• All-male barbershop group
• Based at University of Leeds (although it is not exclusively students)
• Between four and eight members, depending on availability, music and cost for each event
• Available to hire for corporate, private or public events
• Available for lower cost or for free for charity events, LUU society events and collaborations

We will have a range of repertoire depending on the audience and particular date of season:

• Traditional Barbershop
• Modern Classics (Queen, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel)
• A Cappella arrangements of Jazz standards
• Classical light music (16th century madrigals, part-songs and folk-songs)
• A Cappella choral music
• Traditional Christmas carols (at Christmastime)
• Jazzy love songs and romantic barbershop stuff (particularly around Valentines’)

Possible set lists will be announced shortly.

Please contact us (as above) if you are interested in hiring Head Row for your event.  Listen to our past recordings on myspace (http://www.myspace.com/headrow). The ones on there at the moment are quite old, but we will hopefully have a new set up shortly!

Please contact us (headrow@googlemail.com) if you are interested in singing with us, in which case we will require a summary of your musical ability and you may be called to audition.

Edit 28th December 2009:  There is no longer any plan to restart the barbershop group.  Enquiries can still be forwarded to the above  address for information.

Head Row at Hifi 2008

I have a selection of suitable music which has been passed down to me or has somehow found its way into my possession, but I was thinking that it would be really nice to do new arrangements or even absolutely new pieces.  The repertoire wouldn’t be confined to the strict barbershop style but would branch out to various popular a cappella music styles.

If you’re a University of Leeds student who is interested in singing in an all-male light music group of between 6 and 8 members, please leave a comment.  I would expect members to be able to read music competently and members who can arrange music or have other skills that they can bring to the group would really help too.

Nevermind, eh.  I’ll just have to start my own.  So, tomorrow, I will be meeting up with another interested student to discuss the possibility of this new club.  At last I might be singing again!

There are a number of issues that you have to think about when setting up a new a cappella group.  When Jimmy and I set up Head Row last year, we came upon those problems and managed to overcome them pretty easily. I perceive our difficulties being:

1. Music – It’s always best if a group produces its own vocal arrangements for an a cappella group.  It gives the group credibility.  However, the number of people who can do this well are few, and hard to find.  Failing that, you have to look for music elsewhere.  Usually having a good number of contacts is the best method (most of Head Row’s music came from Jimmy’s past musical directors and friends), or failing that, finding stuff on the internet or for sale.  Music can be expensive though, and, being something already performed by other groups, you can lose some of that originality that comes from doing your own individual arrangements.
2. Rehearsal Space – I doubt that the music department here will be happy with a music group that is completely independent of the department waltz in to one of their practice rooms once or twice a week and just take over without any return.  They’ll probably want money, or at least severely restrict the hours that we can be there.  Other places may be able to offer rooms for free, such as the residence halls, but permission would have to be sought and not guaranteed.
3. Members – Getting enough members to form a group is not hard.  There are enough people who want to sing around that I don’t see a problem in getting enough people that are interested.  The problem is getting people who are good enough, dedicated enough and who blend well as a group.  This can be very challenging indeed, especially when you have to turn away competant singers.  One method is audition, but often an audition is too short a time to judge someone’s full capability.  The other method is recommendation and invitation, but for this, you or someone you trust has to have sung with those people before.  There is also recommendation and audition, but at some stage you may run out of recommendees.  Head Row was basically by recommendation, but this process meant that the members were only brought together once the group had formed, and therefore the blend wasn’t perfect.  The number of members is a big issue too.  Four members is more manageable but limited to four part music.  A 20 strong choir is versatile and can perform various types of music but is harder to manage as a group.  I am looking at eight to ten for this group.
4. Directing – Its a difficult job, and the hardest part from my experience last year was keeping up attention and concentration within the group.  The director really needs to know the music beforehand to be able to effectively teach it and the members need to be ready to follow what the director says. If you are selecting a director, they need to have the relevant experience in the type of music and a broad enough musical knowledge to explain how the music ought to be performed.

So, I hope this group goes well, and that we get good performers, a place to rehearse in and good music to sing!

The show was fantastic, and the night was enjoyed by all, especially those of us who had put so much work into it and glad to see it go well.

I was particularly proud, for a number of reasons: I was singing with both the A Cappella Singers and Head Row; it was me who directed the A Cappella singers, set the time and brought everyone off with a flourish; it was my dad who arranged the version of Both Sides Now that A Cappella sang, and he was there to see us do it; and I arranged the version of Queen’s Fat Bottomed Girls that we sang!

When it came to arranging this song, I looked around on the internet of versions which had already been arranged on YouYube. I found some, but they all took the same attitude – for the instrumental parts of the original song, they imitated the instruments with their voices. What a novel idea!!… if it wasn’t thought of ages ago and incredibly effectively done by the Swingle Singers and practically every other A Cappella group on the planet. So, I wanted to do something which was more individual, that wasn’t just trying to replicate the exact sound of the original song with vocals only. So I started by transcribing the first part of the song exactly, the bit before any instruments come in. I then missed out the instrumental section altogether and replaced it with harmonised versions of the tune. At the chorus, I added a bass part that follows a bass guitar type of line. In the middle eight, I also avoid the twangy sound that would most accurately imitate the original version, but actually tried to make it a very open, quiet, serene sound, to create the greatest contrast to the chorus section.

I hope to do more arrangements like this, but at the moment, my time is fairly occupied doing university. I’m sure I’ll do some at some point though. Feel free to make suggestions as to songs!

I would like to thank Fikir (the president and mastermind behind the concert), Jimmy (the Head Row director) and everyone who sang for making is such a great night. I’m so proud of you all.

UPDATE 12th April 2009: To listen to Head Row, go to our myspace page. I have removed the mp3 of “For The Longest Time” which we recorded in May 2007 from this site but you can listen to the same recording on the myspace page.