National Barbershop Youth Chorus

Now we've all recovered from BABS Convention (what a weekend!), we've added a new "Hear Us" page for video and audio clips of the NBYC in action.

The first video is of our Sunday show spot at the European Convention:

We want to fill up this page with loads of great samples, so if you have any clips of the chorus you'd like to see here, let us know!

The Weekend of the 22nd of March played host to the first ever show organised by the NBYC, and what a show it was! Held in Long Eaton, the Show was organised to raise money for the NBYC’s trip to the European convention in Eindhoven this March where they have been invited to appear alongside The White Rosettes, Cottontown Chorus and our very own Monkey Magic. What an honour!
    Featured on the show were Breakthrough and Blush!, 2008 Sweet Ad’s 3rd and 6th place quartets respectively. Also featured in their first ever ‘gig’ were up-and-coming Ladies Quartet form Heartbeat chorus – Miss-Demeanour; definitely a quartet to watch in forthcoming competitions! And from within the chorus came Monkey Magic, who despite having appeared on a 2 and a 1/2 hour show in Mold the previous night gave a stunning performance as always.
    The NBYC sang a plethora of songs including some of their ‘oldies’ such as ‘Good Luck Charm’ and ‘Once Upon a Time’ as well as some new numbers – ‘Without a Song’ and Liz Garnet’s arrangement of the Queen hit ‘Don’t Stop me Now’, featuring the NBYC’s youngest singer Ben “Mercury” Kennedy – a mere 43. I think all present would now agree, if you have not seen the Youth Chorus’ interpretation of this song, then you must!
    Ticket Sales along with the aid of a Raffle and a very kind donation from LABBS chairwoman Jacqui Edwards will be a great help to the 20 guys going over to Holland in March.
    For those of you who now feel you missed out on this brilliant afternoon, plans are already afoot to organise more shows up and down the country so keep an eye on this site for more information.

Joe W

It won't be long now until the NBYC host our very own show for the first time! It promises to be a great afternoon, with some fantastic youth acts, see below for full details.

We'd love to see you there, click here to reserve your tickets.

We've done a bit of work on the site, and now we have a brand new Guestbook! So if you're a friend of the chorus, want to say hi, or are just passing through, please leave us a message. We'd love to hear from you!

Best of all, you don't have to be a registered member to post a message, or to leave comments on any of the pages on the site.

Sunday's edition of The Choir featured highlights of the Category Finals of the BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year contest, including part of the NBYC's contest performance!

The standard on the day was very high, and we weren't fortunate enough to get through to the finals, but we gave it our all and had a fantastic day.

You can listen again to the highlights on BBC iPlayer until Sunday November 30th. There are loads of great performances throughout, and the NBYC pop up around 1:15:00, singing Without a Song.

Be on the lookout for coverage of the finals (taking place Sunday December 8th), where our friends, the Cottontown Chorus will be competing, best of luck guys!

Inspired to get singing? We're always on the look out for new members. Maybe you could join us for the 2010 contest, or the many other events we have planned for the near future!

After a bit of a false start last Thursday, we've just had word that Monkey Magic's TV appearance has been rescheduled!

Monkey Magic will be appearing on BBC Breakfast Wednesday morning (Sept 17th) between 6 and 9.15am. They will likely be appearing three times during the course of the programme, promoting BABS and barbershop in general, proving to the nation that its not all about old men in straw boaters.

Be sure to set your VCRs, PVRs or DVDRs!

Just Seen It?

If you've just seen Monkey Magic on TV, and are wondering how you can give barbershop a go too, check out our Events listings to find out when our next rehearsal is, and be sure to take a look at the New Members page to get started with some songs. We'd love to have you along.

Who knows, before long, you might be singing in quartet on BBC TV!

To join the NBYC you need to come along and sing with us at a rehearsal in our usual home in Grove Vale School, Birmingham. We rehearse when ever possible, once or twice a month.

If you look at the upcoming events on the home page, rehearsals will soon be up.

Alternatively you can send me an Email, and I will send you details of the rehearsals. My E-mail is carjam2005cc@hotmail.com

So if you enjoy singing or want to experience the four part harmony for yourself, come along and give it a try.

If any one needs to know anything, give us a call on 07507894011

In Harmony

Carl (Secretary)

Hi Everyone,

I imagine you've noticed that the site's looking a little different today. Don't worry, everything's still where it used to be! Hopefully the new layout should make things a little easier to read (and just be a bit prettier generally).

Huge thanks to Duncan for providing the fantastic logo!

Cheers,
Tom

On March 8th the NBYC traveled down to Coventry to prepare for the second stage of the BBC3 Choir of the Year competition.

On the morning of March 9th all 13 of the guys got up from sleeping at the very nice Coventry Boys club, on the Dojo floor. (Very classy) We headed down to the Warwick Art Center at Warwick University to register for the competition very early on the Sunday morning, 8AM to be precise.

When registered we warmed up elegantly, singing a very soft "Heart of my Heart" before running through our competition set; 'Good Luck Charm and Once Upon a Time'.

We were collected by a very nice young lady, responsible for showing choirs into the Auditorium. We took to our seats, shortly receiving a mass warm up from BBC3 Choir of the Year vocal coach.

Before we knew it it was 9:20, show time, we were the first choir on stage. As we stood in the wings it was time to start the engines, everyone of the 13 of us were prepared, ready to give a good start to the morning.

When we walked on stage we got a very pleasing response from most of the other 14 odd competing choirs. We managed to give a superb performance and received an even bigger response from the audience yet again!

Within the competition there were a number of amazing choirs, of different ages. At the end of the session, while the judges gathered the scores together to give out the results, the vocal coach came out to give a vocal workshop. Everyone joined together to sing a spiritual together. It was such a 'buzz' and so much fun to sing with so many different people as a unit.

After the workshop, it was time for the judges to give their verdict. We were pleased to be one of the choirs of the day! Giving us a place in the National selection process.

Now we wait! Thank you to 13 guys that managed to make the competition, lets hope we hear good news from the organizers.

What an experience! What a chorus! NBYC!

In Harmony! Carl x

A special show with following perfomances: