With the dress rehearsal done, bags packed, and fake tan applied we all headed to Birmingham for the moment we had been working towards for the best part of the last year – the 2012 Sweet Adelines’ Region 31 Convention.

The path to convention hadn’t exactly been smooth sailing…only 2 weeks before one of basses Claire broke her ankle – some say it was because she sang the wrong note! Luckily we brought in a stool, and after a reshuffle of the stack Claire was still able to perform. Then the day before the big performance disaster struck again when another member of the chorus, Fi, badly sprained her ankle which left her sitting in A&E in Birmingham. As Fi was part of the front row choreography, the front row gathered in the hotel corridor at midnight for an emergency rehearsal. Thankfully after another reshuffle, and Karen stepping in, the choreo was ready to go, and Fi was still able to hobble on stage on crutches.

Last minute rehearsals on the Saturday morning left us with Gaynor’s last words – ‘Stick to the Plan’ and ‘Remember you are Brilliant!’ (said in a welsh accent) and that’s precisely what we did.  We came off stage pleased with our performance and hearing the gasps from the audience at the end of our ballad, ‘You Don’t Know Me’, gave us promising signs.

After all the choruses had competed we waited with anticipation for the results. We could not have been more ecstatic when we secured the ‘Most Improved Chorus’ award with an increase of 110 points from the previous year, followed swiftly by the ‘Small Chorus Gold medal’. After our celebrations we settled back in to our seats to hear the rest of the results. Never in a million years would we have ever thought that what happened next was possible! As the announcement was made that Viva Acappella had secured 1^st place Champion Chorus of Region 31 above all the large choruses we were in complete disbelief and the hall was filled with our screams and tears. We had just won a place to sing at the International Sweet Adelines’ Convention in Honolulu, Hawaii next November!!!

What is pure brilliance to the story is that in 2011 at the same competition, we performed a reworked comical version of the Impossible Medley with Gaynor’s rewritten words about how it was impossible for a small chorus to become ‘Queens of Region 31’. We really have achieved the impossible!!!

Now where’s that bikini!?

It is difficult to find enough superlatives to describe the fabulous retreat weekend we had in Suffolk with coach extraordinaire, Doug Harrington.

“Awesome” he certainly was.

“I still haven’t come down to earth! Wasn’t that just fabulous!”

“He turned our songs into something amazing.”

“The best coach I’ve ever had!”

“He was so inspirational and explained everything in such a clear and positive way.”

We got a huge amount out of the weekend and worked very hard, but we also had lots of fun. Saturday night was brilliant, courtesy of Gaynor’s and Brian’s hospitality. It was a fabulous house and a wonderful venue for a party.

        But they do seem to have a really strange cat!

It was certainly really hard work, but WOW! What an evening!

Everyone had such a positive experience.

“It’s great to have some new tools (or the same tools but delivered in a different way) to work on to improve our sound.”

“It was an amazing night. What a talented lady she is. I learnt things I never even knew existed.”

“It was an exhausting, fun and very informative evening”.  “Thought Joan was amazing and she worked really well with   Gaynor.”

“She was a great personality and has re-inforced the message Gaynor is always giving us about getting into character and maintaining energy and enthusiasm. Not just at the start of the song for impact, but to keep the energy throughout the whole song”.

We ensured a Remembrance Day never to be forgotten as we prepared to sing at the Kentones Show at Bromley School. We were scheduled for the second half, so we were keen to keep our energy levels up as we rehearsed. Then quickly into our dresses, finishing touches to make-up and hair and we were ready to go.

On stage it was very hot, but the audience response made everything cool. The enthusiastic applause for every song was fantastic. We all had a great time basking in their appreciation. Fabulous.

Later, members of the audience took the trouble to personally thank us. We were described as “a breath of fresh air” and were told how they loved our songs. They said they didn’t want us to leave the stage and that we were “truly brilliant”. Wow!

The expectations were high as we got ready to compete at the Sweet Adelines Convention in the UK & Netherlands region (Region 31). We’d manage a silver medal in the 2010 event. Everyone was very excited. All the work we’d put in! Now we’d get to see if we’d be able to put that into practice.
We warmed up in the mall area of the Birmingham Symphony Hall. Many people who didn’t know about the competition stopped to listen to us. Their appreciation helped our confidence and calmed a few nerves. Then we were called through to backstage. We’re all rehearsing in our heads; some are humming, others going through the choreography. We’re buzzing.
ON STAGE! All smiles and applause as we take up our positions. Deep breaths. Keep smiling. Pitch pipe sounds, and we’re off with our first song – You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You. We give our all – and the audience shows their appreciation. Relief. More smiles. Get your breath back. Ready for the next one. We start our comic take on the Impossible Medley. It’s going great. They’re laughing in all the right places. We finish – and the audience gives us a standing ovation. Wow!
We could hardly believe the response we received. Every moment we’d agonised over to achieve that result was worthwhile. But there was more to come. Not only did we receive popular support but the judges awarded us the GOLD medal in the Small Chorus category. Celebrations and delight for all of us.
We were invited back to perform in the evening’s Show of Champions. After that we partied through the night.