"The Pride Of TIF 2023"
Spondon Village Hall.
I was put on my back foot this evening as a couple of people asked me beforehand to "be kind" with my review, which made me think, am I such an ogre when reviewing? Am I the kind of person to destroy a person with my withering comments? Or were there things in this award ceremony/concert/fund-raiser that people would know that I would pick to pieces, if there were cracks to be picked at?
The Invisible Friends (TIF) - Derby, as well as Rugby, who also featured in the awards and the show presentation, have continued to grow and has now become a well-established singing group for children and young people, many of whom live with invisible disabilities such as autism, scoliosis, EhlersDanlos, mental health problems and diabetes.
Many people, of all ages, who may have hidden disabilities may suffer from confidence issues, and charities like TIF give those people the strength and confidence to do something like this. I absolutely take my hat off to everyone on stage tonight because they have the confidence to stand there in front of people and sing, something I would not have the confidence to do - even if I could sing!
The Invisible Friends was founded by Abbie Tabberer and Dutch Van Spall in February 2016. Through the power and creativity of choral singing, The Invisible Friends reach out to young people all over the country who are currently suffering in silence with rare and invisible disabilities; providing them with an opportunity to find their voice and to use it in a positive way to improve the quality of their lives and lives of similar young people.
They do this in an inclusive manner which encourages the integration of the invisibly disabled, disabled and non-disabled people. The only set criteria for joining TIF is that you are aged between 9-30 years old, although we discovered during the awards that TIF Derby inducted younger members for other reasons, mainly because they are incredible and amazing young kids, like the adorable Jaden, who is just six years old.
So, what did I think of their award show?
I was expecting something from "Frozen" because that was the temperature in Spondon Village Hall; thankfully the coffee, and other hot beverages were available to warm everyone up, as well as the deliciously tasty chip cobs/baps/rolls (delete where applicable depending on your locality).
The staging took me back to when I used to do discos in the old style working men's clubs, with the glittery back of stage decorations, but fitted the glittery occasion.
TIF Derby kicked off with a couple of numbers from musical theatre "Pulled" from "The Addams Family" and "Our Last Summer" from "Mamma Mia", they continued later in the first half with two songs that obviously meant a lot to the choir, "Who You Are" and "I'll Be Waiting", which personally I enjoyed more than the first coupling.
TIF Rugby pulled out the big guns with three songs, my favourite being the incredibly atmospheric "The Power Of Love", made famous by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. The harmonies were quite beautiful and started to warm me up with the virtual hug via the music.
Both TIFS then closed the first act with Abba's "Thank You For The Music" and Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now", making sure that everyone were at least singing along in their heads.
Back with a bang in the second half, TIF Rugby greased the wheels with Frankie Valli's "Grease" and closing their triple play with one of my favourite, and most commonly performed song from "Hamilton", the brilliant "You'll Be Back", which they were, to close the evening with TIF Derby with "We're All In This Together" from "High School Musical" and "Go The Distance".
TIF Derby also presented their second half triple play with "For The First Time Forever", "Lift Me Up" and "What Dreams Are Made Of".
Abbie Tabberer then paid personal tribute to her mum, Olive, by singing a special version of "You Raise Me Up", also showing off her lovely vocals in this solo.
The show also included a couple of special guests.
Immi Davis was the 2022 semi-finalist on Britain's Got Talent and performed three songs in the first half, Olivia Rodrigo's wonderful "Vampire", Nina Simone's "I Put A Spell On You" and Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You". I always cover my eyes when this last song is performed by such a young singer because they can only perform this song, they can't actually live the song through emotional experience, and I'm not a fan of vocal acrobatics anyway. The first two choices were spectacularly performed though and suited Immi perfectly. I also loved Immi's version of Abba's "Angeleyes" in the second half, another song which really suited her voice.
The second special guest was Joanne Kay, who I've seen perform operatically previously and love her voice. Joanne's triple song play were perfection (almost) with "Never Enough" from "The Greatest Showman" - and this is when the tingles started for me. Joanne followed this up with "Nessun Dorma", a song normally belted out by a male singer. I have seen Joanne belt this out previously and again did not disappoint on this occasion. Joanne's third choice was "Time To Say Goodbye". Only a technical hitch with the music only slightly marred this performance, and I could see that it threw Joanne off kilter, only slightly. Joanne has a gorgeous voice and her song choices were spot on.
Adam Frith was the Master Of Ceremonies for the evening, he unfortunately left his tuxedo back in the dressing room. He managed to talk long enough to cover while the chairs and tables etc were put in place behind him on stage, which at times did take longer than maybe should have done. looking like a local Rylan, he managed to, eventually, hype the audience up and received a few whistles, although they were from feedback by walking in front of the speakers with the mic on. A charismatic MC in singlet and sweat pants.
For the first half only one of the two speakers was actually working. I mentioned this to someone I knew there who relayed this to Dutch, who, during the interval fixed the issue, but didn't reduce the volume so was just a tad on the loud side.
I have a feeling that the sound rehearsals were limited because, with just a few hours more prep time, the technical side of the show would have been much better and the levels of the volume for some of the lead vocalists would have been better, and the lead singers would know how to switch the mic on. Looking at both Immi and Joanne, they have the experience on how to use the mic, where with just a few hours rehearsal with the mics would have reaped benefits.
What I would also have liked to see would have been the lead singers spotlighted because sometimes when there are a few people on stage, it was difficult to see who was actually singing, and I would have loved to have them highlighted. I know that Abbi kept shouting out recognition for the focused vocalists but as I did not know their names, it meant nothing to me, and I didn't know who was who vocal wise.
It would also have been nice to see a bit of uniformity in the style of, maybe TIF T Shirts for the members.
All in all though, it's wonderful to see talent performing live, and with such enthusiasm, and there were a few songs that I hadn't heard before, so it was educational as well as entertaining for me.
Long may TIF continue to perform and reward their members in this way, and also to highlight hidden disabilities.
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