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Walking into the sounds of “…and animals and animals and animals…” being sung in perfect harmony and precision, I was convinced that it was a recording. But these sounds were, in fact, being created by a group of men of all ages, sizes, shapes and backgrounds, seated in a semi-circle around one man who seemed obviously in charge.

An ‘exclusively acappella’ choral group that needs no introduction, the 44 –year-old (on May 15), Lylie Godridge Singers (LG Singers) deserve a long overdue pat on the back! In celebration of this great accomplishment, the Christian Literature Society (CLS) Bookshop together with the LG Singers will present ‘An Evening of Spiritual Music’ at 6.30 p.m. on June 17, at the Methodist Church, Kollupitiya. The proceeds will be in aid of the CLS Bookshop Ministry.

Although at first, they were quite big shoes to fit into, Willie Godridge – the eldest son of the late maestro Lylie Godridge or “Uncle Lylie”– was appointed choir director upon his father’s death in 1999.

Known for their spiritual and secular music, over the years the LG Singers have perfected the art of acappella singing, with only the first chord from the authentic pitch pipe to guide them. It is yet another unique tradition of the group that has been passed down from father to son.

The LG Singers comprises 21 members, inclusive of the Godridge brothers (Wille and Christopher), four founder members, former Air Force officers, business tycoons, bankers, lawyers, accountants and even a father-son combination.

“Having dedicated every Tuesday of the year for practices, the group has now evolved into a sort of ‘Boys’ Club’ minus the booze,” says Willie laughing. “We all have a lot of fun and enjoy the comradeship we share with one other…and then of course there’s the music which is the binding force among us,” he added.

They have five to seven performances annually, particularly during Christmas time, where they perform at various churches etc., he explained. “During my father’s time we used to have about 30-40 performances a year but, now due to the members’ various work commitments and schedules, it’s just not feasible anymore,” he adds.

They’re also experimenting a little with the choir formation as Willie wants to adopt the ‘Dopplechor’ style, where the choir stands in a ‘V’ formation, where the choristers singing different parts are scattered (not in clusters like now) and they will look at each other and sing, thereby eliminating the role of the conductor. “Hopefully by next year we should be able to put this concept into practice then I will be able to sing more,” he said with a smile.

Entrance will be by programme available at the CLS Bookshop, Wellawatte, Pragna Bookshop, Bambalapitiya and The Ceylon Bible Society, Colombo 3.

Uh-Merry-Kar! A compleat unabrijed account of the histry of the greatest nation on Urrth! goes on the boards at the Lionel Wendt from June 22 to 26

We write with reference to the press statement issued by the American School for the Study of Historical Occurrences Leading to Edification and wish to clarify certain statements which we feel are unfair.

1. The statement had implied that none of us are scholars of American histry and as such were in no way qualified to perform a play about same. We would like to reiterate the fact that none of us are scholars on any subject for that matter.

In fact most of our formative years were spent in the study of various non-scholastic pursuits. Anuruddha spent all of his time researching the maximum expandable points of the human stomach and continues that research to this very day. Michael, has spent more than 20 years studying the English alphabet and he hopes to learn all 26 letters by the year 2009.

Feroze, in addition to finalizing plans for world domination has also constantly been lobbying governments to reduce the minimum legal age to about 12.

2. George Washington and his Minute Men are a well known part of histry. We do not make fun of them, merely portraying them with a true sense of humanity and a touch of reality.

3. The Bill of Wrongs. Yes, such a document exists and we are in possession of the only surviving copy of it. The document has survived hundreds of years and is considered priceless. We would gladly give you a certified copy of same and would do so immediately upon receipt of a payment of US Dollars nine million to cover some expenses (postage, photocopy charges, handling etc).

4. In as much as you, are proud of your history and tradition, we are proud to be thespians and we totally resent your attempt to scare us by having shadowy agents tail us day in and day out.

5.The reason why we were hanging around the places that you mentioned in your letter was that all those organizations are kind patrons of English theatre and the corporate sponsors. Mobitel is our principal sponsor, Alankara and EW Information Systems are Corporate Sponsors. Redbull, Levis and Adidas are product endorsement sponsors, The Sunday Times and the Daily Mirror are our official newspapers and YES FM and Channel One MTV are our official Electronic media partners.

6. As for the so-called spelling errors, we will leave that to the learned readers of this newspaper to figure out who is right. The only thing we have left to say about spelling to the American School is that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones!

7. We appeal to all right-thinking, far-thinking, deep-thinking, slow-thinking and even the no-thinking Sri Lankans to resist the attempt by the American School for the Study of Historical Occurrences Leading to Edification to sabotage our performance of Uh-Merry-Kar!

A Compleat unabrijed account of the histry of the greatest nation on Urrth! The performance will take place from the 22nd to the 26th of June 2006 at the Lionel Wendt.

8. The performance of Uh-Merry-Kar! Will be a joyous expression of our freedoms of speech and expression and we invite all Sri Lankans to come along and enjoy the show.