News

Dear Blog, I think we should begin by defining in what terms we shall be considering you. The dictionary of Messers Merriam and Webster states that you are a “website that contains online personal reflections” and in many ways that is what Clare Choir will be providing in the coming weeks. Hopefully the remaining blogs on this tour will be a lot more on time than this one has been, so that ‘personal reflections’ can be immediate rather than distinctly retrospective. Amen. The first day of tour came and went like any other day that involves 7.5 hours of plane travel, 4 hours waiting in an airport, 2 hours on a coach, and 1.5 hours on the New York train system - that being, uneventful. Luckily given the extra five hours from the time difference between London and New York, there was even more time in the day to pack in this excitement. The highlights of the day are as follows: . That being said, there were noteworthy moments throughout the day. The arrival of Henrietta (Lady) Box and her Hennispheres to the tour, replacing “The Power” for the Dec Altos and ensuring a continuation of their much needed boost in average height. Henny’s return after three years of choral scholarship at Clare and an absence of 2 marks the first time that Clare Choir has invited an alum back to sing with them since Laurence Booth-Clibborn replaced the entire tenor section on their recent Trinity disc. One new feature of Clare Choir tours is a game that we like to call “Assassins”, involving members of choir secretively killing each other in public places (it might be worth looking on Wikipedia for a more fleshed-out description o the game’s rules). With the plane landing at Newark airport, play commenced and two deaths, those of Ellie “Move over William McKie” Carter and Helena “The Darkness is No Darkness with Me” Mackie before the TSA had carried out their routine fingerprint checks. Graham “Director of Music, Graham Ross” Ross was keen to stop people from talking about “who had already died” before we had left the airport, in case of sudden terror suspicions. There are no frontrunners in the competition as of yet, but Ben “I’m the King of the Castle” Porteous seemed very keen to declare us all as “dirty rascals”. Toby “I don’t deserve a nickname” Hession forgot to collect his bag at the airport and is a moron. Shoutout to our new Dec Tenor Spare, the random man that followed us through Penn Station for 50 minutes and onto our train to the YMCA, before staying on as we got off and proving that sometimes it is hard to say goodbye. Shoutout to our new Can Bass Spare, Kit Holliday. Arriving at the YMCA in the evening was a welcome rest in a day full of excitement for those people who had never been on a plane before which was nobody. We all decamped to our respective rooms, learning at the same time that the Village People had been right all along - but more on that tomorrow. Sleep well blog, talk soon. Lots of love, Josh “Dec Tenor Who?” Cleary and Holly “And Ivy” Holt