Soirée season is well underway with the Houses entertaining their friends and families in ever more creative ways, with comedy, dance, song all coming to the fore.
Wilson
This year’s Wilson Soirée was a sparkling night of success and disco fever. Kicking off the night with their beautiful talents were Gina Hooton and Amy Upot on the piano, followed by Anush Tovmasyan and Elina Smith with a superb guitar accompaniment.
Family and friends were wowed by spectacular performances as the M4s and 5th Form both splendidly executed choreographed dance routines. This was then followed by a humorous sumo wrestling rendition of the Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger from the U4s.
There were impressive solos from Julia Cherry, Anouska Powell (please click this link to hear Anouska’s performance), Remi Adeniji and Nina C, which received great applause.
Other highlights of the night included Mrs Gamble’s astonishing ability to answer all University Challenge questions posed to her.
In addition to this, Sharon Chan revealed her extensive historical knowledge as she aided Mrs Gamble on her path to a stunning victory.
Furthermore, there was also a brilliant 80s music quiz orchestrated by the Lower Sixth which was closely followed by a trip down memory lane for the Upper Sixth. This cinematic experience encapsulated the Upper Sixth’s five years in Wilson fabulously and entertained the audience greatly.
Special thanks must go to our entertaining hosts – Amy Upot and Yana Stoitchkova – as well as to Mrs Wilson, Mrs Moore our Matron, the tutors, the catering team and Mr Bishop for putting such an amazing night together!
The night was in aid of Cancer Research UK, and the House raised £770 by selling raffle tickets, glow sticks and Polaroid photos. This is a new record for Wilson.
Sophia Soo
White House
Big School was transformed into a 1920s glamorous venue, and the girls embraced the flapper girl dress style in a brilliant soirée on Wednesday 20 March.
Sixteen performances of professional quality ranging from hip-hop dancing to a ukulele duet wowed a large audience of parents and staff.
Huge congratulations to all involved and months of rehearsing certainly paid off.
Miss Faith Smith
Crawfurd
Monday night was the night that Crawfurd girls and parents stepped into their time machine and took a trip through the 20th Century guided by our hosts Nara and Valeria.
The girls performances were exceptional and ranged from M4 in the swinging 60s with the Monkees, U4 with ‘the cup song’ and 5th form dancing to Bruno Mars. We were lucky enough to have some solos from Ayah, Poppy P, Poppy T and Evelyn who sang a range of songs beautifully.
The video interludes from the U6 took us on a tour of various decades thanks to films like Saturday Night Fever and The Great Gatsby and the L6 created a new version of The Lazy Song to great acclaim.
In Crawfurd tradition the girls recreated the Unison from Choral Comp to finish the evening and despite a few hazy memories of the moves (and possibly words!), it was fabulous!
A fabulous evening which was hugely enjoyed by all those in attendance. Enormous congratulations to all the girls; particularly Nara and Valeria for hosting with such poise and humour.
Mrs Leah Skipper
Raven
On Tuesday evening, Raven House transformed Big School into Disneyland for their soirée, welcoming in parents and staff.
The night began with an unmissable parade by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (Mrs Williams, matron and the tutor team) There were more themed costumes, with many familiar characters about, including the Upper Sixth each as a Disney princess.
The evening, hosted by Adahna Ekoku and Katie Vickers, displayed the huge range of talent in Raven, from year group acts to soloists.
The M4s and 5th form both brilliantly sung and danced, to songs from the Little Mermaid and Teen Beach Movie, while the U4s sang a wonderful acapella arrangement. The L6th produced a highly amusing Disney Edition of ‘Take Me Out’, and the U6th recreated many High School Musical songs in their entertaining video.
The soloists were equally impressive, with dances and singers, both students and tutors.
The whole evening raised an astounding £1200 for the house charity, Gems, and all involved should be thoroughly pleased with their efforts.
By Adahna Ekoku
Forest House
Monday night saw the annual Forest House Soirée, which was undertaken with the same enthusiasm and enjoyment that Forest deploys every year. The House put a lot of effort into what was a very high-quality evening.
After a delightful dinner which saw our physical hunger satisfied with a meal of mammoth lamb shanks, only our hunger for high-quality banter remained.
The festivities kicked off well with a performance of One Day Like This by Elbow from the Forest Tutor Band, which set the tone well for what would be an amazing night. Throughout the night we had many excellent individual musical performances from Alan Yin, Mr Hibbit, Tom Bulmer, Ebube Anyanechi, Mr Henson.
As well as many groups and bands such as the Part Song, the Fifth Form band, and the Forest Big Band which was led by Matt Green. It put Neil Diamond to shame with their performance of the Sweet Caroline and led to them being almost instantly recruited to perform at the Live Lounge Concert just three nights later.
Alongside the music there was consistent comedy, with videos from the U4 (with their take on Scooby-Doo), L6th (a black comedy: How to Kill A Housemaster), and U6th (a recreation of Channel 4’s Hunted), as well as regular instalments from the witty and charming comedy comperes, Guy and Ebube.
The night was rounded off well with a trip down memory lane aided by a photo montage of the U6th throughout their time in Forest. Finally, a performance of the House Unison, although slightly rusty, had a positive energy to it that epitomised the atmosphere of the night and the ethos that can always be found around the House.
A special thank you must go to the Bev Spencer and the catering staff for a delectable dinner, the Forest Tutors for helping to guide their tutor groups through the process, and especially to a very-much alive and well Housemaster, Mr Stephens, for putting it all together.
By Guy Peppiatt
Holman House
It was that time of the year again when the Holman Soirée delivers a fantastic show of great talent and this year was no exception. The evening started with a wonderful dinner and a U4 film quiz, which matched the theme of the night: movie characters.
All audience members bought into the theme and there were some wonderful costumes on show; from Dumbledore to James Bond via Wonder Woman!
The first performance of the night was brought to us by the impressive Holman Band, inspired by Led Zeppelin, their version of Rock n Roll set up what was to be a great night of musical talent. The stage was then set for Hari Sharma (M4) to express himself in the only way he knew: by singing opera in a remarkable display. The scene then changed dramatically when the extremely humorous but well-orchestrated M4 Year Group Song was pulled off incredibly, and where Seumus Macleod and Callum Sharp stood out in particular as soloists.
Next up was Felix Porter’s (5th) El Caminante guitar production, where he performed a tricky piece with real flare. Then came the 5th Form Sketches which were definitely an audience favourite, with some very witty and well thought out acts. Afterwards, Bertie Gathercole, also in the 5th Form, entertained us with a fabulous piano recital. We then had the pleasure of witnessing the supremely talented Waleed Alzarooni (L6) and Curtis Day (M4) perform the Godfather theme. This was one of the acts of the night. The duet had the audience on their feet as the piece was executed brilliantly.
It was then time for the first video of the night, courtesy of the Lower Sixth. The video was influenced by the NFL Pick Me skit but directed and pulled off exceptionally by the boys, who had to think of individual ideas for each of their parts. The Holman Soirée couldn’t stop delivering, as Waleed Alzarooni, amazed the audience again in a solo act of Gigue by Bach in D minor, on the violin. His remarkable violin playing had the audience spellbound for the second time.
It was then time for the first Upper Sixth contribution of the night, and it was kick-started by none other than Head of House, Andrew Palmer, who played the trombone with gusto and panache.
Finally, it was the Upper Sixth video. The video was a humorous and slick production beautifully edited by Bruno Dent (5th) which was based on the TV programme, UK’s Toughest Prisons. It really capped off a great night of music, comedy and production which everyone enjoyed.
Thanks must go to Catering for the fantastic food, Mikey Garrison for the sound, Tracy our Matron for decorating Big School so beautifully and Mr Filbey and the Holman tutors for all their help organising the acts and helping the evening to come together. Roll on next year!
Max Flanagan
Propert House
The 2019 Propert Soirée was another roaring success. The year group acts followed a bit of a theme, with the M4s reproducing the popular comedy quiz Would I Lie To You?, the U4s challenging the audience to guess the films that were acted out in charades, the 5th Form producing an interactive quiz for the staff and parents about Propert goings-on and the L6 testing each other in their version of University Challenge.
Apart from that we discovered the new Tim Vine, with Tom Busby popping up on various occasions to deliver some hilarious one-liners and the whole thing was emceed seamlessly by AJW and Harry Milne.
The lengthy programme included a drum solo from Tim Knighton (the new Ben Grubb in waiting) and three piano pieces from Daniel Worby, TJ Williams and Giles Malone. There was some delightfully beautiful singing from Barney Fildes and Harry Milne and some slightly less beautiful singing from the HMM, Andy Wilson – a work in progress, but despite the intense anxiety caused by stepping outside of his comfort zone, he may well consider having another go next year…
The evening was finished off with the Upper Sixth’s multiple re-shot and re-edited version of Blink 182’s song, All the Small Things, and the ubiquitous and inimitable House Band. Actually, I suppose it is “imitable” since the line-up changes slightly every year, but they were once again awesome. This year’s line-up was Ben Grubb on drums, Oli Healy-Millett on lead guitar, Jamie Curtis on rhythm guitar, Ollie Mullen on bass, Teddy Pople on lead vocals and the sunshine backing singers, Jasper Lawler, Finn Davies and Harry Addington.
It was a great evening and we bid a fond farewell to the greatest drummer in the world, Ben Grubb, the greatest singer in the world, Harry Milne and the greatest pianist in the world, Giles Malone. They are irreplaceable, but those coming up through the ranks will need to do their very best to fill those shoes.
By Andy Wilson
