Enough Barbershop already!

My trip with Hillfoot Harmony to the Sweet Adeline’s Barbershop Competition was a resounding success, eyelashes and all!

We are a very new chorus, and this was our first competition, so our main aim was to come anywhere but bottom place. As it happened we came 4th out of 8 in our category, and 11th out of 23 overall! AND we were only one point behind the 3rd place chorus - a fantastic achievement!

We had the most hilarious time dressing up, especially with the thick orange stage makeup and over exaggerated eyeliner, but we looked fab on the stage. We were singing in the Birmingham Symphony Hall, which is a spectacular and enormous concert hall, with amazing acoustics.


Having said all that I am totally barbershopped out for the time being. It’s a great but fairly narrow musical genre, and a whole weekend of listening to close harmony has taken it’s toll. During the competition part, we heard one song 5 times. I was ready to strangle someone, and in my head had re-written the lyrics of the most frequently sung song to ‘If you love someone, let them slash your wrists, oooh ooooooh we’ll keep singing this, til you get the f***ing gist’. At one point me and Pauline has to sneak out of the auditorium and fortify ourselves with gin. Was a good giggle though.

Here are some snaps. (People who have never met me – I do not normally look like this.)


This is Diane, Sarah, Me and Kate. We are the Baritone section. A barbershop chorus is made up of 4 sections: Tenor, the highest, Lead, who generally sing the tune. Baritone, who in my opinion have the most difficult middle part, and Bass, who are at the bottom.


This is Catherine, our Musical Director.