King's Singers
The King's Singers are actually the first a cappella group that I became interested in. My high school chorus teacher took us to a concert at the Carpenter Center in Richmond during my junior year. Before we went, she showed us the Art of the King's Singers to whet our musical appetites. After the concert I was hooked. I taped them off the radio for my mother to hear and she was hooked. Unfortunately, Mom has never been to a KS concert; they come to Virginia more rarely than Rockapella.
I got to see them at the Carpenter Center once more before Simon Carrington and Alistair Hume (the last of the charter memebers) retired. My favorite anecdote from that concert occurred in the foyer after the concert, where I had each of the guys autograph a program for my mom and a songbook for me. Waiting in the line to talk to Steve, I was accompanied by my brother, who was wearing a bright orange cap advertising Warsaw Supermarket (now defunct). (The store was in a town called Warsaw [duh!], not far from where we lived.) Steve spotted it (he could hardly miss it), and commented:
"Warsaw Supermarket? Have you been there?"
Oh yes, we told him, many times.
Steve was astonished. "You mean you've been to Warsaw?" he exclaimed. We nodded. "In Poland?!"
Oh no! we quickly corrected him, now understanding why he had been so incredulous. There's a Warsaw in Virginia, we assured him. We gave him a general idea of where it was while he signed the program and book.
I then shyly asked if we could take his picture. "Oh, I love to have my picture taken!" he said, and he put his arm around me.
Whoo! My heart still beats fast when I think of that. I normally have a forced, tight-lipped smile when photographed, since I'm usually self-conscious. But, with Steve hugging me, I was grinning like a maniac!
Such a sweet guy. And what a great voice!
In my view, Steve Connolly is the only bass in the world who can top (or should I say bottom?) Barry Carl of Rockapella. (As you may have guessed, Steve is my favorite King's Singer.) Also, I think that David Hurley and Nigel Short are absolutely the best countertenors on the face of this earth. I'm not really sure about the other guys that are currently in the group, but I think that both Simon and Bruce had beautiful baritone voices, and Bill Ives is a wonderful tenor.
I have many favorite songs. Among them are "She's like the Swallow" (David's voice is heavenly), "Short People" (I just wish I could see them perform it with David), "Freddy Feelgood," "Back in the USSR" (see my Rockapella page for the connection of this song with both groups), "And So It Goes," "Tristan and Isolde," "The Bishop and the Pagan," their Gilbert and Sullivan arrangements, any of their a cappella orchestral works... The list goes on and on and on.
There was a time when I was almost worshipful of the guys, but then I discovered Rockapella and started to devote most of my attention to them. Shortly after my discovery of Rockapella's web site, though, I discovered Primarily A Cappella and became reacquainted with my first love.
Having finally renewed my subscription to the King's Singers Newsletter, I will be looking for the boys to come nearby (hopefully, Richmond again).
For those of you who are new to the King's Singers, you can learn more about them by surfing to their official web page.
