For their next program, A Cappella Plus is setting their clocks, and their wardrobes, back 50 years.
The Nanaimo-based vocal group will be dressed in their finest tie-dyed T-shirts and sandals when they present Remember When: Trends and Gems from the ’60s and ’70s, at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre’s Shaw Auditorium on April 28.
Director Patricia Plumley said she hopes to bring listeners on a “nostalgic trip.”
“We’re trying to cover both the trends and the gems,” she explained. “Things that everybody listened to because they felt they had to because everybody else did … and then the things that stick in your heart.”
Plumley said she was drawn to the groovy theme because she wanted to play songs that she hasn’t heard in a while and that seem to be popular with listeners.
“There were a lot of requests for ’60s and ’70s on our last show, which was about audience favourites, and of course we couldn’t get near covering all of it so I decided to dig into that,” Plumley said. “And it’s a big pot, so we won’t cover everybody’s favourite band or everybody’s favourite song, but I think we’ve got a fair bit in there.”
Among the songs A Cappella Plus will perform are the Monkees’ I’m a Believer, Back in the U.S.S.R. by the Beatles, Spinning Wheel by Blood, Sweat and Tears and Tony Orlando’s Knock Three Times. Plumley said she sought out songs that suit a cappella arrangements well.
“There’s a beautiful arrangement of After the Gold Rush, and composers have taken things like Lean on Me and made fabulous a cappella arrangements,” she said. “Same with the King’s Singers’ Back in the U.S.S.R. It’s a great arrangement of that.”
Plumley said the nostalgia isn’t just for the audience. She said the ensemble’s retro repertoire brings her back as well.
“[In the] ’70s I was in high school,” Plumley said. “So you have all those memories coming back of the good things in high school, the awkward things in high school and musical memories have a way of really bringing that back for you.”
WHAT’S ON … A Cappella Plus presents Remember When: Trends and Gems from the ’60s and ’70s. at Shaw Auditorium on Sunday, April 28 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets $23 at the door or $20 in advance online or from members of the choir.
arts@nanaimobulletin.com
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