Queens of Harmony

The Coronet Club Show is a Sweet Adelines tradition. The Coronet Club is made up of all the quartets who have won first place at an international convention. When they win they are crowned with a diamante tiara or crown (each year there is a different design). They can wear their crown at all Sweet Adelines events, and particularly at International Convention. They are known as Queens, and they put on a show each year as part of the Convention.

Last night's show was at the Sommet Centre, where our quartet and chorus competition is being held. It's actually an oval indoor arena where ice hockey is played. There's raked seating all around a flat floor (under which is the ice, so I believe it gets quite chilly if you're sitting in the privileged seats on the floor). For the convention there's a stage across one end. There are three tiers of seating, but we're only using tiers 1 and 2 and there's still plenty of room.

I forgot to take my pen with a light, so I've just scrawled some rough notes about the show on the back of my program. Let's see how much I remember.

All the Queens come on stage in western gear (boots and jeans) and sing and dance a couple of songs. They fill the risers.

After they go off there are MC voiceovers by a man with a gorgeous voice announcing the acts, and each act's name is up in lights on the screen at the back of the stage. Most of the acts have a Nashville theme.

The Four Bettys are the first quartet to sing, I think, followed by an octet among which are Salt, recognisable because of their height and long legs. Then there's the Buzz (sorry, I didn't make any notes about songs or patter) and Swinglish Mix.

The show is being compered by Liz Hardcastle, herself a Queen. Liz comes on dressed as Polly Darton with enormous boobs and a blonde curly wig, escorted by Cowboy Mike (the man with the gorgeous voice). She says "is that an i-phone in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me" - a line pinched from Mae West, but what the hell. She has to hold her notes up higher to see over her breasts.

The Queens are back on stage, dressed in black and sequins and wearing their crowns. There's a bit of history about the Yankee Misses, who were queens 50 years ago in 1958, and a slide show with photos of them. Then 3 of the 4 Yankee Misses come downstage - the fourth one can't be there because of family illness.

Moxy Ladies sing one of my favorite Billie Holiday songs, My Man (I'm crying again).
Then Salt sing.

The guest act for this show is a Country & Western singer called Kathy Mattea. Cowboy Mike encourages us all to stand up and dance while her band is setting up. Kathy has a backing band of three guys: guitar, double bass and banjo/fiddle. She does a few country numbers and invites us to sing along with some of the choruses. She loves our singing. She says lots of nice things about Sweet Adelines and barbershop and talks about making a "joyful noise". She sings another song that makes me cry, written by her husband about his parents. She jokes that if you're lucky enough to have a hit, you hope it's one you can stand to sing every night for the rest of your life, because your audience expects it. We give her a standing ovation.

That was about a three hour show, with no intermission, but I didn't want it to end.

I came back to our room after the show, but Sue stayed downstairs where the Queens were singng and partying on in the bar. I'm sorry I missed that.