Contrasting genres make for exciting concert

August 31st, 2012
[by David Armstrong]

Motueka was alive with the sound of music on Wednesday night. Not only were the schoolchildren belting out Rock Da House at Memorial Hall, but an altogether unique concert by two older groups was also surprising the audience at St Thomas's Church auditorium.

Car parking was at a premium, with about 400 packing Memorial Hall and over 160 filling all available seating and more just around the corner in St Thomas's.

The latter concert was an experiment which more than paid off in terms of audience enjoyment and somewhat unexpected performance quality. It was the finale of the 2012 Winter Workshop series run by the Motueka Arts Council and organised by the tireless Jane Wells.

One regular workshop is called Singing for Pleasure, which meets weekly for six weeks and under the expert tuition of Barbie Cole learns (in this case) nine "world music" songs in four-part harmonised a cappella style. Jane, who was a member of the group this year, felt it would be good to perform the songs publicly at the end of the course.

She contacted the Nelson-based "Off Your Rockers" group, which is made up of about thirty 60- to 80-year-olds who are having great fun emulating the US choir of a similar vintage which won the hearts of people around the world in the movie "Young @ Heart" a few years ago. (.)

The 21-strong Motueka choir, by then with the makeshift name "Barbie's Bunch", then organised Wednesday's concert, thinking perhaps only a few families and friends may attend. In the end, the house was packed and the audience were treated to an unusual and contrasting combination of haunting, tight harmonies mostly in unfamiliar languages, along with some exuberant and sometimes funny treatments of mostly well-known rock songs.

"Off Your Rockers" did about 10 songs, including two by Bob Dylan, two by Pink Floyd, and the ensemble highlight, a bouncy rendition of the Rocky Horror Show's "Time Warp", complete with all the actions. Their harmonies were strong and striking.

Add in a superb, smoky solo by one member or "Tobacco Road" and a hilarious poem about plastic stacker-chairs and a delicate part of a male's anatomy, plus a younger, professional jazzy/rock band and the audience got far more than they bargained for, including an audience participation action item sung as a round led by Barbie's Bunch.

Such was the applause at the end that Jane suggested this could become an annual event, celebrating what ordinary people, who just want to have a go, can achieve with good leadership and a responsive audience.

Barbie's Bunch

Off Your Rockers

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