Yes, everything was ice including the containers with our cocktails (vodka of course!) and we were dressed in rather fetching blue capes with hoods and mittens as it truly gets cold in there! Being Enigma of course we had to sing while we were there, but decided against a version of Frosty the Snowman (basically because we don’t know it!) & settled for something we did know!

We had a great time in Sweden as guests of the Society of Nordic Barbershop Singers – it was lovely to be part of the shows despite our lead, Rowena, having very little voice due to a chest infection.

So where next – well we quite fancy the other extreme temperature-wise …….somewhere warm perhaps, but to date we’ve not been invited to the Seychelles – pity!!

xx

Our congratulations to The White Rosettes and to Finesse on their Gold performances – we hope you enjoy your championship year! Our congratulations also go to Green Street Blues and Miss Demeanour on Bronze, and to all other choruses and quartets who received awards. But really, everybody who competed, in whatever capacity, is a winner just for getting up on that stage!

As we explained (in detail!) on the Sunday show, we’ve had a number of obstacles in the life of Enigma (mostly medical – not that we’re hypochondriacs or anything!) and had only decided 3 weeks before that we would definitely get back up on the competition stage. It was hard work as we also needed to fully support singing with Signature (we constitute 3/5ths of Signature’s Bass section!), but after the dreadful year we’ve had, we decided to compete to cheer ourselves up – that was until Steph’s caravan was stolen the week before, then Steph fell over the plastic horse at the Convention centre, then Steph fell into her suitcase…………wait a minute, did we say cheer ourselves up…??

And so the singing continues, with numerous gigs leading up to Christmas (oh no, not carols again!) and on into the New Year. We can of course offer coaching to any quartet or chorus – although you might want to take out insurance against us breaking something or losing a body part!! Just contact us here. (thanks, Louis, for designing such a great web site!)

Thank you to all those who have supported us, encouraged us and coached us, especially to our families (who never know whether we’re having a quartet rehearsal or whether one of us is in hospital!!), and to our fabulous chorus, Signature. Also a special mention to Mike Warner who helps us ‘believe’ the songs we sing.

We’ll see you around…
With love
Sue, Rowena. Sue & Steph

Our message to all you ladies of LABBS, is PLEASE, PLEASE, do not ignore your routine mammograms or checkups – you can’t stick your heads in the sand and think that breast cancer only happens to other people – it could be you, and the earlier it is found the better your chances of recovery! If this message from us makes even just one person reconsider going for a mammogram, then Enigma, and especially Steph, will be very happy!

On a brighter note, we’ve been kept busy with performances, music festivals, and with coaching choruses and quartets. In particular we had fun taking part in the Woodley Festival and the Bournemouth Music Festival, alongside our wonderful chorus Signature, and were able to spread the Barbershop message along with receiving ‘outstanding’ comments from the adjudicators! We also had to mind our P’s & Q’s when we entertained the West Berkshire Magistrates Bench (including the mother of a certain political leader) at a very swanky location…… with Pimms and ‘Champers’ on the lawn to start, we had to make sure we weren’t too plastered to sing! Then there was the Enigma and Signature performance at a Corporate event for a certain chocolate company – and was there even a sniff of a chocolate? – no, there was not!!

With love
Sue, Rowena, Sue & Steph

We have revamped the web site yet again, bit more of a modern look, as we’re definitely modern gals ya know!

Hope you enjoy the content. If there are any problems just drop Louis an email and he will try and sort it out.

It was an exhausting, but very happy, run up to Christmas for Enigma, with many performances both on our own and with Signature. Thank you to all who invited us on to their shows – we probably managed to sing the few carols we know more times than the average church choir! One weekend consisted of performances on the Saturday matinee, Saturday evening and Sunday evening – at least it meant we were too busy to go shopping which, as you know, is our favourite hobby!!

Of course, there are always opportunities to sing, so the Enigma Christmas dinner consisted of us and partners piling into the local Indian takeaway, ordering a curry, then going around the local houses carol singing (complete with candle lit lantern!) before going back to collect the takeaway! Despite naughty comments about collecting for our dinner, we would like to assure people that we actually collected nearly £60 for Breast Cancer charities!!

The year has already started in an interesting fashion for us, with a performance in a rather large house – so large in fact that, despite us changing and warming up in one of the bedrooms, the host didn’t know we had arrived and was concerned we had got lost!

We have some great singouts coming up, and there are also some potentially very interesting projects in the pipeline for Enigma. We’re also delighted to have been asked to coach some new, and not so new, quartets, which is great, as we have always felt it important to pass on the knowledge that we have gained.

By the time you read this we’ll be well into 2008, but we still wish you all a Happy New Year and hope you all achieve whatever is in your heart this year!

With love
Sue, Steph, Row & Sue

Has anybody recovered from the Convention weekend yet?? What a great time was had by all, and a great venue too – much better than the last time Convention was at the BIC, when we had to stand in our stage wear while people in swimming costumes wandered past!!

We’d like to offer huge congratulations to Havoc and to The White Rosettes for their well-deserved Gold Medals – we hope they all have a wonderful championship year and enjoy every moment.

Thank you also to all who supported our “Sung with a loving kiss”(SWALK) on the Friday where we raised well in excess of £60 in donations for the Breast Cancer charity.

We seemed to be extremely busy at Convention although neither Enigma nor Signature were competing, but Enigma was even more busy at the IABS convention in Cork 3 weeks previously. We were whisked off all over the place to sing….the library, the Music College (50+ Steinway pianos!), the maternity hospital (!!), and best of all, RTE radio for a live broadcast! And of course we were thrilled to win the International Gold Medal against stiff opposition from quartets from Europe, Sweden, & the UK and USA. Mind you, before the competition, we were in some kind of kitchen area warming up when they said we had already been announced, so it was a rather unseemly scramble to get to the stage – only to find we were coming on from stage right rather than stage left, so more unseemly scrambling to reverse our positions took place before we stumbled on to the stage somewhat short of breath!

So now we look towards the Christmas period – we have the Guildford Show, the Thames Valley Chorus show and also a big carol concert (with Valerie Singleton as compere!), so perhaps we’d better knuckle down and learn some Christmas songs! May we wish all of you a very Happy Christmas and our best wishes for 2008.
Steph, Rowena, Sue & Sue
xx

We started the year with a flurry of activity, including singing for an Epiphany Supper at the end of January. We have a friend who is a nun, and she is also priest in charge of a parish in Bethnal Green, so we provided the entertainment for their evening (and they provided us with FAB FOOD).

Later that month we sang for the Salvation Army, together with our chorus Signature. We are becoming very holy!

In February we were whisked away to the wilds of Norfolk to entertain at a Masonic Ladies Night. We had a great weekend by the sea. Then a week or two later we and Signature sang in St Albans to raise money for a local women’s refuge – a very important project which we were proud to support.

Then came the Holland Harmony Convention in March – we and the chorus were mike warming, and singing on the 25th Anniversary Shows. What a fantastic time we had!! Did we mention the wonderful food??? It was great to share the stage with international champions SALT, and Metropolis.
We actually managed a couple of early morning swims in an effort to counterbalance eating too much….

We had a lull due to Rowena having an operation (she was quiet for a while but it hasn’t lasted) and then spent a Sunday in June with Shirazz which we all enjoyed very much – good luck in Ireland girls!

And now….we have developed new talents for surprising people by appearing as if by magic! Some months ago our lovely quartet mum Pauline Fox asked us to surprise her husband Tony by singing for him at their Golden Wedding Celebration. So – we travelled down to Devon and smuggled ourselves into the party hotel…..there then following much creeping around and giggling whilst we made our way to a Tony-free zone!!

It was a great success and we were so flattered to have been asked….the evening was very emotional and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Signature’s Chairman, Janet was married to Andy the following weekend, and we were delighted to be invited to sing for them too…congratulations to you both!

We were invited back to Bethnal Green very recently to sing at the St Saviour’s Priory as part of their St Margaret’s Day celebration….the photo shows us singing in the chapel, as the weather was so unpredictable. Fantastic acoustics!

And at the time of writing we are looking forward to Saturday when we are booked to sing at a friend’s birthday party, again AS A SURPRISE!!

So if anyone needs a quartet to jump out of a cake at any sort of function, we are your girls….but obviously it will have to be a big cake!!!

Looking forward to seeing you at Convention

Sue, Rowena, Steph and Sue
Xxxx

A very nice gentleman got in touch with us and offered us lots of money if we would kindly go and perform for him and his friends, he would even put us up in his hotel! Well what an offer, how could we refuse. Apparently it was his privilege to provide the entertainment for his Masonic lodge and the entertainment was us.

I do hope that they didn’t notice the shoes!

Click here if you would like to see the rest of my photos of the weekend.

It was the early hours of the morning when we eventually arrived at our accommodation, four very luxurious (not) rooms over one of the local bars in the middle of Athlone, right opposite the local nick! The barman was waiting for us and as we struggled up the stairs with our suitcases he gladly went and pulled 6 pints of Guinness. As we sat there drinking and chatting we casually asked him when the bar closed, 11:30 came the reply. As it was now arount 2.30 we were rather shocked and asked if that wasn’t a problem considering the very close proximity of the Garda HQ. “To be sure no, till about half an hour ago they were all in here”!

We were up early on Friday morning to sample what we expected to be a scrumptious ‘full Irish’, well it was full, must admit I’m rather glad I didn’t have Sue’s vegetarian option though!

After a leisurely day wondering around the town we were invited to a drinks reception with the mayor and lots of other dignitaries, so obviously we had to be on our very best behaviour, don’t laugh we can behave when we have to.

Saturday of course was rather busy, after all there was a competition on. We were pleased when we came away with the silver medal and we will be back next year in Cork. SueB was please that her son Sam and his girlfriend were able to come and join us for dinner on Saturday night, and then stay on to watch us perform in the champions show.

Click here if you would like to see the rest of my photos of the weekend.