An anecdote I’ve told for the longest time

Did I tell you about the time I had the solo opener with the choir TyrannoChorus at West Road Concert Hall in Cambridg? Really? I didn’t? Oh, come on, I must have, it was a few years ago now, admittedly. [6th August 2016, ed.]

Well, anyway, I did. We had a special guest compere for the whole of the event the wonderful John Suchet. I introduced him to my parents who had come along to the concert, I think my mother fell in love for the second time…with John. Charmed she was, didn’t wash the cheek he kissed for days afterwards.

Anyway, the concert opener, we’d been rehearsing it for weeks, John introduced the choir to a packed house hashtag #SoldOut. Our pianist, the amazing Tim Lihoreau also off of Classic FM fame, tickled the ivories to give us all our opening notes ready for Mrs L’s cue. And, then we’re in:

“Woah-oh-oh-oh-for the longest time”

We seemed to rattle through it, but I was shaking like a leaf at the front of the stage with a mic and no music or lyrics in front of me, and although the soloist leads the conductor who leads the choir, I made the big mistake of glance at Mrs L for vocal validation…and although this Billy Joel song follows a nice narrative arc, I stumbled over the opening to the third verse. Had to back pedal and just repeated a line that ought not to have been repeated until we were back into the chorus and I’m finishing on that octave leap to middle C.

Then, it was over. And most people applauded. It was fun. John thanked me, mentioned that I do a bit of science writing in between gigs. I still tell the tale…did you notice? Oh, oh, oh, I’ll be telling it forrrr the longest ti-i-i-ime…you can bet on it, Billy.