Fourth-year Drama student Dave Newell reports from the bass section.

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the choir is so delightful. Christmas in The Chamber Choir is the most terrific time of year. Spring term is always seen as being the biggie with the Crypt Concert and end of season outings to Canterbury village churches, but Christmas magic grips me time and again every year and makes me smile.

Filled with...angels...singing ?

Understandably, the 5 November fires were still being extinguished when our Christmas season crackled into view, and initially was met with some scepticism. I mean, let’s face it, who wants Christmas n early November, but needs must and we did and now we are here.

I write this on the morning of the University Carol Service in the Cathedral; until recently the Chamber Choir’s only formal booking over the Christmas season. But this year we have added another string to our bow. On the afternoon of a snowy December 6, the Chamber Choir arrived at St Mildred’s Church for a rehearsal of Advent by Candlelight. The rehearsal lasted a few hours before we retired to The Old Buttermarket Public House in the City Centre for a hearty meal (and perhaps the odd pint of ale). Then, bellies full, we headed back to the church, which by now had been transformed from a cold church with scaffolding holding up the north aisle into a sparkling Christmas card scene with candles, and as the audience slowly drifted in the atmosphere became warm, even if the church itself wasn’t, and full of anticipation. It was a concert full of scintillating moments; highlights including I Saw Three Ships, my friends’ favourite The Holly and the Ivy and the debut performance of Dan’s A Babe is Born. Obviously I was in the choir, and so only got part of the picture, but we received nothing but praise from those in the audience (except some excellent mince pies and nibbles provided by the church at the end).

By no means the choir’s only bookings over the festive period; we were excited to be offered the chance to sing at the turning-on of the Christmas lights alongside the Cathedral Choir and Sid Sloane  – a “celebrity”… apparently. It must be said, whilst the performance itself was enjoyed and appreciated by the audience of shoppers, the best bit was mince pies and German sausage in Whitefriairs afterwards, where jolly onlookers and slightly bemused stall holders were treated a bunch of students singing this, that, and the other.

Tonight is to the big one however, the largest congregation the choir ever performs to; The Carol Service. From my years of singing as a boy chorister in Wakefield Cathedral, and thus performing endless concerts and services in countless venues, especially at Christmas time, you, and I would expect there to be a dulling of the excitement for such an occasion, but the exact opposite is true. Standing up on the steps looking down on the brass band and beyond them hundreds and hundreds of students and staff with flickering candles and the large Christmas tree, belting out O Come all ye Faithful, it send shivers up the spine to say the least.

For those of you coming this evening, I hope to see you there, and it only leaves me to wish you a very merry and musical Christmas!

David Newell