Well being part of the WMWC continues to be a whirlwind! On Saturday 8th September we had our first concert at St Peter and St Mary’s church in Stowmarket in aid of the Royal British Legion.

We were told before we arrived that over 200 people had brought tickets to see us so we were all very excited, dressed in our new dresses, shoes and jewellery we all felt very fab indeed! (although I was rather nervous, this will become clear why later on!!) When we all got to the church there were people queuing out into the road and around the corner to get in (We did at this point ask if there were lots of other people performing too, as we couldnt believe that many people would come to see us!) All in all there were just over 300 people crammed into the church to see us that night, so we all thought we better put on a good show!

The song we opened with was Journeys ‘Don’t stop believing’ its a great one to start with as we can all never stop ourselves from dancing and smiling like loons when we sing it! After the first song was out of the way we all relaxed a bit into our next song ‘Hallelujah’ which I must say sounded magical in the accoustics of the church. Next was a new song to us that we have recently been learning which is Take Thats’ ‘Rule the World’ which is a great one to belt out! We then went into the song that started the whole Military Wives Choirs off, Paul Mealors ‘Wherever you are’ I must say alot of us get really emotional singing this song and on saturday was no exception, the lyrics to the song are so beautiful, we hope we did it justice! From there we went into our Queen Medley which I love and all of us dancing around and clapping was a great way to end for the interval.

During our break a local Soprano called Marie-Therese Cunningham performed a few of her faviourite songs, she was fab and had us all in fits of laughter with some of her songs!

We went back on after the interval and sang another of our new songs 9-5 by Dolly Parton, its a really quick song and gets us all back dancing about! Next was yet another new song (You get the idea, we are forever learning new songs!!) Perfect Day by Lou Reed, I must admit when we first started learning this one I never thought it would sound as good as it does, it really is beautiful. After that was the turn of an Abba classic, Mamma Mia, this was the first song we ever started learning, feels like we’ve been performing it forever!! At this point I started to feel very nervous as I had solo pieces in the next two songs, the first ‘I will Follow Him’ from sister act is such a great upbeat song and always feels like its over in a second, when we were waiting to do our final song ‘Sing’ I was really nervous and started to feel sick, being a tall soprano I always end up on an end, and at this concert I was behind alot of people. When I came to the microphone at the front it suddenly hit me how many people were in front of me! When I looked around me I realised I was surrounded by friends, and our fab choir master has given me so much confidence since we started, thank you MD, I was very pleased and proud of us all in the end.

Lastly we sang Land of Hope and Glory and the National Anthem and it was amazing to see so many people singing along and waving their flags, we left the stage to a Standing ovation, it was an incredible feeling and to know we were singing for such a great cause made it all the more special.

You can see us perform again this saturday (22nd Sept) in Thetford, were really excited for it!

Clare x

HELLO WORLD! Wattisham Military Wives Choir calling! Here we are on our brand new website! Everything is so very exciting at the moment. This week has been a very busy one. We’ve been rehearsing like CRAZY and I think it is fair to say we are all a bit pooped. Let me tell you all about it…..

On Thursday we recorded our songs for the second Military Wives Choir Album, due out in November. What an amazing day we had! I’m pretty sure it’s an experience we will all never forget. I can’t wait to hear the finished album. When doing the recording we sometimes heard a playback of what we had just sang and it sounded pretty fantastic. I couldn’t believe how good we did sound! We also sang with members of one of our sister choirs Marham Miltary Wives Choir and what a pleasure it was too. Such a fun bunch of girls headed up by Sharmane their Musical Director. It was great to meet the Marham girls, other wives living similar lives to our own. One of their girls is also a serving member of the forces. Through this album and other projects we have met so many different wives, partners and serving personnel. Something we would never have done otherwise, another big positive to being in the choir. I’m pretty sure none of the Military Wives Choirs can wait for the album launch in November…exciting times ahead!

Our next diary entry was on Friday night at a dinner for the Babergh Council at Wherstead Park. An absolutely beautiful setting and a wonderful audience too. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

The cherry on top of the pretty amazing cake has been our final performance this week. On Sunday evening we opened Bury St. Edmunds’s festival, Abbeyfest, to an audience of around 650 people. Kerry Ellis, our patron, introduced us onto the stage. It was the first time we had met Kerry and what an honour it was, such a lovely lady. We sang our hearts out in the sunshine and enjoyed every minute of it. Tick…..another thing to add to our growing list of fantastic experiences.

What can I say….it’s been an amazing 6 months since the choir was formed. Everything seems to have snowballed. From our first performance in the Officer’s Mess at Wattisham to some of our girls recording “Sing” at Abbey Road Studios to other girls performing live in front of millions for the Queen on stage at Buckingham Palace. Some of whom met Gary Barlow, Gareth Malone, chatted with Kylie, were kissed by Robbie Williams and some even had fun with Tom Hanks in a portaloo, (read on our website about that…”We performed for the Queen” blog). And now we have recorded the second album for the Military Wives Choirs. We have had some serious fun. How on earth can we top all of that? I don’t know….but we are going to give it a damn good try!

So here we are, standing on the most famous stage in the world – looking down an empty mall, trying to imagine what it will all be like tomorrow. The nerves are starting to kick in a little, bit like waiting for a hot date! Wonder how Liz is feeling? (she’s one of the soloists and I am proud to say she is from Wattisham).

It’s strangely quiet and surreal – we pinch each other – ouch – yes, we really are here. But hang on a minute..the dream continues, in walks Gary Barlow..ohhhh back to that hot date feeling..lol. Now, not mentioning any names, but to say it wasn’t just the rain pouring down, might give you an indication to how excited and emotional at least one of our girls was!! I am sure they are just the start of the tears that will be shed over the next few days.

Back in the hotel after a delicious meal, we gather in the reception to meet the other 90 or so singers, ready to watch the Gary Barlow documentary (did I mention we saw Gary Barlow ;0)) The programme was fantastic and as suspected, more tears, more hugging strangers and screams of joy when we saw fellow singers on the big screen. The atmosphere was electric. Strangers were becoming friends, tears were becoming the norm and this was just the night before…Us Military Wives had definitely arrived!

Leanne Pugh

On 20th May, five ladies from the Wattisham Military Wives Choir headed to Abbey Road Studios to record the single ‘Sing’.  Each one has shared their experience with you below:

For me the experience started when I was standing in the church in Wattisham waiting to audition for the chance to do what I have dreamed of for years and that’s when the nerves set in. When I found out I was lucky enough to be chosen I had a new set of emotions to deal with, shock, pride, nerves and lots of excitement!!!

The morning of recording we had breakfast and a media awareness meeting then we made our way to Abbey Road!!! As I walked into the car park it dawned on me that we were about to record in a studio that so many legends of music had recorded and now we were there doing it too. Speaking of legends, what better experience than to have Gary Barlow singing in your ear (all you heard was 70 women swoon!). He was lovely, seemed so down to earth and even sat on the front row and sang with us while Gareth conducted, simply brilliant! I just could not take my eyes off the piano and microphones (I was dying to run down to the front and belt out a Beatles song!).

It was so interesting to see how they were getting us all to sing and you could see them chatting in the gallery as we sang and they were nodding as if to say ‘that’s what we want’ and to see that makes you smile with pride. When we finished recording some of us got the chance to have a photo with Gary and he was kind enough to sign our music (I did feel sorry for him as he was slightly mobbed!). As we left we felt happy, excited, tired and proud but also sad that our adventure had ended. I could not wait to see the choir girls and Michael who had been so supportive all the way through and tell them all about it. When we got to choir the Tuesday after the recording the girls had arranged champagne to toast us and they were all so excited to see the pictures and hear our stories.

All in all from start to finish it was a dream come true and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I am looking forward to sharing all of this with my husband who went on exercise the day I was at Abbey Road, it seems so long ago now but I am armed with stories for him to listen to and photos for him to look at for a change!!

Chrissy McCarthy

I had the most wonderful time at Abbey Road. I was in awe of the whole experience and I still cannot believe I was put forward for it! It was an absolute honour to be a part of such a fantastic song, the journey it took to make it and ultimately who it was recorded for. I will never ever forget it. I learned so much from working with Gareth Malone and being in the studio listening to Gary Barlow on the headset. I didn’t want the day to end! I am so proud that not only I, but our choir as a whole have been involved in this. I love being part of the Wattisham MWC, the fun we have and the support we give each other.

Lisa Whitnall

Being a part of the recording at Abbey Road and the Diamond Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace was a mind blowing experience. I feel blessed to have been asked to sing on “Sing”. It’s been a great journey that I would go through again in a heartbeat. Everyone’s local & national support has been fantastic and very touching. A super time had by all.

Liz Simpson

From the moment I was told that I had been chosen to go to Abbey Road Studios and record the Queens Jubilee Single everything in my life at that moment seemed so surreal. I left the church that night full of emotion, picked up my daughter from creche and went home wanting to shout the news from the rooftops!! Unfortunately it was a huge secret and no one could know apart from immediate family! When I got home I fired up the laptop and sent off an ebluey straight away to my husband telling him the news. He was in Afghanistan at the time and took two days to get the news!

The day finally arrived and I set off on the train to London. We checked into the hotel and with a few hours to spare before we went and did our first practice with Gareth Malone, we went and found a pub to find some dutch courage! That evening we rehearsed the song with all of the ladies who were to sing on the single and of course Gareth Malone. It was a great experience and I learned so much about technique and gained so much confidence from singing with him. That night we all went to bed feeling like kids on Christmas Eve. Tomorrow we were going to sing in Abbey Road and were going to meet Gary Barlow!!

The next morning we were all up bright and early and our hotel room looked like a dressing room in a theatre! There were clothes, make up and hair equipment everywhere, as they were recording the video for the song that day we all wanted to look our best! When we arrived at Abbey Road we had to do a bit of filming for Gary Barlow’s documentary of the song which involved us all linking arms and crossing the famous ‘Beatles’ crossing behind Gary. This was awesome! We caused quite a crowd and we all took turns in coming up with the most elaborate excuse to tell the public why we were there!

When we went into the studios I was trying my best to remain cool and calm but my insides were screaming ‘You’re in Abbey Road, with Gary Barlow and Gareth Malone….. Singing… AGHHH!!!’ Firstly we recorded Land of Hope and Glory which went onto the album with us singing with Alfie Boe. When we heard it back through the headphones I felt so emotional, its such a patriotic song and at that moment I missed my husband so much. Later we started recording ‘Sing’. It was so much fun to sing with all the other military wives, to learn about the recording process and to hear how good we sounded. I loved every second!

I am so grateful for the whole Military Wives Choir movement, it has given military spouses a voice and has personally given me so much more confidence. Abbey Road was a day I will never forget, its up there with getting married and giving birth as one of the most amazing things I have done! I can’t wait for the next challenge!!

Clare Ellard