The choir has been asked to record the official version of Advance Australia Fair. This weekend we’ll be at Fox Studios laying down the track and making an accompanying DVD. Apparently it will become the standard version to be played at all official government events and will also be made available for distribution to schools, community groups etc. throughout the country.
What a hoot! I’ve had to go off and memorise the words to the rarely sung second verse. I’d better make sure that I look appropriately patriotic whenever the camera is pointed in my direction.
Ooh, impressive. Is it fun looking patriotic?
(Sidenote - I had no idea Oz also had a “rarely sung second verse”. Perhaps it’s some kind of rule. I trust it is not as nasty as the missing verse of the British song-thingy.)
In the interests of fighting my own ignorance, I jsut Googled it. I note that Australia is
" …land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare
…"
Is there a bit where it remembers to mention oh, yes, and we have scary spiders and snakes too?
I pass on to you the knowledge that my Australian co-worker passed on to me, which is this: Advance Australia Fair can be sung perfectly to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme song.
Don’t you go attacking our “girt”. We love our “girt”. (Otherwise known as the past participle of the verb “to gird”, meaning to encircle.)
Given the less than serious attitude that choristers are taking to this gig, this resemblence may be appropriate. At rehearsal last night our musical director kept yelling out “This is a great honour. We’re supposed to be taking it seriously” as the rest of us spent the night altering lyrics and otherwise behaving like unruly schoolchildren.
Wow. First I read Q.E.D.'s OP on joining Mythbusters and now this. Participation in what will surely become a well know and widely loved anthem. Very impressive indeed. Will we get a chance to order a DVD with signatures of you and the choir? Congrats!
Huh, my school never got to that one, I guess because “bras” was such an ordinary word. (If it had had a second verse talking about our ice floes full of seals, they never would have lived it down.)
Instead, they just totally sibilated the fuck out of the “s” in “gloriousssssss and free,” like assholes.
All done. It took just over two hours and was fairly painless. The orchestral arrangement was suitably grand and bombastic. We can all return to “non-patriotic” mode now.
Well, I’m assuming most second (or third, or first, etc.) graders in your school actually knew “bras” means “arm”. Our school got the lyric sheets with the words printed to sing along, and, you know, bras. :rolleyes:
Unfortunately the recording studio only ran to free tea and coffee. But a large number of choristers went home via the pub next door, so the deficiency was well and truly remedied.
It’s gotta be done in the Barnsey accent too, with the bits in italics coming out through the nose:
“Australians ahhll let arse rejoi-oi-eeeeeaahhhh Fwee are yungun freee-eeee–yahhhhhhhhhhh”
