Brighton Icebergers – Côr Bach

On 25th July our Côr Bach took part in a function held by the year-round open water swimming group the Brighton Icebergers at the Royal Brighton Yacht Club.  This function was to support one of their members, John van Wisse, who was about to compete in the Arch to Arc triathlon, starting the next day, in which competitors run from London’s Marble Arch to the Channel, swim across to France and cycle to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris – a total of 461km.

Following a humorous opening to the evening’s proceedings by the Icebergers’ best-known member, Ted Baillieu, we introduced ourselves with two staples of the Welsh choral repertoire, Men of Harlech and Rachie. Then came our reason for being there, as we sang four well-known tunes, but with different words penned by Ted to celebrate the exploits of the Icebergers in general and John van Wisse in particular.  The tunes were Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, Jerusalem, Edelweiss and You’ll Never Walk Alone.  As for the words … well, you just had to be there. 

The large and vociferous audience obviously enjoyed it all, and the next day we received the following words from Ted:

Magnificent!  Bread of Heaven!. Many thanks to you and all in the choir. You made the night!

Report by Jonathan Melland.