I wanted our first ‘big’ gig of the year to be small but perfectly formed in terms of our repertoire and yet still bring the energy and brightness we always do.

Our mixture of old (ish) favourites and brand new material blended really well. Our new songs were Woman, It must be love, Giant and King – we started King ages ago but have never managed to perform it, the same goes for Green Green Grass. We’ve worked on these so much over the last term. As we were working in two halves, I found that one half sounded better one a couple of songs and the other on the others, so I was confident that once all together, we would sound fabulous. And we did.

The trickiest song to teach was Woman as I swapped the harmony parts over having realised it was simply too low for the greens. I thought this song would be weaker than the others but actually, on the night, you all got right behind it and did it beautifully.

The blues were noticeably bolder at the gig – possibly because they were nearer the front but I was delighted with the sound, especially in Dear Darlin’ which, I have to say, was the best we’ve ever sung it! Well done everyone.

Special mention as ever to Wendy for her solo and David for his. These little flourishes really make the set special. And to the Liberty Belles who really worked hard to get ‘Harbour’ ready in time.

I haven’t planned to turn the audio off for the end of Read My Mind but Just felt that I wanted to hear the raw voices and that part of the song is one of my favourite parts. You rose to the challenge – you’re brilliant.

I really liked the fact that choir members who weren’t singing came along to support – I wonder what their feedback is!? Oh, and I recruited…. wait for it….. a MAN!!!

I know there were little bits that went wrong but I don’t care at all. The overriding sense we had from the gig was connection, fun, energy and a fantastic sound. I totally loved it and so did Emily the new manager at Portello. Thank you x