Smitten

I usually don’t walk into churches unless I have a good reason. I had a great reason yesterday, when the Peebles choir gave a charity concert for Comic Relief (known for their Red Nose Day).

I like choir music, I like charity, and the church is just around the corner - like everything in Peebles really. When I arrived, volunteers waved their donation buckets at me expectantly, but then advised me to better wait until after the concert before donating because the concert might be rubbish. Yes, the British are known for their charming understatement and self-deprecation. In this spirit, the concert started with a long explanation by the conductor how the concert hasn’t been planned much and how some members of the choir might not know all the songs that they would be singing because there was no program. The choir was a mixed group of maybe 50 people, decorated with red noses and feelers on their heads. It seemed like half of the town was standing in front and singing to us. Us, the other half of the town.

Since there was no program they ran out of ideas after a few songs and asked the audience for input. People were too shy at first to request any songs, but then someone, probably a young mum, came up with something: “Twinkle, twinkle, little star”, a short children’s lullaby. I assume it was a joke but the choir sang it anyway. After that, the audience wasn’t consulted anymore for a while until the conductor seemed to have forgotten about the incident and asked again. This time, a child requested “Gangnam Style”. I really don’t mind to admit that last year’s Gangnam Style hype was mostly missed by me due to my travels. The conductor, though, knew about it and refused to conduct it. But he did offer to anyone else who felt inclined so to conduct for him. 

Quickly, a school kid climbed onto the conductor’s pedestal, and after a few encouraging words two pre-school kids and two other school kids took the vacated stage, ready to dance. Gangnam Style was found on Youtube and the “performance” started. The two school kids started to dance, one of the pre-school kids tried to copy them, while the last pre-school kid didn’t really know what to do on the stage and decided to copy the conductor instead. Behind the kid-conductor, the three dancing kids and the one confused kid, a very enthusiastic grown-up male member of the choir did the dance as well. It was super cute and hilarious at the same time.

When the choir got ready to sing again, the kid-conductor didn’t want to leave the pedestal. So he stayed. He did quite a good job, but then, the choir only really cared about his conducting at the very end of the song. They held the note, waiting for the kid-conductor to indicate the end. When the kid finally realized that they were actually waiting for his signal, some of the singers were desperate for breath. For the rest of the concert, the kid conducted the choir until the original conductor - his dad, judging from the looks of both their ears - joined him and they did the last song together.

I’m loving this town.