By Christine Seal, Lead

2025 was my first full year with Barberettes, so how did the year go?  

Big news, we were going to France and singing in an international competition, and this was being held in St Raphael in Provence.  I could practise my French, do some shopping, see a few sights……little did I know!!!

My first real excitement was that one of the songs we were going to be singing was Bohemian Rhapsody, fantastic, have always loved that one……well turns out Bohemian Rhapsody is less a song and more a vocal obstacle course. But as I am finding out, your perseverance pays off and as a choir we sang it beautifully

Extra Saturday rehearsals started in April and continued through May and June.  Emma was very encouraging…….she swears because she cares and every curse word brings us closer to perfect pitch.

Before we went off to France we had a chance to practice singing in the heat of the day at the Reading buses open day. It was a roasting hot day and we were like the sausages on the bar b que, roasting and sizzling, after a very dodgy start we found our mojo and gave a performance but it was a bit of a jolt and very much like my old school reports…’must do better’……a warning to us all.

One of my favourite experiences this year was family and friendsrehearsal evening when we can invite said people to see our last rehearsal before going off to France.  I took advantage of this and had one of my sons and my daughter in law and lots of friends came along.  To be honest, they were blown away and couldn’t believe how fantastic we were, it was all very encouraging before France.

Then the day arrived 5th – 9th July by land sea and air about 30 plus of us made it to France despite the French air traffic controllers trying to sabotage our travel arrangements, but genuinely what an amazing experience.  I never thought I would have been a participant in an international choir competition and the highlight was singing on the outside stage and the feeling was exhilarating.  

In July we all travelled by coach to Bristol to join another choir and celebrate our 50 years, that was a fantastic fun day, the other choir were so welcoming, we had fun, sang their songs, sang our songs just a very enjoyable day with a group of lovely ladies.  

September open day at Winnersh, again a very enjoyable experience and we had some really nice new ladies who came along and lucky for us some of them have now joined the Barberettes as new members, we can now call them our friends.

The mad season started in October with Cranbourne Arts week, one of my favourite venues to sing in, you can feel that everyone loves us and wants to enjoy the Barberettes experience, nothing beats being in the back of the church, touching up your makeup in the semi dark and trying not to let the audience see your knickers and bra when changing costumes …..i hope we do it every year!

November had the 50th party which I sadly missed and this led into our December Christmas functions which are so enjoyable because it really is the most wonderful time of the year and I love all the songs we sing.

It was hard, it was tough but everyone supports each other and as a group the Barberettes are an incredible bunch of ladies who I wouldn’t want to be without in my life now having fairly recently found them.  

Thank you Barberettes and especially Emma,  for an incredible year.