KaraUke, 90s, Hip Hop… you could say I’m a fan of karaoke. And you would be right. So I’m a little embarrassed it took me quite as long as it did to get to Gospeloke, another night from the It’s Unknown crew who do the amazing Musical Bingo.
It’s very much geared towards groups or ‘teams’ – with a system in place that means you almost always sing as a group unless you have specified otherwise. For this it works quite well, but if you’re an exhibitionist who wants to sing on their own and there’s more than one of you in your team then not so much. They give you a songsheet at the beginning of the evening and you are asked to circle every song you’d be prepared to sing. They then pick which song you sing from the ones you’ve selected – ensuring that no song is repeated. A word of caution. Do not just circle songs you like and think you know. Circle songs you *actually* know. Because of course, the one song you’re a bit iffy on will be the one you get called up to do. Witness: me singing Take Another Little Piece of my Heart with my friend Chris, when I only actually knew the chorus.
They have a few other bits and pieces going on as well to keep things silly and entertaining – for example, when you submit your song form you’re encouraged to also fill in the most embarrassing date or whether you’ve ever been stood up. They also have some ‘sing-offs’ happening for your team to take part in – best duet, best group battle. And of course every time you sing you get to wear choir robes!
But I was a little disappointed. Why? Because the USP of this night is that you get to sing with a gospel choir which should surely elevate any dross you’re singing to anthemic heights. But you could hardly hear the choir! Even when they did a couple of numbers on their own they didn’t get to the sort of rousing, soaring sounds I was expecting.
However, it was still a lot of fun, especially, I think if you go in a biggish group and I'm already thinking about songs I'd do next time...