THE Spooky Men’s Chorale has arisen from the Blue Mountains of NSW but they are arguably better known at major international festivals than in their home country.
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They have they have enjoyed great acclaim during six UK tours giving 170 performances to 80,000 people. They have also appeared in Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand.
They have still had some notable Australian appearances including the Woodford Folk Festival, The National Folk Festival and Womadelaide.
In February, The Spooky Men’s Chorale will open the 2017 BMEC Annual Season with beautiful song and delightful humour. But who are the Spooky Men?
In their own words: “The Spooky Men's Chorale is a vast, rumbling, steam powered and black clad vocal behemoth, seemingly accidentally capable of rendering audiences moist eyed with mute appreciation or haplessly gurgling with merriment.
“Based on the twin pillars of grand foolishness and the quest for the perfect subwoofer-rattling boofchord, the Spooky Men seek to commentate on the absurdity and grandeur of the modern male armed only with their voices, a sly collection of hats and facial hair, and a twinkle in the eye.
Commentate on the absurdity and grandeur of the modern male armed only with their voices.
- The Spooky Men's Chorale
“In live performance, the Spooky Men draw on a combination of musical and theatrical values that are elusive and multifarious.
“Notable themes and antecedents include Georgian male polyphony, a running joke on man as a vast, oblivious useless object, whispers of clown, bouffon and Monty Python, and forays into massively pleasurable grunting tribalism.
“The audience is invited to first joyously endure a wall of mansound, then laugh stupidly and venture into areas of great tenderness. It is not so much comedic as hilarious, not so much shimmeringly perfect as pleasingly and deeply human.”
While they are in Bathurst the Spooky Men will also engage with anyone who wants to sing with them, male or female, in a “How to be Spooky” workshop where Spookmeister Stephen Taberner and his trusted bunch of henchmen share secrets from the spooky lexicon, including how to get in contact with your inner chieftain, the four states of spookiness, and how to sob like a man.
Audience members are free to either witness the whole experience or become guinea pigs in a grandiose experiment where they may get to learn a huge male ditty or two, and learn to grunt properly.
There will be the chance to conduct the spooky men as they show you how to achieve both ridiculousness and beauty on stage. Oh, yes, and they might sing you a song or two as well!