FEVER PITCH - a potted history
We'll add to this page from time to time
so those stories don't disappear!
FEVER PITCH - Where we came from
Four members of The VIPs (Ipswich Barbershop Chorus) Bob, Chris, Ben and Phil, appearing as "Epicentre", entered Sudbury Festival in 2019 to expand our Barbershop capabilities by learning to sing in Quartet. We were so encouraged by our reception that we set about serious rehearsals.
Rebranded as "Fever Pitch" in October 2019 and resplendent in our new uniform, we sang at our first "paid" gig at Christmas 2019.
Four members of The VIPs (Ipswich Barbershop Chorus) Bob, Chris, Ben and Phil, appearing as "Epicentre", entered Sudbury Festival in 2019 to expand our Barbershop capabilities by learning to sing in Quartet. We were so encouraged by our reception that we set about serious rehearsals.
Rebranded as "Fever Pitch" in October 2019 and resplendent in our new uniform, we sang at our first "paid" gig at Christmas 2019.
COVID lockdown stopped us in our tracks for a while, but we are now up and running again, and open for business ...
COLCHESTER ZOO - 18th December
Back on the main stage again this week. Lots of interest from the early evening revellers and their many children. Jingle Bells seemed to be the favourite - and you demanded an encore. What more can I say?
Back on the main stage again this week. Lots of interest from the early evening revellers and their many children. Jingle Bells seemed to be the favourite - and you demanded an encore. What more can I say?
We really enjoyed these three evenings of Barbershop and Christmas songs and we promise to learn some more for next year!
Here we are gathered round the Christmas Tree as folk were leaving. More selfie practice required, I think! Better photos on our Facebook page
Here we are gathered round the Christmas Tree as folk were leaving. More selfie practice required, I think! Better photos on our Facebook page
COLCHESTER ZOO - 11th December
We moved to the main stage for our songs this evening and were pleased that many more folk stopped to listen. Perhaps we'll see you next week?
We moved to the main stage for our songs this evening and were pleased that many more folk stopped to listen. Perhaps we'll see you next week?
The main stage gave us much better
acoustics this week
- we sounded better too!
Note the tasteful green - other colours are available ...
COLCHESTER ZOO - 4th December
Our chosen mix of Christmas songs and old favourites caught the attention of many folk enjoying the early evening atmosphere of the Merkat Hangout!
Our chosen mix of Christmas songs and old favourites caught the attention of many folk enjoying the early evening atmosphere of the Merkat Hangout!
Fever Pitch among the giraffes
Our first sessions took place near the Meerkat Hangout.
Sadly the Meerkats had gone to bed by the time we arrived!
21st October 2021: Elmswell over 55s Club.
This was a really useful gig. It's one thing to practice in your front room, but to get up on stage and perform for a really enthusiastic audience is a different thing altogether.
This was a really useful gig. It's one thing to practice in your front room, but to get up on stage and perform for a really enthusiastic audience is a different thing altogether.
I think the audience also enjoyed being out for the evening. First time out for many of them. And singing Happy Birthday for Ruth at 96 yrs was the icing on the cake.
18th October 2021: F2F rehearsal. Contest song practice, plus set for Elmswell gig.
20th September 2021: F2F rehearsal. Plans for Harmony College. Phil has sorted a Dress Rehearsal gig at Elmswell in October. Good opportunity for us to practice our stage set for QuartetCon.
4th September 2021: East Coast Collective Open day. ECC, The VIPs and Fever Pitch. Each receptive audiences for the other performers. Really good to get out in front of a live audience even if they are all converts!
22nd August 2021: Face to Face. Useful day checking programme for ECC chorus Open Day on 4th September .
7th & 8th August 2021: Harmony College on line. Brilliant weekend. Three two hour sessions each day. Four songs covered in great detail by four educators - all judges. A big thank you to Rod, Delyth, Boo and Alex for your patience and great insights. You provided a fantastic volume of really helpful advice and lots of opportunity to try it out.
On the.strength of it, we agreed to enter QuartetCon 2021 to find out if we are any good!
Thursday 22 July 2021: 2nd rehearsal Face to Face again
Chris has moved to Worcestershire, so rehearsals are less frequent but quite intense! Agreed to "attend" Harmony College on line as part of the QT stream. One to one with an educator could be useful.
Monday 21st June 2021: Coronavirus Lockdown Step 3. After several attempts to use ZOOM (Good for chat but not useful for group singing over the internet - too much lag!) we had our First Face to Face rehearsal. We were very rusty but still remembered several songs, so planned our way forward and agreed to target QuartetCon 2021 in Sheffield in November.
Monday 16th March 2020: Coronavirus Lockdown announced. I guess that's the end of rehearsals and performances for a while then!
We did try Zoom but the audio was unusable 'cos of the lag.
Thursday 13th March 2020: Euphoric session after Sudbury success! Agreed to enter Harmony College as a Quartet when entries open in July.
Saturday 7th March: 2020 Sudbury Festival of Performing Arts
A great buzz from performing to an appreciative audience.
Shirts went down well, too!
Friday 6th March 2020: Final rehearsal before Sudbury Music Festival tomorrow. Feeling confident despite a long list of things to remember!
Thursday 28th February 2020: New Yellow shirts for walk out arrived. Very Yellow!
Thursday 20th February 2020: Photo session at Bob's with the new shirts. Ready to set the Quartet world on fire!
Thursday 13th February 2020: Chris (Bass) better after a bout of 'flu. No energy, no voice but now recovered. Useful session with Phil. Ben is in Sheffield!
Thursday 16th January 2020: Just Phil (Lead)and Chris (Bass) this week. Consolidation of words and notes for three songs we thought we knew! We've decided practice with Teach Tracks makes us lazy! Solo and duet work is much more challenging - seeks out the weak spots. Back to full strength next week.
Thursday 9th January 2020: Serious consideration of repertoire. Organised list of songs we all like and where to find them. Bob then created 5 set lists so we learn a group of compatible songs together and in the right order. No singing today but a worthwhile planning process.
Saturday 14th December 2019: We sang at our first gig - a private party in Bury St Eds. 80 guests and a marquee in the garden. Three sets of 3 songs, including Bob's balletic mime. Judging by the applause and whistles, we didn't do too badly!