BALK Vocal Light Top Festival 2007
November 24th 2007 - Orpheus, Apeldoorn, Netherlands
I planned to visit this festival as a visitor. But, because it's hard to say no and because
I know exactly how difficult it is to find enough volunteers to help making a festival
succeed, I accepted the job as "stage manager" on one of the stages. I spend the whole day
listening to 16 different a cappella groups in a competition for small a cappella groups with
3 - 9 singers. I manage to hear and see a lot of groups although I sometimes have to arrange
certain things and can only listen to the groups with one ear. Providing the jury with the
correct documents, guarding the door, sending people in the hall away or making sure they were
at least quiet so the competing groups won't be disturbed too much, making sure we are
running on time, etc.
Because I have to be at one particular stage all day, I miss more than 50 other groups, among them the bigger a cappella choirs, the amplified groups and the huge pop choirs. Clone myself would be an option... ;) No, I don't really mind, and I have a great day with many new groups and beautiful songs!!
In the evening I skip the free dinner to be able to see and hear the BaSix sound check. Some people have to make sure nobody will enter while BaSix is sound checking. Of course Martin and I volunteer for this job ;) And because everybody is having dinner, it is a very easy job and we can enjoy the sound check. I've never heard this group live before, and although I know some songs of them, I'm not convinced yet. But after the sound check I am positively surprised by these six nice guys from Denmark and I am really looking forward to their show in the evening.
During the evening program, the winners of the different competitions are declared and they are allowed to sing one song.
The winners (from left to right): Close Up, Vocalicious, Just Music and The Groove Factory.
In between and after the winners, BaSix sings some songs. When they first enter the stage, the audience gets wild! I've never experienced a Dutch audience so enthusiastic and exuberant. I guess it is partly due to the competition stress that is now draining away. On the other hand, the audience is full of choir singers and vocal music lovers, and is therefore the best audience a group like BaSix could wish. It's really great to be here and experience this!
Some songs are in Danish, like the beautiful Det er hvidt herude.
The language problem doesn't seem to bother the Dutch audience at all. The Turkish
Simarik makes many people stand up and dance. We sing along with
Englishman in New York and Angels and enjoy songs from their
latest album, like Star People, Treat her like
a lady and the unplugged Nothing else matters. Because it is
the last week of November, the singers allow themselves to sing Silent night.
There are more songs, but I don't remember which - this time I didn't make notes. BaSix wins a
lot of sympathy by adding some little Dutch jokes and although they probably don't really know
what they're saying, the audience is howling with laughter.
The vocal percussionist of the group is using an extra microphone, literally to hit it with
his fingers to simulate the drums. Because he also needs a microphone to do his mouth percussion,
his position on stage is often the same, as he is unable to move away from his two microphone
standards. Therefore he gets less attention from the audience than he deserves.
I'd love to see a complete BaSix show some day. This group is really worth visiting a lot!
A new fan is born :)