Derbyshire's new Tuneless Choir gears up for launch

The launch of the Derby Tuneless Choir will be held on Monday, February 28, from 7.15pm at The Allestree Club in Allestree.

Subsequent sessions will be held every Monday during Derbyshire school term times at 7.45pm.

Choir leader Matt McKenzie said: “We originally planned the launch for November 2021, but with little information around about the Omicron variant it seemed safer to delay. Apologies to all those who’d bought tickets - I hope you’ll join us this time, and it looks like the choir will be bigger and better because of the delay. Well, bigger at least.

“It does seem like a perfect moment to start a Tuneless Choir, as folks seem to be looking for things that bring them joy, to try to erase the effects of the last couple of years.”

Members will ‘sing like no one is listening’ along to very familiar tunes from the sixties to the present day – with no parts, so everyone gets to sing lead as Nancy Sinatra, Freddie Mercury, or Amy Winehouse.

Matt knows that members are likely to have ‘a wail of a time’ as he’s been leading a Tuneless Choir in Matlock since March 2019. He said: “A Tuneless Choir evening puts a spring in everyone’s step, including my own. I can’t wait to give that opportunity to the people of Derby. It’ll be a great thing to look forward to after work on a Monday.”

There will be no auditions to join the choir. Everyone is welcome provided that, if they do get some of their notes in the right order, through ability or chance, they aren’t judgemental of others.

“We won’t be teaching people to improve their singing,” added Matt, “It’s all about the joy and laughter that comes from belting out great tunes with no pressure to improve.”

The choir won’t put on concerts either, but members who wish to are likely to find opportunities to showcase their enthusiasm and devil-may-care approach. Matt said: “The Matlock Tuneless Choir has sung to poor, unsuspecting Christmas shoppers in Matlock and Bakewell, at Tutbury Castle, on Radio Derby and at Bakewell Horticultural Society's 200th anniversary show. Audiences love us because they can join in without fear, and know we aren’t trying to prove anything. Other than, of course, that everyone should be allowed to sing.”

One trip is likely to be over to Nottingham. The first Tuneless Choir started there in 2016, so it has taken some time for the concept to cross the M1.

Matt said: “There is already a bit of fighting talk between us and the Nottinghamshire choirs. Chesterfield Tuneless Choir are up for a bit of competition with them too, but I hope we’ll have a good contingent from Derby.”

More information can be found, and online bookings for the launch made, at www.tunelesschoir.com/derby

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