i wrote a crap review - joyeux noel

Tuesday 15th December – Group Concert of Christmas Music, St Pauls’ Cathedral

Walking past the mile long queue, I sighed with relief that I had a ticket, and swiftly made my way to the front entrance of St Paul’s Cathedral. Here, I merged with a group of other confused looking Lloyds Banking Group colleagues as we asked the steward whether this was the right way to go. After being told to ‘form an orderly queue’ we proceeded in to the Cathedral and were shown to our seats. As I looked around at the amazing 17th century architecture and décor, I gazed up to see we were sat beneath the magnificently painted dome that makes up the centre of the building - just 7 rows back from the choir and speakers who were waiting to bestow upon us a medley of traditional festive cheer.

The evening commenced with a reading read by flickering candle light. Followed by a beautiful solo performance of the first verse of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, sang by a choir boy with bright snowy white hair. As the choir finished the chorus ‘with the poor, and mean and lowly, lived on earth our Saviour holy’ the entire Lloyds Banking Group congregation took a big deep breath to belt out the next verse.

The evening continued in this vain. Celebrity guest speakers read out their various sections from the nativity story which in parts included a slightly more comical twist to the traditional tale. My favourite reading had to be ‘the Second Epistle’ from Joseph to the Corinthians. The reading was based upon a letter of complaint that Joseph had sent to the travel agency he’d booked his ‘holiday’ through - he wasn’t too impressed to be told that after travelling 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, with a pregnant wife riding on a donkey, that ‘there was no room at the inn (hotel)’.

The concert came to a close with us all standing to sing our final song ‘Hark the herald angels sing’, where, I have to say there were some well practised voices on the Lloyds Banking Group side, songs being sang with great exaltation, and very impressively even the highest notes were hit – not a smashed stained glass window in the building!

Subsequently, we all made our way to the Crypt for the evening meal. After a discussion about whether the Queen Mother was buried in one of the tombs, we went on to enjoy three courses, a fantastic opportunity to network, and a complimentary present. A great evening was had by all, and I now feel all the wiser for knowing the Queen Mother is buried in Windsor castle and not St Paul’s Cathedral.