Open Centre

I am taking part in the Singing City choir that is being run at the BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Open Centre. The ultimate goal for the Singing City is to perform on the main stage at The War Memorial Park on 15 July at the Godiva Festival. For the next few weeks I will be keeping a personal diary of my experience, with maybe a few comments from friends and family of how I am getting on. The story so far...

Tuesday 17 July

Well that's it then. We've done it. What a fantastic experience. I wasn't really nervous before we went on stage just ridiculously excited. I loved the fact that I got my first ever backstage pass, its only taken 40 years!

Before we went on we had a little vocal warm up but we kept getting loud and had to keep shushing each other in case we drowned out who was actually on stage. What really made me laugh is that it was someones idea to chant “Singing City Choir” over and over. Try saying it quickly and the “City” doesn't quite sound as it should after a while ....or maybe it was just me, I never could get tongue twisters!

Once on the stage we all got into our positions for Seasons of Love whilst Liz Kershaw Introduced us and revved up the crowd. I was really surprised of how many people came to see us. No pressure at all then! I spotted loads of familiar faces my children Stacey, Robert, Courtney and Jack, my hubby Dave a total surprise as he usually tries to avoid me when I am singing my sister Pam, my niece Cathy, my nearly son in law Mark and his parents Sue and Ged and even my brother Barry who lives in Essex.
When we were singing the crowds response was fantastic. They whistled, danced and cheered and mostly in the right places. It was lovely that we got to do an encore too.

After singing, myself and my entourage set about the fairground. Some of those rides were big and just a little bit scary but I went on a couple of the most dubious looking and lived to tell the tale. It was just an amazing day.

I woke up during the early hours of this morning and I was crying. I often wake up crying usually through recalling sad experiences, and I usually think about what has upset me and fall quite quickly back to sleep. This morning I couldn't for the life of me think what I could possibly be crying about. After a couple of hours it dawned on me. I wasn't crying through sadness, I was crying because I was truly happy. Not because of my children or what they had achieved but because of me and what the Singing City has helped me become.

Thank you BBC, Siobhan, Ilona and everyone involved in this project. I look forward to working with you all again. I can't wait to get stuck in to more projects that the Singing City has in store. You definitely haven't heard the last of us.

For now though goodbye and thanks for reading my diary. I'll miss ya JOE! (name of my diary for those of you who haven't read previous installments)

• Next