2nd August studio show - final heat

[Minnie]

Tonight it's the third and final heat to decide the last two places in the final. I think it could be a tough one - this is another strong heat:

ACM Gospel Choir (Guildford)
A Handbag of Harmonies (Chester)
Hear Me Now! (London)
City of Bath Male Choir (Bath)
Open Arts Community Choir (Northern Ireland)

If you want a reminder of any of the choirs you can see and hear them all on the Last Choir Standing website

[Arctophile]

I am torn between three for the two places from tonight's show. I like the last three on the list and would be happy to see any of them through. I think that A handbag of Harmonies may very well be the first choir out as their gimmick is starting to wear a bit thin.

[Rolling Stone]

Bath and London for me..............

[mediastar]

This was the weakest group of five so far. Some of the choirs who have been sent home were better than all of these.

The judges chose the right lot to handbag though.

[Arctophile]

The performances were nowhere near expectations as on paper this looked a strong heat. I still feel that the first week was the weakest heat overall but had picked out the first choir home before the programme even started. I disagreed with the judges choice of "standout" choir (no surprise there)  and felt that Hear Me Now should have gone through despite one of the male vocalists losing his way again.

[Minnie]

I think it could be a tough one - this is another strong heat:

I should rephrase that - it should have been a strong heat but three of the five choirs (the three who have to sing off for the last place in the final) did not by any means live up to the promise they showed in the earlier rounds. I was very disappointed by all three of them

Anyway, here's my resumé:  LINK

[mediastar]

Good review Minnie.

It was sad Grenville chose his son to sing solo. All the others could sing in tune.

I thought Open Arts Community Choir was interesting. They even let someone join who couldn't sing and who did sign language instead. They must be really nice people.

[Minnie]

Thank you

It's a good thing there's only one or two of them though - it would have been a bit strange if the whole choir sang in sign language

[Rolling Stone]

Bath and London for me..............

Er.....retract that bold comment - the Bath lot, apart from coming across as really arrogant in the VT, were not good tonight, so probably Hear Me Now have the greatest potential from the remaining three....................

[MIKEY4VERITY]

Nice review Minnie.

I'm obviously in the minority as I thought the Handbag ladies were very very harmonious, the arrangements were nice, plenty of variety, they ALL sang in tune, and they ALL sang together as a ferriggin CHOIR.....  .... not as a couple of the "groups" did.....soloists with backing singers 

ACM deserved to go through, not because they were the STAND-OUT choir on the night, more because the others blew it.

Handbags were NEVER going to win over the "Choral" dull-as-dishwater Judge Suzy.... (who is very .....DISHY    ... by the way).... with their cheesiness.

Hear Me Now are so far up themselves with their Look-at-Me-I'm-on-stage attitudes, I couldn't even concentrate on the fit-birds, never mind their singing.
  Didn't one of the Ladies say "We Can All Sing In Tune" ? 
  She obviously had earplugs in when the Lead Singer guy hurt my ears on the second song.

The Male Bath Choir was the weakest all-male choir we've heard so far, and their choices of songs bored me to shreds.    Never mind the quality of their light+shade....  ... whatever that means....  .... they were ferrigggin BORING and brought nothing to attract my interest or my votes. Get 'em out !

The Community Choir seems like a very nice idea, a lovely touch of Community spirit, and goodwill to all men, and all that......................... ..BUTttttttttttt ....... 
The sign language lady is hopefully having a whale of a time,  .... but in case no one's noticed.... this is a Choir-Singing competition.....
If this is one of the BEST choirs to have auditioned.... I'm glad I missed the auditions.
The BBC are really scraping the barrel and playing dirty if this is how they wish to attract viewers.

So..... all things considered.... I suppose I want Hear-Me-Now to get through tonight, on the strength of their ..... ehrrrr  .... .... MY..... shallowness 


 

[Arctophile]

So the judges final decision was to put the City of Bath choir through. I think that their performance in the sing off was the best of their three but overall I still felt that Hear me Now had the edge. Still at least it is now down to the vagaries of a public vote so anything can happen.

[OldHandChoralist]

I think this series is a complete fit-up.  I've been singing in highly trained, very musically demanding choirs for most of my life, and this whole competition (with the shining exception of the magnificent Sharon D. Clarke, who really DOES know her onions when it comes to choral singing) is about pretty shiny people and populist appeal taking precedence over actual quality of choral singing.

The Open Arts Community choir should have been whisked through last week. They are superb - technically, artistically, in presentation and in content.  I really cannot understand why such an accomplished group of singers isn't leading the field.
Hear Me Now is still a bunch of soloists who happen to be singing at the same time. Very pretty, very visually appealing, and some nice solo voices, but kiddies... you aren't a choir.
The Bath Male Voice Choir - oh dear god, boys, boys, have you NEVER heard of diaphragm control and proper voice projection, let alone the ancient Chinese love-song, Tu Ning? Seriously, for them to be chosen over the Open Arts Community choir is ridiculous.  Okay, so that untrained bloke aka The Voice wants a male voice choir through into the finals - couldn't they find one that is actually competent?  And vocal arrangements that would display some degree of musical ability would be nice, too.

I've trained as a classical musician since the age of seven, I've sung with outstanding choirs at school, BBC, university and London levels for forty-three years, and I'm very strongly involved in the London musical theatre scene.  I know a good choir when I hear one.  And for the past two nights, the only GOOD choral singing I've heard has been from A Handbag of Harmonies and the Open Arts Community choir.

I won't be bothering to watch this silly, dreary series again. Not even for the joy of hearing Sharon D. Clarke's intelligent, incisive comments. It's just too irritating to think of all the GOOD choirs being eliminated in favour of someone's whim.

[Arctophile]

Interesting post. I am only going on my own personal feelings as I have no choral background but to be totally honest I found Sharon D Clarke the least credible of the judges.

I certainly agree that the City of Bath were nowhere near as good as one would expect them to be but I felt that the Open Arts choir had if anything regressed from their audition and call back performances. Whether this was from the pressure getting to them I don't know, but if it was then it was right not to put them through.

As far as I could see Hear me Now were no different (and certainly no worse) to the two Gospel choirs that got through in the last two weeks with their soloist orientated performances. As far as a Handbag of Harmonies went I felt that each performance was the same and they appeared to be relying on their gimmick rather than any outstanding vocal performance and the gimmick had run out of steam.

[MIKEY4VERITY]

I honestly think OHC's opinion is absolutely in tune with my own.
I have NO background in this field...   i know what I like.... I have made comments on other threads...    .... but I COMPLETELY agree with everything.... 
I needed NO prompting to select my favourite judge.... Sharon...
I needed NO prompting to tell me that Classical stuff is CLASSY .....  but to ME ... there Has to be SOME entertainment value.... otherwise it's just...  ... no matter HOW classy it is...  ... bland 

Escala ... Scala.... hit the note for me......      There are very few of these choirs who are ticking ALL the boxes for me.   

They don't have to.....  .... but if they want to make an IMPACT..... they DO need to make an impact...  to Mr.Averages like me.....   otherwise they will play to a very selective and unfortunately-limited Audience.

Neither of this weeks qualifiers have a chance in hell in my opinion... both dreadfull............... Rusell Watson got his "apparent" wish.... but    It's ALL set up for an interesting few weeks 
   

[mediastar]

That was certainly a very weak group. And who put the Bath choir in wrinkled shiny scarlet rayon shirts? They are all old enough to know they should avoid such stuff.

[ZodKneelsFirst]

This was the weakest group of five so far. Some of the choirs who have been sent home were better than all of these.

The judges chose the right lot to handbag though.

hear hear

[ZodKneelsFirst]

Didn't one of the Ladies say "We Can All Sing In Tune" ? 
  She obviously had earplugs in when the Lead Singer guy hurt my ears on the second song.

I would just love to have been a fly on the wall in the dressing room after that.

Billy no mates I reckon.

[MIKEY4VERITY]

  I almost feel justified...... I know I'm reknowned for my cheesiness-liking... but ,  in       appropriate seriousness.....I really feel the wrong act got through on Sunday... so bland.... NO ONE will ever be interested in them......    ... but I suspect someone's gonna argue...... 

I'm sticking with OHC and MY personal feelings...    ....it isn't MY Genre.... but I'm a good judge of the people....  ...  sometimes... 
The BATH Male Choir are well short of the mark..................  Dreadfull 

[Minnie]

It was a strange heat. On paper, after seing and hearing them all perform at the auditions and the callbacks this should have been the strongest heat of the three, yet it turned out to be the weakest. If I had missed all the earlier shows and not seen the website or heard the clips on it and had seen this show for the first time on Saturday I'm pretty certain I wouldn't bother watching the rest of the series. It really was a disappointing heat.

Let's try and put that behind us and look forward to the next few weeks of the knockout competition. In a way this is where the competition really starts - when it goes out to the public vote to eliminate one choir each week until there are three left for the final. It will be easier to judge one choir against another when we have all six singing on one show.

[mediastar]

It was a very weak group this weekend. When I saw a recording of the Sunday show I stopped the playback when a choir finally started singing - and thought that was so bad the judges would certainly kick them out. But they turned out to be the winners from Saturday singing again.

It is a pity that the choirs weren't seeded more effectively so that the best six got through to the next stage.

[Rolling Stone]

For what its worth - I really disliked the Bath Choir and their arrogant conductor - but on Sunday I did think that were actually the best of the three, from that one performance......however I still don't like them, so shall continue watching in the hope that they get voted off !!

[Barnesy]

Let's try and put that behind us and look forward to the next few weeks of the knockout competition. In a way this is where the competition really starts - when it goes out to the public vote to eliminate one choir each week until there are three left for the final. It will be easier to judge one choir against another when we have all six singing on one show.

 

[abifan]

Go ACM Gospel Choir!!!  [/b]

they were the best in their heat by miles IMO!!

not that im biased or anything....