I have often said that I play a lot of music here because of the joy we can get from listening to it – one of the best things in life, for me. That can be happy songs, or maybe more serious songs which touch a chord in our hearts. But one thing I haven’t written much about is the joy that comes from participating. Thanks to another of YouTube’s recommendations – their algorithm is very good! – I’ve come across something which I’m going to share with you today. You may already know of this, in which case I apologise for the repetition, but the videos will still be fun!
I’m talking about something called Pub Choir, which is a musical act founded in 2017 in Brisbane, Australia, by Astrid Jorgensen. At each Pub Choir event Astrid arranges a popular song and teaches it to the audience in three-part harmony, concluding with a performance which is filmed and shared on social media. There is no formal recurring membership and participants purchase tickets to attend each show, which is usually held at a licensed venue, hence the name. She has said that she founded Pub Choir “to help regular people reclaim music in their lives, free of pressure or judgement.” Judging from the videos I’ve watched, this seems to be working well! These are often amalgamations of various events, which are very skilfully edited together – the clue is usually in Astrid’s different outfits! Here’s one I really like:
That gives you a good idea of how it works, and one of the beauties of it for me is that I find myself enjoying a performance of a song that is miles from being a favourite of mine. The video was posted on YouTube last August, and has upwards of 493k views already. Pub Choir has held events widely around Australia, as well as in New Zealand, the United States and England, and performed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Here’s another from multiple Australian locations, of a song I like a lot (with some added extras):
Pub Choir raises lots of money for charities, both from sharing some of the ticket revenues and from donations at events. The concept was expanded during the pandemic in 2020 to form a newly renamed Couch Choir, and worldwide participation resulted. Their Christmas 2020 video raised over $30k Australian dollars, and was shared online by the originator of the song – but as that was Mariah Carey I’m afraid I can’t bring myself to play it! You can get a good idea of the concept from this one, though, which was shared last April to mark Pub Choir’s sixth anniversary:
I mentioned that Pub Choir has been taken overseas, and here is another fairly recent (September 2023) video from their trip around the US:
That kind of sums up the whole thing for me. Just watch any of Pub Choir’s videos and you will see large numbers of people having a whale of a time, both with people they know and people they have only just met. Music is meant to be joyful, and without it the world would be a dismal place. This little trip around what Pub Choir is doing shows me that it needn’t be that way: if only this spirit could be reflected more widely in life. Pub Choir is about to embark on more performances, in New Zealand, Australia and the US, and many of the venues are already sold out. I think a great many people are about to enjoy a wonderful evening that will probably stay in their memories for a very long time. I hope these samples of their work that I’m sharing today bring you some joy, too.
See you again for Song Lyric Sunday? 😊
Take It Easy 