Above video: Pub Choir - teaching the world to sing
This morning, the 2019 Splendour in the Grass lineup dropped with typical feverish excitement.
Nestled among international headliners like Childish Gambino and Chance The Rapper are Pub Choir.
Two years ago, Pub Choir director Astrid Jorgensen, accompanist Waveney Yasso and MC Meg Bartholomew got a few dozen people together in a Brisbane pub to learn a song together.
Today, they regularly sell out theatres and are midway down the line-up for Splendour - the highest-profile festival in Australia.
“We would have never aimed for it, it’s the peak of Australian live music experience. We’re a choir!” Jorgensen told The Feed.
One of Pub Choir’s biggest hurdles in their live shows is securing song licensing from artists in order to be able to sing them on such a large scale.
However, if the artist is on stage singing too, Jorgensen can sidestep all the bureaucracy.
Previous Pub Choir special guests including members of Powderfinger, The Grates and Ball Park Music.
So, the question is who from the 2019 Splendour line-up are going to join Pub Choir on stage?
“Childish Gambino is my musical hero but there are a bunch of great Aussie female singers in there too,” Jorgensen said.
“We’re a bit of a girl band, there’s some really cool chicks on that line up. People like Meg Mac, Hatchie and Thelma Plum, that’s my dream list.”
“It detracts from the work that we’re doing”
Since its inception in 2017, Pub Choir has gone from strength to strength, most recently selling out Brisbane’s 1,500 capacity Tivoli theatre.
But such rapid growth comes with a price as several imitators have popped up to steal Pub Choir’s thunder.
Like the Australian National Choral Association, who have an event at their 2019 Choralfest that looks suspiciously familiar.
“[The ANCA] got in touch with us, then decided that they couldn’t afford to bring us all out to their festival. So they created an event that’s called Pub Choir and are advertising it as such,” said Jorgensen.
“Obviously, I love that people want to sing together but it is so infuriating when it’s called Pub Choir and it’s using our photos and materials.”
But the Pub Choir team isn’t taking it lying down.
“I have stepped up the legal situation, we’ve got a little legal team working on it,” Jorgensen said,
“People are going to the copy cat shows expecting to see us and I have no control over the quality of those performances, or the music that goes out or the experience.
“It detracts from the work that we’re doing and there’s better ways to build community than stealing from other communities.”
