Saturday 15th May - the rest

We had a leisurely breakfast on the balcony this morning and watched Julia admiringly as she went for a morning swim in the (heated) pool. I read a bit more of my e-book and Inese painted her nails red. Julia caught us up on what we'd missed by going home early. There's a story about Vicki D and a chili that we hear Glenda has evidence of on her i-phone.

We ambled over to the Performing Arts Centre for our 10 am STAR chorus rehearsal with Lea, to do riser placements and add in some choreo. She's very good and even gave us an early mark. It was just as well, because by the time we'd come back to our room, made a sandwich for lunch and then dressed in our sexy red and black and put on makeup it was 12:25 pm. We got back to the Convention just too late to see the first chorus contestant and had to watch them on the screens outside.

Voices of the Vasse, from Busselton WA, were the next contestant. They had 20 singers on stage wearing pants and top in a very colourful patterned fabric that was mostly aqua, with sequins on one side. Their Director, Tracie Whiteside, immediately got our attention with her flamboyant physical presence. It turns out Karen Magno knows her and Tracie is a gymnast who knew nothing about barbershop when she started as their Director. They looked like they were having fun. They sang a song about Ireland, and then This Is My Lucky Day.

Out of the Blue Singers, from Wollongong, had 29 singers. They wore a lime voile tunic with gold down the front seam over gold satin pants. I thought they had a great sound, considering their size. They sang Beautiful
Doll and Once Upon a Time.

Bathurst Panorama had 40 on stage. We really liked their costume, which was a rich blue velvet wrap top with a silver feature on the neck line, over black velvet pants. They sang After You're Gone and My Buddy. They are smaller than CKC, but serious competition.

Coastal a Cappella from Gosford had 30 on stage. Their costume was also a wrapped top, but pink and with two layers of fabric (sorry, I don't have the right vocabulary to describe this stuff). I thought it was an unflattering style that drew the wrong sort of attention to their breasts. Still, they had great faces. They sang If you loved me, really loved me and our Changes medley.

Adelaide Sound Connection had 36 singers and wore long pink skirts with a handkerchief hem and a black top with a pink sequinned overlay - also wrapped. (Wrap tops were popular this year - do I sound like a fashion writer yet?) Their songs were I'm breezing with the breeze and Back in the old routine. I thought their balance lacked bass.

After interval the risers were changed to the standard configuration, to accommodate the larger choruses.

A Cappella West is a new chorus in Perth directed by Lindsey Dyer and Jo Oosterhoff. I thought their costume worked really well: black top with an interesting neckline, black pants, and a teal sequinned drape of fabric over one shoulder and across the body. They did an Irish package: Too Ra Loo Ra Lay and It's a Great Day for the Irish, complete with Irish dancing by the front row.

Harmony in Paradise is Rose McGee's chorus from the Gold Coast. They have 40 singers. They sang I Never Knew Anybody Like Johnny and Where Are My Old Friends Gone. Unfortunaely one of their tenors had a scratchy voice that stuck out.

Geelong Harmony had 35 singers on stage. They wore purple pants and a pale blue sequinned wrap top and sang Give My Regards to Broadway and that ballad we used to sing ... How Can A Kiss Become Bitter Sweet (I can't remember the proper name). The director wore aqua pants which looked a bit odd, I thought, with the chorus in purple.

Then we got to the big girls.

Perth Harmony had 90 singers on stage and were just awesome - sound, showmanship, the lot. They wore black tops and pants with a gold mesh long sleeveless tunic open at the front. They sang Young and Foolish and Bill Bailey.

Melbourne were next, with 65 singers. They also did an Irish package,complete with Irish dancing costumes (short dresses with green side panels and a shiny patterned centre panel) and the front row wore black stockings rather than pants and had Irish dancing shoes). Their package lost some of its impact because A Cappella West had already done something similar. They sang Once Upon A time and Great Day for the Irish. More impressive choreo, which included in the ballad vignettes of girls sitting on the ground under the tree and looking up at the stars.

Northern Beaches were last, had 60 singers and sang Oh You Beautiful
Doll and I Never Meant To Fall In Love. They wore black pants and black tops with stripes of shiny stuff.

I'd picked to Perth to win, then Melbourne, A Cappella West, Bathurst Panorama and Northern Beaches, so I wasn't too far off the mark except that Bathurst Panorama came second.

As soon as Northern Beaches finished the STAR chorus gathered outside to line up and perform Too Darn Hot while the results were being collated. That was fun, and all went according to plan. There were some astonishing variations on sexy red and black, of which Laonie's was the most astonishing. We have pictures to prove it.

As the Directors and TCs came on stage our Vicki D presented each of them with their certificates. She gave them all a kiss and a big smile. Well, you already know the results. Bathurst Panorama were probably the most excited when they realised they'd come second, ahead of Melbourne.

Perth sang for us again and finished with It Is Well With My Soul, which had me in tears, and then we all sang How We Sang Today.

There was a big break between contest and Showcase, so Inese and I invited Steph and Pippa back to our room for pre-dinner drinks on the balcony. We sipped pink champagne and watched the sun setting in the west over the Indian Ocean. Later we had dinner at a nearby restaurant with a decadent dessert called Baci: layers of hazelnut meringue and chocolate.

Back to the Performing Arts Centre for the Showcase. Our STAR chorus was on fourth so we missed the first few performances but were able to see Accolade on the big screen in the theatre where we were assembled. Glenda announced that this was her last public performance with Accolade and encouraged interested basses near Sydney to audition - she said she'd learned a lot from singing with them.

Inese and I decided to skip the Afterglow (700 women in the foyer makes a lot of joyful but not harmonious noise) and come home to bed (and to blog).

What else did I want to tell you? We were sitting five rows from the front, in the centre, so had a good view of the back of the judges. The expression judge, Karen Sweeters had two small pictures in frames on her desk. I swear one of them looked like a cartoon of a fat lady dressed only in bra and g string and high heels and I desperately wanted to get close enough to see it properly - but I didn't get a chance.

We said goodbye to Lorraine, who is flying back early Sunday morning, but the rest of us are staying on for Harmony College.

Ten past midnight - time to go to bed