Gareth Malone, The Swingles & Sing United – Voices Together
“I hope you don’t mind – I gave Gareth Malone‘s agent your number”.
Sometimes you get a text message that stops you in your tracks.
The text had come from BBC Radio Newcastle presenter Anna Foster. Anna is a good friend of mine and someone who I have worked with a number of times in recent years.
So it turned out that Gareth Malone was doing a solo UK tour, backed by the incredible a cappella vocal group The Swingles, and in each city, they were asking a local singing group to come and add their voices to a few songs in the second half. Sure enough within a day or two, my phone rang, and the request from Gareth’s production team arrived:
‘We want Sing United to sing with us!‘
This was all very exciting – except the show was in less than 3 weeks. If we were going to pull it off at the standard we would expect from ourselves we had our work cut out!
What’s more, as Sing United was still a new community singing group, this would actually end up being our first public performance – no pressure then!
What I knew was, though, that even in the short time we had been together, this group of people had already created a fantastic atmosphere between us, and I knew we would rise to the challenge.
At first we were asked to learn parts for two songs – “Heroes” by David Bowie, and “Keep Holding On” by Avril Lavigne. Because we were short of time to learn the songs, and because the rehearsal tracks had all of the lines played by keyboards rather than sung, I decided that it would help the singers if I made some vocal rehearsal tracks as soon as possible, which I did.
One of the biggest challenges was finding out quickly which of the singers could be available to make not only the performance but also the rehearsal on the afternoon of the show, and as we have more than 120 singers and we could only take 50, I hoped that not too many people would be disappointed.
Fast forward a few days and the rehearsal tracks were on the site and we had canvassed singers to see how many could make it and wanted to do it. (Lots more wanted to do it but couldn’t make it because of work and other commitments – unfortunately that was always going to be the case. Sing United is going to have lots more great performance opportunities in the future so we just had to get as many people there as we could).
Unfortunately whilst we had just over 60 singers say that they wanted to take part, the production team told me that we could only fit 50 on the stage. Therefore I started by looking at how many of each voice type wanted to do it, and then for the last few it came down to the dreaded names out of a hat. Even Herbie the dog had to help!
Then another twist!
A third song was added – this time Michael Jackson’s “Man In The Mirror“! What a great song to get added to our performance, even if we were fast running out of time to get everything learned. Whilst it felt like a bit of a stretch to commit a third song to memory in what was now only a matter of days, the singers dug deep and practiced like I knew they could. All over the north east there were ordinary people spending an extraordinary amount of time doing everything they could to get these songs right. In their cars, doing the dishes, falling asleep, all with the tracks playing!
We had just two short rehearsals together as a group.
Then it was show time!
On the day of the show we were asked to meet at The Sage Gateshead for a 3pm rehearsal. Our window with Gareth Malone, The Swingles and the band was short. We had to be ready. What’s more, as this was officially the first Sing United performance, it was our first chance to try out our performance gear! I was determined that Sing United singers should have some creativity and freedom in what we wear for our shows. Uniform looks can be impressive but I wanted to let our singers let their personality come out. All I gave them was a colour scheme and the rest was up to them.
Saying that – I’ll not lie! Turning up at The Sage Gateshead that afternoon I did wonder what the effect would be visually. I needn’t have worried!
Everyone looked fantastic!
I loved how much effort everyone had gone to. The variety looked great but it was obvious we were all together, and there were some very complimentary words from staff at the venue as to how refreshing the effect was.
The rehearsal was intense but relaxed. Everyone was super focussed on the job at hand. But the whole process was made much easier by the fact that everyone from the production team, the musicians, The Swingles and the man himself Gareth Malone were extremely welcoming and friendly. Not only that, but when you hear musicians of that quality say you’re “amazingly tight”, you can’t help but get a confidence boost!
The show itself.
We were so lucky. Not only did we get to sing in the second half, but as a thank you for taking part, we were given free tickets to watch the first half. I think there were quite a few of us who weren’t sure what to expect from a solo Gareth Malone show. After all, this was someone who has made their name and reputation as a musical director more than as a singer.
However what we and the audience were treated to was great variety of material, with both Gareth and each of The Swingles taking it in turns to take leads. And whilst we’re on – what about The Swingles? If you haven’t seen these guys perform before then can I recommend you fix that as soon as possible? Both their vocal arrangements and performances are really top level. And watch out for the ‘super F’ from the top soprano – stunning!
“Fantastic”, “Brilliant”!
After the amazing experience of the show itself, we wouldn’t have been human if we didn’t wonder what the stars of the show thought of us. We didn’t have to wait long…
“Thank you so much to the fantastic Sing United and their brilliant conductor Mark Deeks”. (Gareth Malone, on stage).
“You guys were just so amazingly tight”. (The Swingles back stage).
Then the next morning came, and I don’t think we were ready for the buzz on social media. Especially to see the man himself be so complimentary, so publicly! Not only did he tweet this amazing verdict, but then as you can see he used the green heart emoji we use to compliment us on our Instagram. Properly chuffed.
Press coverage!
We even got some press coverage! The day after the show I had a phone call from BBC Radio Newcastle asking me to come on to the breakfast show to talk about the story. Not only that, but Anna Foster and Alfie Joey made the subject of matchmaking the topic of the phone in all morning as Anna told the story of her matchmaking me with Gareth Malone! You can hear the clips of them talking about us on the show below.
BBC Radio Newcastle Breakfast Show, June 5, 2018
Not only that…
We also got a great big mention in the review in the local newspaper the Evening Chronicle.
“The members of Sing United, a new Newcastle and Tyneside-based community singing group, undertook their maiden gig supporting Malone on songs such as We Can Be Heroes, and Man in the Mirror. What a fine way for them to sharpen their performance claws. Mark Deeks, the choir’s Director, knows how to push singers hard into committed performances, and no doubt we’ll be seeing more of them on the North East circuit”.
What an experience
All in all, what more could we want for the start of Sing United? The only sad part was that we couldn’t have all of our fantastic singers with us. We are, after all, 120 strong, and those who couldn’t be there were still in our thoughts. Now our attentions turn to our first performances as a full group. On July 1st, we will be singing our River’s Pride songs at the stunning Tynemouth Priory. The performance is free with entry to the Priory. Then on July 6th, we will give our first full show at the amazing Discovery Museum, Newcastle. Incredibly this was sold out with two months still to go. Sing United is more than up and running.
