Sound of success: Brighton Rock Choir
Charlotte Fane has something to sing about – and she’s sharing her songs with a growing number of other people. Frank le Duc reports
Six weeks before music teacher Charlotte Fane-Barnett was due to get married the school where she taught closed down and she was left without a job. She said, “I didn’t know what I was going to do. But one of my friends is a Rock Choir leader and she was always saying how much she enjoyed it.” Charlotte looked into it and before long she went along to an interview and an audition and shortly after her wedding she was running a Rock Choir of her own.
In fact, she runs six Rock Choir sessions a week – two at Varndean in Brighton, two in Haywards Heath at Clair Hall, one in Burgess Hill at St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary School and one, near her home in Hove, at the United Reformed Church on Blatchington Road. In Brighton and Hove alone, about 90 to 100 singers have signed up.
Charlotte, 31, had been a singing and piano teacher as well as taking music lessons at The Fold school in Hove before it closed. And she still teaches when she’s not running Rock Choir sessions. Her background obviously helps as she brings all sorts of people together to make music and have fun.
Rock Choir started just six years ago and has become something of a phenomenon. Its popularity has grown even more since it was the subject of three hour-long television programmes on ITV1 last year. The documentary followed Rock Choir members as they worked towards a huge joint concert at Wembley. At the risk of lapsing into cliché, it depicted a rollercoaster of emotions. There are now more than 16,000 members in 200 towns and cities up and down the country.
So what’s the attraction? Charlotte said, “It’s set up for people who love to sing but never wanted to do it professionally. They’re the kind of people who say, ‘I only sing in the shower.’ Or, ‘I just sing along to the radio in the car.’ They don’t have to read music and they don’t have to audition. It’s all about being fun and upbeat.
“Although most of them come along and say ‘I can’t sing’, they always sound great as a choir. They do really well. They get a chance to perform (although they don’t have to) and most of the performances we’ve done this year have been for charity or for school fetes and Christmas lights. And they get a chance to try out for solo spots.”
The music is accessible – pop, gospel and Motown – and Charlotte says that one of her personal favourites is ‘Something Inside So Strong’. The Labi Siffre song also features on a couple of Rock Choir albums. Other tracks being practised locally include ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’ and ‘You’re So Vain’. And, perhaps appropriately for the Brighton Rock Choir, they also sing ‘Waterloo’ by Abba. The Swedish supergroup made their breakthrough when they won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo at the Dome in Brighton nearly 40 years ago.
Charlotte’s choirs begin rehearsals again next week and sing for three terms a year, paying £100 a term. The sessions last an hour and a half and the cost covers any extra rehearsals that are laid on. This year Rock Choir members won’t be setting out on the road to Wembley. They’ve outgrown the venue. Instead the choirs in the south are preparing for a huge gig at the O2 in East London next July. Those in the north will play at a stadium in Liverpool.
Charlotte said, “When you’ve had a really long day you can still go to choir and get really overwhelmed by it. When I get home it takes me ages to wind down because I’ve had so much fun. It sounds really corny. And the sound that they make is so good it gives me goosebumps sometimes.”
For more information call 01252 714276 or visit www.rockchoir.com
