notoriousthe choir with a difference

2009 - The notorious Festivyule

"Gosh that man has a massive instrument" - Sarah Robbins

2008 - "Notorious choir Mind the Craic!"

(By Nicky Getgood of "Digbeth is Good")

Music and pubs are always a good combination, whatever Environmental Health might think, so on Sunday I went to join the Notorious ‘choir with a difference’ on their Mind the Craic! crawl of The Old Crown, The Kerry Man and the Spotted Dog.

It was a lovely afternoon, starting off gently with traditional folk tunes in The Old Crown.  Band Elfynn were ‘bridging the gap between the traditional and the contemporary’ in The Kerry Man and their jigs got people in the dancing mood.

Spotted Dog landlord John Tighe took a bit of a shine to Elfynn’s Louisa Davies-Foley.  “I love girls who play the violin, it’s almost as erotic as the harp.”

In the choir’s last stop at The Spotted Dog, Notorious sang re-worked popular music such the Boomtown Rats’ I Don’t Like Mondays in the above video.  After they finished everyone got stuck into some delicious stew.

It was such a lovely idea - a pub crawl with a cultural difference.  Hopefully there will be a lot more of this type of thing to help keep Digbeth Vibrant.

Link to full article

Christmas 2007 - "In tune with Christmas"

(Article by Shahid Naqvi of the Birmingham Post).

Fed up with pop songs blaring at you from all sides while out Christmas shopping? Growing increasingly panicky about the head-on approach of the Big Day and still having a million and one things to do?

If so, you could have done worse than to get yourself down to Mac on Saturday night for some chilled out festive music sung by Birmingham chamber choir Notorious, formed 10 years ago to widen the appeal of choral music by mixing classical with popular works.

Saturday's gig by this 25-piece outfit was all the more remarkable given that until 3pm that day it was without a venue. It was originally scheduled to take place in the Rainbow Warehouse in Digbeth, but the singers were forced to look elsewhere after discovering it was fully decked out for a techno dance night scheduled to start straight after the concert.

Mac stepped in to save the day - and in a remarkably short space of time the stage at which earlier that day I had watched The Borrowers, was transformed into a fairy-lit haven of Christmas cosiness. Starting off with a couple of more obscure songs, Notorious quickly waded straight into the evergreen festive favourite, White Christmas.

Other classics followed - a cheerful rendition of Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire and a pacy version of Jingle Bells that almost made you feel you were riding on a sleigh in the snow. My own favourite was a soulful, SmoothFm-style version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town that would have done Burt Bacharach proud. Current Birmingham Young Professional of the Year Clare Edwards expertly conducted the group through their multi-layered workings of well-known tunes. In contrast to the over-produced, commercial pop jingles, this was a welcome reminder of just how evocative and beautiful the human voice can be. The night was complemented by the excellent Mike Kemp Trio who also got into the festive spirit by bashing out some feet-tapping popular Christmas hits such as I'll be Home for Christmas and Walking in a Winter Wonderland. The evening finished with Silent Night, with confetti snow falling from above. All in all, a wonderful winter treat. And now I'm officially ready for Christmas.

Original article online