At 7.30, Highworth Jazz Orchestra was set up for practice. A short while later the teacher's entered. Their response to us was amazing. None of them knew that we would be accompanying them and their jaws dropped when they saw all 75 of us sitting up on the stage. Rehearsals started, giving us the amusement of watching twenty or so nervous teachers singing to an empty auditorium. They started out with a bizarre entrance that involved them entering from the seat and walking up to the stage. The first time they all sat very close together and, like little kids, had to be encouraged to spread out. They started by quietly miming how they would say "excuse me" and make their way up to the stage. However, they were told to make much more commotion. If they were asked what they were doing they were to reply "I am drawn to the stage!" However, we thought there might be a flaw with this. What if others around them concluded that they may also be drawn to the stage? Having other random people walk up to the stage would certainly spoil the whole effect! This spectacularly cheesy entrance and the catchiness of the song meant that the whole performance was pure parmesan with extra mozzarella. Between encouraging the teachers and singing along too, Gareth Malone decided to brutally cut part of what our teacher on the piano was playing. Between songs, there was a slight tempo change and he didn't quite manage to pick this up straight away. Instead, this meant that it was just the drums and guitar playing at this point but, hey, the guitar sounded cool! After an hour or so of practice, our time was up and we finally got some breakfast.
While we were feasting on small warmish croissants and fruit (you know, we had an excessively large amount of fruit thrown in our direction during these two days), Gareth Malone came into our little room. Two of the Jazz Orchestra members had been asked by a teacher to interview Gareth for the school magazine and had organised to meet him to ask a few questions. While he was getting a cup of tea, I approached him to get his autograph. Being the first to do so (obviously not ever, that would have been odd!) I felt incredibly fan-girlish! Handing him my Sharpie pen and notebook, I meekly asked him if I could have his signature. Being the kind man that he is he said yes and proceeding with small talk like "what's your name?" and "which instrument do you play?" By this time, a queue was starting to build behind me so - not wanting to seem rude - I let other get his autograph. Nevertheless, he used my Sharpie pen! And I stood next to him a few more minutes whilst he used it to sign other autographs. Now I really do sound like a fan-girl! Must be the Tennent-esque look...
After Gareth Malone left and I had overcome the excitement of meeting him, the Gospel Choir arrived. We had obviously practiced with them before, only this time we had a full dress rehearsal on the stage. In previous rehearsals, they had seemed very quiet compared to us, but they had gradually got louder and louder! By now, we were totally sick of playing "Aint No Mountain" and had tuned and retuned our instruments a number of times.
Finally, we went onto the stage for the actual performance. We were opening the final part of the teachers' conference. (Hey, why not watch it here! Third video down!) After an obviously wonderful rendition of "Aint No Mountain", we had a short 'comfort' break. We then stepped onto the stage in Birmingham for the very last time to close the show with Gareth Malone! From the beginning there were problems. Gareth's keyboard was not switched on properly. While he made excessive gestures striking silent chords, one of the teachers was left counting on his fingers in the middle of the stage. Eventually, Gareth Malone ran round to the other piano and the performance could finally start. (Hey, watch this performance too! Bottom video!)
Departing from the stage, we headed back to the little room in the ICC. There we grabbed a perfectly packaged packed lunch. With the paper bag, apple (yes, more fruit!), and drink with straw, it reminded me of the sort of lunch that the Famous Five would pack! Although, for some reason, they gave the option of a variety of fillings but assumed that everyone likes apples, orange juice, ready salted crisps and Kit-Kats. I'm sorry, but I'm not everyone: I don't like orange juice! (Although, me being me, I drank the carton anyway!)
We were then set to depart for a performance in a school. However, before the drive could even take off the handbrake, we had two rather epic panics. Firstly, one of my friends went shouting down the centred of the bus: she thought that her violin had been left in the ICC. She ran back into the centre leaving the rest of us very bemused. Her violin had been sitting at her feet all the time. A very embarrassed violin player sat back down in her seat and we thought that it would now be OK to go. We were wrong! The teachers started running between the coaches: a girl hadn't answered the register and was potentially missing. Nevertheless, it was merely a repeat of the violin incident; she had been sitting on the bus all the time and the only problem was that the teacher hadn't heard her say yes to her name!
Eventually we set off. However, the traffic was terrible and we arrived at the school an hour late. Finally, we arrived to find that we outnumber the audience by quite a bit! The audience consisted of a number of the teachers (one of whom was the sister of our head of sixth form!) along with some parents, pupils and a few old people. One of the old ladies punctuated our performance with extra dialogue between songs! It was also rather amusing to watch the boys in the audience: they were trying to act 'too cool' but obviously loved the fact that their school hall was now full to the brim with teenage girls! There was also a particular group sitting at the back who were 'discreetly' whispering as we entered. At one stage later on, a look of amazement came over their faces and I'm pretty sure that was because they had just noticed that our drummer is a girl! After a number of songs, our performance came to an end. We quickly packed up and grabbed a biscuit (the one I had was very yummy) and drink (well, some people did, but it had run out by the time I went to get one).
Finally, we were on our way home. Our journey involved much more Rubik's cube-ing (we established that my quickest time is approximately 2 minutes 12 seconds but I'm yet to beat that.) The bus drivers also offered us the opportunity of watching a film and we ended up watching "Bring it on again" until just before our service station stop. I'm sorry if you like that film, but it had absolutely no plot at all. I think the plot summed up would be girls Start College and join cheerleading squad. Girls don't like how they're treated so start own squad. The two teams compete to see who is best. The new 'good' one wins. The end. After this torture, we were then informed that after the services stop we would be watching Jack Frost. We decided that we had watched enough rubbish films and bought a film at the services in protest! One pre-watched copy of The Spiderwick Chronicles, a bag of sweets, more Rubik cubing and a lot of noisy younger years at the back later, we arrive back at school. We may have arrived back an hour late but our trip to Birmingham was way better than the lessons I would have had: Maths, Maths, and Chemistry!
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