19-04-2010
Hi all, It's Wyn here, with an update on some of the things we have been up to recently.. Since returning from the Big Apple, we as a choir have been sampling the delights that Cardiff has to offer. Tim was like a proud father taking his child to his first football match, as he took the whole choir to Cardiff City Stadium to support the promotion efforts of our local team, Cardiff City. We were lucky enough to sing for the first time in this great new stadium, singing our version of Men of Harlech, with the claps of the crowd accompanying our vocals. It was a great experience being amongst such loyal fans and sharing the thrills and spills that comes with supporting a football team. We had a great reception and I for one will definitely be returning for Cardiff's final push for promotion. Our sporting extravaganza then continued as we were invited down to the newly opened Wales White Water Rafting Centre. Once there, we donned lovely figure hugging wet suits and helmets and headed down to the waters edge. We were then put through our paces in the training area, and when our instructor was happy with our progress we mounted the travelator (gladiators style) to the top of the white water course. After an exhilarating minute of pure adrenalin we made it to the bottom of the course unscathed. Not so lucky the second time though, as our illustrious leader ended up under the boat after a somewhat heavy collision with an immovable object. Seeing Tim's terrified look as he was catapulted from the raft is definitely one of my highlights of the choirs 10 year history, how I wish it were caught on camera!!!! After a full two hours of fun on the rapids all of us had ended up with at least a mouthful of water, culminating in our instructor intentionally flipping the raft and sending us all into the icy chill of the river Ely. Lucky we all escaped with our lives and are fit to sing another day. I can honestly say that Cardiff is a great city, with plenty to do and lots to see (I don't work for the Cardiff tourist board I promise). We've all been extremely excited since we found out that we had been nominated for a Classical Brit award (I hope you've all been voting and getting all family, friends and pets to vote to by the way!!!!!!), and today we were invited to the official launch of the classical Brits. We didn't really know what to expect, but as soon as we arrived we were thrust in front of a throng of camera men each clicking away like there was no tomorrow. With dots still flashing in front of our eyes we were whisked over to have some TV and radio interviews. I think it was at this point that we all realized the magnitude of the nomination. We, as a choir, are very proud of the music that we create, and we are especially proud of our second album. It's easy for us to say that, but for an organization like the Classical Brits to recognize our album and nominate us is amazing. Even after winning Last Choir Standing, we didn't dare dream of a Brit nomination, but here we are rubbing shoulders with the great and the good of the classical world with our name up next to theirs. We're a lucky bunch of guys. In the ceremony we bumped into the our fellow welsh choristers The Fron, Blake, Hayley Westenra and the fantastic Danielle de Niese. Tim had mentioned that she was a great singer before hand, and we were lucky enough to listen to her perform as part of the ceremony, excellent. I managed to do a little bit more than bump into Camilla Kerslake at the ceremony, as I accidentally knocked Tim's glass of red wine over her fantastic red dress. I was absolutely mortified and could not apologize enough. She took it amazingly well, but I am still expecting a dry cleaning bill in the post. (I think a bunch of roses may be necessary) Earlier in the day we had bumped into Rhydian Roberts at Paddington station, unfortunately he couldn't make it to the launch but we look forward to a special duet with him at the classical Brits ceremony. Look out for the transmission on ITV1 on the 18th May it should be a cracker. Please get voting and hopefully we can bring a classical Brit back to Cardiff. The support we have received to date has been amazing, and if we won it would be as much your award as ours. Get voting, as there's not much time left to register your vote. The poll closes on the 23rd of April. Http://www.classicalbrits.co.uk/voting