Caritate Nursing Home Communal Karaoke For The Disabled 23/02/2010

I was asked to do his booking just to see how or if it would work as the Caritate Nursing Home in Bodmin normally just have vocalists along with people playing instruments for their entertainment to for the residents. Obviously as you may know R.J.Rhythm likes the idea of trying something different and to me this was going to be a little bit of a challenge and I have to admit I put quite a deal of thought into what we would or how we would do things for this 2 hour show which was an afternoon show 2pm till 4pm. I decided to purchase what I would call a karaoke radio mike which basically means a radio mike that I would let members of the public use as it was not that expensive for the job it does for this show even though we were doing this free of charge for the residents. I also arranged one of my regular Karaoke singers Paula who attends The Cat and Fiddle in Bodmin every time I play there to come along with us to help entertain the residents. I decided also not to take our camera with us on this booking hence this is the reason why we have no pictures or video footage of this show.

With me on this show was Andy from St. Austell and Paula who I mentioned before. I had other business to attend to at the nursing home so I was there from Midday and Andy followed me up and met me about 1ish. The show was basically just a sound system, our Karaoke monitor and a few microphones hence when Andy got there he unloaded for me and whilst I set up he went to fetch Paula for me. The show took about 20 minuets to set up and we were all ready to go by 2pm. I put the karaoke monitor facing where the audience could see it so everybody could sing along to what was being played at the time.

Well what a brilliant afternoon we all had I got Andy to do all the music and sound for me whilst myself and Paual interacted with the residents and we made sure throughout the afternoon that everyone had a chance to use the radio mikes They were shouting out songs and Andy was finding them and playing them and whilst everybody sang along to the words me and Paula went round with the microphones which worked really well. Every now and then myself and Paula would also sing a song to break thing up and give the residents a rest but even then they wanted a microphone to join in. I must admit it was a great feeling to see smiles and excitement on the faces of the residents and you could obviously see the amount of enjoyment they were having on this afternoon and Myself and my staff were having a great time through out the afternoon as we all had that great feeling of achievement.

We finished around 4.15pm and I started to pack everything away to get ready to load into the van whilst Andy ran Paula home for me. Andy carried the equipment and packed the van for me when he got back whilst I was chatting to various staff and residents. I eventually got back home about 5.30pm after dropping Andy off at his place and once again I was very pleased with the whole afternoon and we are looking forward to another time when hopefully I can work there again. Well 5 days left now then off to The Philippines for a Wedding and Wedding Reception, so keep an eye on our Journals because no doubt The Philippines one will be quite long.

Written By Madhouse Martin