Simon's Rock was fun! We were third. We thought we should have been second. It's ok though! It was quite an experience. We met a lot of nice people, and Colin even won Best Arrangement for Come Together!!
I took down my rant on sound because it was quite negative, however, I've had a couple requests(?) for it to come back. Here's a quick summary:
Some people don't know what they're doing, nice theaters have gizmos (VCA groups, scene recall) that make some stuff easy to mix, while other stuff becomes much harder, and folks, don't run your sound system untuned, it's like unprotected sex. (Can you say feedback?) I also said that the jugdes were good enough to hear through the bad sound, so really all of it was a moot point anyway. That's all there was. Yay!
-Ben
P.S.- 5-Alone is a fabulous group (and a bunch of really nice people). Also, there may or may not be joint shows in the future. Keep your eyes open!
P.P.S.- SilverChord, much? Come see us! Tickets are available for $10 at the following locations, $12 at the door. Hey, you should also drop us a line and tell us what songs you want to hear! thegroup@northamptones.com
Alright, you can now buy tickets online! I posted the link on the calendar page. They'll be available until 2 business days before the event. (Tomorrow!) So buy fast. If you can't get them online, you can also call, or get them at the door. Tickets are $8. We'll also have someone selling CDs for $8 at the door.
I posted a link to google maps on the calendar page, as well. They have fairly detailed driving directions. It's a little bit of a shlep, but we're totally worth it!
Oh, and last but not least, I installed a stat counter last week. We've had over 500 page hits since last Friday! That's pretty good!
Here we are, a list of the groups you'll get to see (and who we'll get to meet backstage!!) at the Silver Chord Bowl this year:
Tufts Beelzebubs, Dartmouth Aires, Virginia Sil’houettes, Mt. Holyoke M & C’s, Smith College Vibes, Boston College Bostonians, and the NYU NHarmonics.
the info:
Emcees: Smith President, Carol T. Christ and Northampton Mayor, Mary Clare Higgins
Sunday, February 5th, 2 pm
At John M. Greene Hall, Smith College.
All seats $10 in advance; $12 at the door, day of show
This is straight from the Northampton Arts Council site, check out www.northamptonartscouncil.com for more.
See you on February 5th!
Hi Everyone! We have some new developements on the site. First of all, we all have northamptones.com email addresses now. They are in the format firstname@thenorthamptones.com. (Mine would be ben@thenorthamptones.com)
We also have some group addresses, the main one being "thegroup@northamptones.com" that you can use for contacting the entire group. If you'd like to get info on cd's you can also email "getmeacd@thenorthamptones.com." Keep in mind that northamptones.com and thenorthamptones.com are always interchangeable. Pick whichever you like best!
Competition's on Saturday! We're all only going slightly batty. Finals, school shows, competitions, and college stuff all at the same time are enough to make anyone go insane. Hey though, we've got some intense coreography ready to go for the weekend, come see us!
Hiya! We got into another competition, but it's the night before the Silver Chord bowl, so I don't think we'll actually go. It would be quite a congested weekend if we did. We might though. Keep your ears open/sign up for the mailing list.
Anyway, everyone come to the Silver Chord Bowl! We like you guys. A lot.
We were able to record the entire NHS Winter Concert. It was a great crowd! Check out the Get CD page to hear some of the concert. We'll add more tracks as we fix them up.
Hello ladies and gentlemen! I am here to introduce a new section of the site. We now have a Northamptones Media Player! I have started it out with some highlights from our first night concert, but if you have requests, as always, send an email to thenorthamptones@gmail.com. I'd be happy to post anything we have handy.
This is to replace the slightly-crappy recordings that we had originally posted. They were from the very beginning of the year when we had only been together for a couple weeks. No good. Anyway, I hope you'll agree that these are much better! You'll need the latest Quicktime or iTunes to view the files. Have fun!
Hi everyone! So I've had some trouble with the hosting end of this site. First, my IP addess changed, that's no big deal, but then the power went out and corrupted the master boot record on my webserver. Anyway, enough technical jargon; everything is all fixed now!
In better news, a devoted fan wrote a nice letter to the local paper about how she enjoyed our first night performance! Thank you Susan Adelson of Florence!
If you have a gazettenet account, you can also look at all our coverage in the gazette here.
-Ben
Excitement for the next few weeks increases as we add two new shows to the first week of february!
February 4th, we'll be performing at a fundraiser for Jackson St. School at the Garden house @ Look Park, more information to come.
February 5th, as many of you know, is the Silver Chord Bowl and this year promises a special opening guest...The word was supposed to be mum, but we figured the whole city will find out before long, so I break the news here:
The Northamptones are performing at the Silver Chord!!
It's just one song, but if you had any thoughts about not going, now you have an even better reason to come!
-simon
P.S.- Mwahaha! I'm hijacking this post! Hi guys, Ben here. I have some more info on the Silver Chord Bowl. For tickets, call (413) 587-1269. $10 in advance, $12 at the door. This show ALWAYS sells out. So get tickets fast! Here's a quick list of the other groups performing:
Today's gazette had a large article on page 3 all about us at the inauguration on Tuesday! A whole article dedicated to us. Aside from interviewing Beau and making us look really good, it mentioned the final concert and the competition (both on the calendar page) so we hope to see some new faces at those shows! Lastly, if you're interested or know someone who woud like to book us, we'll sing at just about anything except meals, so drop us an email at thenorthamptones@gmail.com.
-Simon
Both the local Comcast people and the Daily Hampshire Gazette were present at the inauguration on Tuesday. We sang (even though it was a snow day). But it's ok! Besides a wonderful breakfast made for us by Patti, we got some sweet press coverage! Here's the small blurb from the Gazette:
"On a day when many of the city's newly elected officials received handshakes and warm rounds of applause, the biggest ovations came for the Northamptones, an a cappella group from Northampton High School that captivated the audience. More than a few city officials could be seen rocking side to side in their seats on stage as they sang.
"'Are you sure these aren't professionals dressed up as kids?' [Senator] Rosenberg joked at one point."
In the evening we were also on TV! I guess good things come to those who show up on snow days. We were sure to thank the superintendent for the day off!
Hi Everyone! We have a couple new features here on the site. First of all, you can now roll over people's faces and see their names on the about page. That's not too big. But the big thing (Dum Dum!) is that you can now access the site from EITHER http://thenorthamptones.com OR http://northamptones.com. (You can also put a www in front of either name). Stay tuned! Coming soon: Northamptones email addresses!
Have a happy snow day tomorrow! (And come see us!!)
-Ben
We'd like to extend thanks and a hearty happy 2006 to all those who attended the show at First Night! We hope you had as much fun at the show as we did. In other (rather dissapointing for those who enjoy sleep) news, The Northamptones will still perform tommorow at the Mayor's Inauguration @ 10 AM, school or snow, be there if your vehicle has 4WD. If you're dying to see us but end up snowed in tommorow morning, mark you calendars with the handy dates on the Calendar page! Thanks again to everyone who came to First Night.
Happy 2006
-Simon and the 'Tones