Last Choir Standing
Pretty much any choir will choke me up: school, church, gospel, especially coal miners, even the ‘Handbag of Harmonies’ ladies’ choir on The Last Choir Standing. Don’t tell me you’re any different. There’s something awesome about these massed voices: old men and teenagers, black and white, men and women. Something about lots of human voices, keeping it together, being as one: that’s enough for me.
The genius of Last Choir Standing is to roll in lots of real human drama with the natural vocal fireworks. You’ve got ordinary people overcoming circumstance and nerves and history and mercurial judges to progress round-to-round, plus all the phony drama of the verdict with the long pauses and the tears and the elation. I’m going to bet two or three quid that, unless you’re a block of wood, you’re going to find yourself spontaneously crying about a dozen times during this show. Really, you will.
4.6 million people watched Last Choir Standing right after the Doctor Who finale last week. That sounds pretty good for a choral music programme but it’s actually below the average for BBC1 in that time slot. It trashes ITV’s offer (You’ve Been Framed) nicely but now that Doctor Who’s finished I reckon it’ll fall away sharply and that means we’re unlkely to see Last Choir Standing again after this series, which is a pity.
At the show’s web site you can watch full-length performances, including the remakable Dreemz and (my favourite) the Hereford Police Male Voice Choir.
It might be that you can get all weepy about choir singing. If I had a chance that would be good, but in the last hours program we only heard approx 7/8 minutes of full and uninterrupted/overdubbed singing. So much were the programs presenters, judges and contestants profiled it spoilt the continuity of the whole program and I actually gave up halfway through the second episode. Last viewer watching would be a better title! Such potential completely ruined by inept editing and over production! I doubt if I will watch much more!
You’re right. The performances are all awkwardly truncated, which makes for a strange viewing experience. I think the logic is that no one will sit through one entire choral performance in prime-time on Saturday, let alone a dozen… You can, however, watch full length performances at the web site…
Many of these so called choirs are nothing more than backing groups – certainly not choirs in the accepted sense. All the choreography merely detracts from the singing, a true choir can stand still and fill space with glorious song.
Having a bimbo presenter does nothing for the show either.
Congratulations to the three choirs in the final. But I agree totally with Dennis Wakeling when he says that the choreography detracts from the quality of the choral sound. Are we watching a choral performance or a style of sophisticated choral cabaret?