Each year, LABBS hosts a national convention, where ladies’ barbershop choirs from across the UK compete. This year’s competition took place in Bournemouth, attracting 26 choirs and drawing an audience of over 2,000 barbershop enthusiasts. Each choir performed two contrasting songs before a panel of nine judges.
We were thrilled to be the first competitor in the history of the organisation to represent Stoke-on-Trent in this prestigious event, with the nearest competitors hailing from Cheshire and Birmingham.
We would like to congratulate Amersham Acapella, the White Rosettes and London City Singers on their Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. We offer our sincerest congratulations to everyone who crossed the stage over the weekend. We know only too well the hard work that goes into preparing for those six minutes!
As part of the preparations for the competition, we partnered up with Dr. Paul Mansell, Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Staffordshire who has used his expertise in high performing sports teams to help us deliver our best when performing under pressure.
Under the expert direction of our Musical Director Duncan Whinyates, Six Town Sound proudly secured the Phoenix Trophy for the best small chorus (under 25 performers) and achieved an impressive sixth place overall in our debut.
We are thrilled that the incredible dedication of our members and leadership team has been recognised at a national level. Beyond this accolade, the joy and confidence our group brings to each other is genuinely transforming lives for the better.”
It was wonderful to receive such a warm welcome and so many comments of encouragement from LABBS’ members before we had even taken to the stage. It really demonstrates what an amazing association LABBS is and fosters such a culture of support, camaraderie and friendship. The cheers we received at the end of our set as well as such lovely comments about our sound, really made us feel part of the family.
Of course, we were also very lucky to have so many of our members getting involved with convention outside of the competition too. Our very own Assistant MD, Hannah Barber held a fringe education session on incorporating vocal craft into your warm ups. She and our tenor Section leader, Andrea Day also performed an amazing set with the QC Chorus on the Saturday night show. To top this all off our beloved leader, the one and only Duncan Whinyates performed with his quartet, Fifth Element, the current 2024 BABS QCs. Obviously we yelled our heads off cheering for them! We also gathered to support Sam Wallace who presented the Jen Mills Award to Powerhouse Quartet, Alyson Chaney who also sings with Lace City, was representing Sweet Adelines Region 31.
And here is our Competition performance!