Tours

Tour of Aschaffenburg in Germany October 4-8th 2001

What do the following have in common? Brewery, Italian Restaurant, Castle, Boat. They were all venues for impromptu renditions by Perth Barbershop Singers. A group of 33 including wives, partners and friends recently made the pilgrimage to Perth's twin town, Aschaffenburg.

The first evening allowed for a trip round a local brewery and the acoustics were so good that the choir felt compelled to give a special rendition of Ramona, the former Bachelors favourite, except the words were changed to Ammonia to reflect the cleaning fluid smells!

Being invited by the Uberburgermeister to a Civic Reception, which was also attended by Perth's Provost Mike O'Malley, gave Musical Director Martin Neilson another opportunity to blow his 'tooter', as if any excuse were needed, and the choir sang for their bread and wine.

The trip was organised as a result of a joint concert which was held in Caputh Church last year when the PBS and Chorgemeinschaft from Aschaffenburg (Schweinheim) shared the billing and PBS were invited over to Germany.

One of the main events of the tour was a special evening 'Lieder Beim Wein' literally translated as Song and Wines. This provided a great opportunity for both Choirs to perform before a sell out audience of 400 .
PBS were in top form and produced an absolutely splendid performance and the crowd insisted on an encore, which was duly granted.

There was a particularly poignant moment when the Choir stopped off at a Monastery in Engelberg, a small village outside, Aschaffenburg. As they entered the Monastery there was a sign asking for no singing, but as there was a German Choir doing an ad lib song , the PBS decided not to be outdone and, gave a fine performance of the Battle Hymn of the Republic which earned tumultuous applause.

True to the fantastic organisation which PBS had witnessed throughout the tour. Chorgemeinschaft invited PBS to an evening at their beautiful clubhouse and a wonderful evening ensued with lovely food, lots of singing, wine, beer and friendship PBS presented Chorgemeinschaft with a suitably engraved quaich which was hanselled in the traditional manner and Chorgemeinschaft presented PBS with a magnificent wall hanging plate which bears the crest of Chorgemeinschaft.

The members of PBS made many friends in Aschaffenburg and already plans are being made for the Chorgemeinschaft to come back to Perth in 3 years time when hopefully the people of Perth will be able to return the tremendous kindness and hospitality to our twin town and we can fill the Town Hall to capacity for a concert, perhaps labelled as Whisky and Bannocks!

Auf widersehn Aschaffenburg!