Our 2014 Christmas Concert was the first Christmas Concert we performed as Blackpool Aspire Academy.  On Wednesday 17th December, Aspire Gospel Choir and The Marmosets, a vocal harmony group linked to the school, produced ‘Christmas Truce’.

2014 was the hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War but it was also a hundred years since a small miracle occurred in the trenches where English and German soldiers stopped fighting to play a game of football, swap, food, sing and drink and eat together in no mans’ land.

In the first half of our concert we commemorated the 1914 Christmas truce and paid tribute to all who fought and died in that war and all wars since. We sang songs such as ‘Stop the Cavalry’, ‘Pipes of Peace’, ‘Stille Nacht’, the German version of ‘Silent Night’ which was sung by the German troops on Christmas Day in 1914, ‘Happy Christmas War is Over’ and ‘Poppy Day’, a song written by Ms Bagot, previously performed at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day in November.

The rest of the concert was dedicated to the theme ’Peace on Earth’ and included songs in various languages.  As well as the German song the choir performed ‘En Stjerne Skinner I Natt’; Norwegian, Kaja Ostrowska from year 10 sung a solo, ‘Gdy Sliczna Panna’ in Polish and The Marmosets sang ‘Riu Chiu’ in Spanish.  Alongside these songs were other Christmas songs concluding with, ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’.

During the concert we raised money for the Blackpool Victoria Hospital Childrens’ Wards and Trinity Hospice, a charity that we raise money for each Christmas.  The concert was a massive success and put everyone in the Christmas spirit.  The choir wore their brand new Aspire Gospel Choir purple shirts and looked very smart.  Each pupil that took part was rewarded with 20 achievement points.  Some that had also performed two of the songs the week before at the Blackpool Music Service Christmas Concert held at the Empress Ballroom, Winter Gardens, were rewarded a further 20 points.

Aspire Gospel Choir continues to go from strength to strength.  During 2015 we will be tackling some up to date chart songs in two and three part harmony.  We rarely sing religious songs even though our name may suggest this.  We sing in a Gospel style which means we sing different parts, in harmony, with loud, proud voices.  We have already released an anti – bullying song called ‘Who do u think u r?  Bully!’  To music download sites including iTunes.  Hopefully we will be able to record and release some new tracks in 2015.

If you are interested in singing and performing, come and join the choir.  We meet every Monday and Tuesday lunch from 1:35pm in A14 and Fridays after school from 3:00 – 4:00pm on the build up to concerts.