The Prince Albert Carol Consort
Prince Albert Carol Consort (PACC) sings unusual carols in The Prince Albert, Rodborough, every Sunday lunchtime in December leading up to the 25th.
[Find the Albert on a map here.]
Above: Our lovely, lively hosts, Miles and Lotte
You may not have heard these carols before. They are upbeat, rollicking and great fun to sing and were cast out of Victorian churches along with the musicians who accompanied them.
LUBRICATED COMMUNITY SINGING AT ITS MOST HARMONICALLY EXUBERANT
The Consort was formed in 2001 by a handful of regulars who, inspired by the long tradition of carol singing in pubs in parts of Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Cornwall, decided to plunder words and tunes from books and recordings and establish our own Stroud tradition.
By learning words from one source and singing them to tunes gleaned from another source, the PACC managed, inadvertently, to give birth to its own subtly hybrid tradition - a technique famously exploited by the I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue team.
Drinkers with a singing problem!
ALL ARE WELCOME
The PACC is not a formally constituted choir. It has an established core of organisers but no hierarchy. There are no auditions, you just turn up.
The Consort is whoever turns up on the day!