A ray of sunshine on a dark and stormy night
The 180 people who braved the wind and the rain on Saturday evening to hear Leamington’s Vox Populi Community Choir were well-rewarded for their efforts.
The Songs of the Beach Boys was the seventh adventure for this young choir formed by Harvey Brough in 2025 and was another clear milestone on their journey.
The audience, though damp and slightly steamy were delighted by nearly two hours of pure Beach Boys magic ranging from foot-tapping classics like Good Vibrations and Wouldn’t It Be Nice, to lesser known, movingly reflective numbers like ‘Till I Die and Warmth of the Sun. And the warmth of the sun was definitely affecting the crowd who by the interval had shaken off the autumn blues and were chattering excitedly like so many tropical birds on a beachside summer’s evening.
The evening was based on a Beach Boys party hosted by the choir about a year ago, but with some differences. Firstly, the addition of a further half-dozen songs expanded the party set into a full concert programme; and then the choir itself is now 30% larger than its line-up a year ago, so much so that squeezing the 66 singers into the beautiful performance space at Holy Trinity Leamington is becoming a feat of logistics.
Also evident is the maturing of the singers themselves. Although still maintaining its open-access, no-auditions policy, Vox Populi raises its game noticeably concert by concert, with portions of the programme sung from memory, dramatic changes in dynamics, precise diction, even through some pretty tongue-twisting lyrics and perfect execution of sudden and surprise endings, a kind of Musicalis Interruptus.
The high falsetto tenor solos were voiced once again by the irrepressible Lea Cornthwaite, who remarkably sang the entire programme from memory; while accompaniment was proffered by the small but perfectly-formed duo of Andrew Woodhead on keyboards and Adam Chinery on guitar.
Performances aside, something that makes every Vox Populi outing a treat is Harvey Brough’s prowess in musical arrangement. Coventry-born Brough has made his career in film and theatre music and the sumptuous quality of his arrangements, which include significant passages of eight-part harmony for the choir, would be fully at home on a West End stage or a Hollywood musical set. This combined with his penchant for close harmony - sometimes dangerously close, redolent of his days in Harvey and the Wallbangers – brings nuance, excitement and surprise to almost every song.
Whether or not you’re a choir lover, and frankly, it’s difficult not to warm to this one, taking-in a Vox Populi event is a masterclass in musical composition and worth the ticket price alone.
Fortunately the next opportunity is just around the corner – A Christmas Tapestry is slated for Saturday 19th December, and tickets are already on sale on Ticketsource.