless 'em, poor Cat and Astrid made a truly valiant effort at teaching us, but that one note was in the way the whole time...) But it's cool now - it's fixed! And we can't wait to try it again next Monday, and really give it some welly!!!

And finally, Cat rounded off the rehearsal nicely with a prayer, which was lovely, before we all headed home to bed, all being completely shattered...! (and anyway, we need to make sure we're refreshed for our first gig on Sunday!)

Tune in again next week for more exciting news, and to see how our first performance went!!

Woo! We suck! (but not at singing...)

2004-10-29T18:38:00.000Z

Woops, apologies for a late entry this week to the blog – it’s all been a bit hectic here, what with all our respective PhDs, job hunting and Haribo-eating… Anyway, it’s here now! ;)

Hate to sound like a broken record, but we had ANOTHER great rehearsal again on Monday! (we’re getting rather good at this, aren’t we?!) After Cat did some Bob Marley-stylee warm-ups (V funky!), Kelly taught “Heaven Is A Wonderful Place”, followed by Jen’s “Be Like Him” (I didn’t know cats and dogs lived in the jungle, but then I’m only a microbiologist…).

We’ve been asked to join in with Crown Terrace Methodist Church’s service on 7th November (remember that date!!) and sing a couple of songs in their Sunday morning service, so we used the break as an opportunity to sit down and pick which songs we’d like to sing. Eventually we decided on: “Be Like Him”, “Amazing Grace” and “Rejoice Rejoice” – we reckon that’ll get the congregation up and dancing in the aisles! ;)

It made sense to practise these songs in the second half… so that’s what we did! As we’d already mastered “Be Like Him” in the first half, we skipped straight to “Rejoice Rejoice”, and sang it NOTE-PERFECT!! I think I can safely say we were all pretty astounded, but very proud of ourselves! Then we had a go at Amazing Grace, which was, of course, as funky as ever. Crown Terrace won’t know what hit it! ;)

Our obligatory trip to the pub after rehearsal was an experience, shall we say…! Although Rev aims to “draw out hidden abilities”, we discovered that darts ISN’T one of them! Especially in the case of Aron and I…! Oh well, practise makes perfect!

Ooh, and before I forget, important things to remember:
- We’re planning a video night/get together social pretty soon, as soon as we can pick a date that suits everyone. Any suggestions/preferences, let us know!
- We’ll be ordering t-shirts next week, hopefully, so if you haven’t told us your size, pleeease let us know. Remember, we’re getting brand new t-shirts with a new logo on, so even if you’ve got a wardrobe full of Rev clothing, you still need a new one to add to the collection…
- Training weekend is SOON!!!! It’s 19-21 November in Edinburgh, at the bargainous price of approx. £15 (and that includes accommodation and food!). If you haven’t added your name to the list, then please do so!

Ok, enough from me now! Watch this space for another entry next week, and, meanwhile, keep on Revvin’! :)

We ROCK!!!

2004-10-19T01:12:00.000Z

SUCH a funky rehearsal tonight!

Jen went over "I Believe" and also taught us "Be Like Him" (cue jungle noises, followed by much giggling!), and Kelly taught Rejoice Rejoice (which people seemed to like this week, much to Kelly's relief!) and we all sounded WICKED!!! Everyone seemed to pick up their parts really quickly (but, Astrid - the altos are too quiet without you!!! Please don't "shut up" anymore - come back and make some noise! And Aron, we missed you too!!! The more "real" men the better!!!), and all of the parts just fitted together sooooo well. We just can't wait to get stuck in next week now with even more cool songs!

We also announced plans for our new/old t-shirts, which is also very exciting. We've decided to go back to using our old logo from a few years ago, which will be a funky blast from the past...! The idea of having pink hoodies and t-shirts was also discussed, but our men decided that would be discrimination against minority groups if we went ahead with it...! Oh well, red it is, then! (I suppose most of us pink-lovers have enough pink clothes as it is....!) ;)

We also discussed plans for the upcoming training weekend in Edinburgh, from 19th-21st November. There seems to be plenty of interest in the weekend, especially when the idea of taking the ultra-cheap Megabus (www.megabus.com) to Edinburgh cropped up...! Woohoo! AbRev ROAD TRIP!!!!! :D
In the pub afterwards, talk turned to socials (isn't it funny how the most important discussions are always left until the pub...?!), which are still in the planning stages, but there's plenty of ideas floating about.

Oh, and poor Katrina (those J20s went straight to her head!) was upset because everyone else seemed to have a story to tell, and she doesn't..... bless her cotton socks. :p

That's it for another week from the world of AbRev. Tune in next week for the next exciting installment!! ;)

Week three of rehearsals

2004-10-13T15:28:00.000Z

How time flies when you are having FUN!!!!!

First we had an Aberdeen world premiere of Jen teaching us "I Believe" for which we are looking for a conductor and a soloist. Anyone got a little soloist that is budging to get out? Anyone fancy conducting?

Cat then tried (really hard) to teach us "Rejoice! Rejoice!" but we concluded that it just wasn't meant to happen :( Going over some of the oldies cheered us right up and fired us up for a visit to the local pub (known as The Bobbin).

Other news:

Suggestions for t-shirts are more than welcome!
Mark the 28th November in your planners as that is our gig in the chapel.
We do have the possibility of another gig before then so stay tuned :)
In the pub we had a brainstorm about what to do for socials and all I'll say for now is that it involves salsa, acting, pubcrawls and food...

2nd rehearsal last night...

2004-10-05T13:51:00.000Z

...and we had 21 folk there - woohooo! Sounded goosebump-inducing again (or ant tits inducing if you're Danish)!!!!

Thanks to shut-up-Astrid we had the real stuff for warm-ups (=actual Haribo) :) Thanks shut-up-Astrid!

Katrina taught us "Rivers of Babylon" and she took us through some songs from last week. Catman (not Hispanic studies) also had a go at "Ain't No Rain" and she did splendid on her first ever teaching assignment!!!!

Warning - social coming up - not to be missed! We are going to see the Soweto Gospel Choir on Wednesday meeting at 18.45 at the second shop on Bedford Road (opposite the retail park) or at 19.10 outside the Music Hall - you can still come along (there should still be tickets to be had).

Plans are underway for our next social involving Catman (not Hispanic studies)'s cooking, shut-up-Astrid's flat, Hannebananne's popcorn and anything else you fancy :) Stay tuned, you know where you'll hear it first!!!

Woohoo! First post!!!

2004-09-28T11:29:00.000Z

Woo *wave*!

We had a stall at the Fresher's Fair on Sept 21st. The usual hardcore, die-hard members turned up, FINALLY...! ;) Hanne Bananne was panicking that no-one would turn up, but that's cos we were all in Tesco choosing which sweets to buy! Gummy sweets or Dolly mixture, that IS the question.....! (we settled on both!)

Had our first rehearsal last night, and it was FANDABBYDOZY!!! Sooooooooooooo many people turned up, much to our delight and surprise...! We just hope they all come back next week!

(note to the "royal" committee - the little Tesco on King Street doesn't sell Haribo - grrrrr! Must organise shopping list in the future...!)

Hmm, what else have we been up to this week? Ooh, we made this blog this morning! How cool is that?! We also have grand plans for a chat room for the site. Watch this space...!