Straight No Chaser UK Tour 2012

STRAIGHT NO CHASER From the second Straight No Chaser walked onto the stage in Liverpool they had the captivated audience in the palm of their hands.From start to finish this talented a cappella group engaged their audience with a selection of songs from the 1950s right through to modern day hits, from The Four Seasons to Madonna, Lady Gaga and even Justin Bieber and the comedy timing during certain songs was excellent.A group by their own admission "serious about music but not of ourselves" makes Straight No Chaser a unique and refreshing group to watch, to be honest by the time the concert reached its climax Straight No Chaser had engaged so warmly with the audience it didn't even feel like you where at a concert anymore.The concert itself was almost cut short as somebody mentioned a "free bar" but thankfully this was a false alarm and once word got to them as they dashed down the centre aisle that they would have to pay for drinks they did a quick u turn and got back onto the stage in a gracious leap to thankfully finish the concert.When they sang Coldplays Fix You you could hear a pin drop as the audience hung on every word and every perfectly executed harmony, although this song has been heard by the majority of the audience via You Tube until it is heard live you really cannot appreciate how powerful it is. Also, being true to how they had been "found" we we're priveleged on a cold February night to Straight No Chasers uniquely funny and excellent version of 12 Days of Christmas, for those who may raise eyebrows to that song selection I fear every single member of the audience would have left with slight disappointment had they not heard this "live" Straight No Chaser received two well deserved standing ovations at the end of the evening but for me they saved the best until last as their version of Up On The Roof was in my opinion simply outstanding and worthy of an ovation on it's own.After the show Straight No Chaser set up a "meet and greet" area to meet their fans and sign autographs and I must say this was something that the fans enjoyed and to look at the members of Straight No Chasers faces is something that they themselves enjoyed as they took time to chat,shake hands, sign autographs and let you take photographs and to me this "personal" touch just added to the overall excellence of the evening. As you left the building you had a sense of three emotions - 1) Happiness that you had the pleasure to see these guys perform live 2) Sadness that they would soon be returning back to the US, and 3) Injustice that these guys STILL have no awards for their choreography Hopefully this will be the first of many visits to the UK from Straight No Chaser and I wish each of them all the success that their talents deserve. (all comments welcome, alternatively feel free to comment via Twitter @redrogue70)

My Straight No Chaser Poem

THE HISTORY OF STRAIGHT NO CHASER

(as I see it)

Picture the scene its '96 in Bloomington IU

when 10 friends got together and wondered what they could do,

"I have an idea" shouted Dan an all round lovely fella

Lets make a group with no instruments, lets sing songs a-cappella

"A-CAPPELLA" they said as one "MAKE MUSIC WITH OUR VOICE??"

"If we want to meet the ladies" said Dan "I'm afraid we have no choice"

So Straight No Chaser was born that year also known as SNC

Serious about their music but not wanting to be taken too seriously.

They set about arranging songs and practised whenever they could,

they wanted to meet the ladies so they knew they'd best be good.

And then they got their break to perform at a 36 hour dance

With all the ladies going there they where sure to find romance

From here they went from strength to strength with a mixture of humour and covers

They toured around the country less like friends and more like brothers

From '96 to '99 they performed both night and days

Then graduation came along and took them their seperate ways

Fast forward to April 2006, Randy Stine an original member,

who found a recording from 98 from a show they did in the December

he put the recording onto disc then uploaded to his pc

12 Days of Christmas made him smile and he wanted the others to see

So he put the song on You Tube as he wanted to show the others

and set about getting in touch with all his SNC brothers

They reminisced, they laughed, they cried they loved this song to bits

They shared it with loved ones and friends and it soon started getting hits

The clips uploaded of SNC exploded when they went viral

The number of views from the songs began to grow and spiral

It wasn't long before contact was made from a record company

Asking if they would get back together to record a Christmas cd.

Not all could make it back for this once they knew where and when

so two former college SNC got the numbers back up to ten,

over the coming months three more talented guys joined to play

and these are the ten who tour around that we can see today

The way they engage with all the crowds to watch is a real pleasure

To see Straight No Chaser performing live is a memory to treasure

and nothing has changed since their college days a love of music is there to see

but one things still sadly missed is the dance award for choreography

Feel free to copy/paste and do with this as you see fit

feedback most welcome (positive or negative) on Twitter @redrogue70