The Dubai-based concert series The Fridge, kicks off its latest season with Blue Fever, crowned Choir of the Year in this year’s ChoirFest Middle East. The bass vocalist Richard Davies tells us about what songs inspire him and the exhilaration of playing in a choir.
My first conscious memory of listening to music was at the age of 4 or 5 and it was a scratchy single of the London Symphony Orchestra playing Bohemian Rhapsody. I was just about old enough to grasp how beautiful the music was, but too young to find it a bit of a corny rendition. I came across it recently on YouTube and I think now I find it beautiful and corny in equal measure; a nice idea but not a patch on the real version.
The first album I ever purchased was the soundtrack to Ghostbusters (which is also the first film I remember seeing at the cinema) Thus began a lasting fascination with film music, though I think the next album I bought was the Fiat Million Hits Madagascar appeal album, which featured mid-80s hits from the likes of Tina Turner and Duran Duran. It also had You Spin Me Round by Dr and the Medics, for quite a while I thought the lyrics were "like a rabbit" instead of "like a record". Subconsciously, that might have been my first experience of the importance of good enunciation.
When I perform I feel like I am really exposed. It's quite exhilarating singing in a group, particularly a cappella; you're always aware that although you are protected by the voices around you they are all equally as reliant on you as you are on them. And the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts as a consequence. That in itself is a great experience but doing it in front of an audience adds another factor, it's part putting on a show, and part inviting the audience to share that experience.
One of my favourite songs is God Only Knows by the Beach Boys. It's a song that seems to float on air and is a quite remarkable blend of whimsicality and depth with a sense of sadness throughout it. Extraordinary stuff. It's not just the notes and words on the page, of course, but the arrangement and the production that conspire to make it so special. How amazing it would be to create something like that.
Music to me is difficult to put into words. Music has always been a major part of my life – like many things, it's better shared.
For our performance at The Fridge people should expect some great a cappella performances with plenty of humour and a wide variety of styles, interspersed with some wonderful solos, duets and small group numbers from the very talented singers of Blue Fever.
• Blue Fever perform The Fridge tomorrow. Alserkal Avenue, Unit 5, Al Quoz 1, Street 8, Dubai. Doors open at 7.30pm, music starts at 8pm. Tickets are Dh50 per person and free for those under the age of 18. For more information, visit www.thefridgedubai.com
sasaeed@thenational.ae
