Page 4 - Keble Review 2014

Student Life
4
The Keble Review 2014
Keble members Jack Remmington (centre front) and Joel Fishel (fifth from right)
Out of the Blue
Out of the Blue is Oxford’s all male a cappella group. Before starting at Keble this year, I knew very little about a cappella, which means singing without instrumental accompaniment. After three rounds
of auditions in Freshers’ Week, Joel Fishel (now second year mathematician) and I (second year geographer) were lucky enough to gain our places in the group. I have since learnt that Keble is the best represented college in the university a cappella groups, with Tommy Siman, Amy O’Brian, Ed Crawford and Max Woodman all being members of the mixed voice group ‘The Alternotives’ as well.
The best part of the year for us is embarking on tours over the holidays. This year we journeyed around the UK, California and India, running workshops with thousands of children and showing them
how we warm up and perform, as well as teaching them a few of
our songs. As members, we do not take money individually from the group; profits after expenses such as travel and recording the album tracks goes to Oxford’s Helen & Douglas House Children’s Hospice, the first of its kind in the world. We perform at Helen & Douglas House as frequently as we can and at Easter we performed in a benefit concert at the New Theatre with a number of celebrities such as Jimmy Carr, Tom Odell, Jo Brand, Rob Brydon and Newton Faulkner. We even managed to get some cheeky selfies with them!
The 15 of us were also fortunate enough to enter and win the Voice Festival UK, a national a cappella competition, which allowed us to meet lots of other a cappella groups from all over the country. Most recently, we released a charity music video for a Shakira medley we perform, which has now amassed over 4 million views on YouTube and been featured on BBC News, This Morning, Le Monde, Good Morning America, Australian Sunrise and many other international publications
and TV channels. The most important thing about the video is that it has now managed to raise over £10,000 for the Children’s Hospice – a figure that has exceeded our wildest expectations. Our album Soul Sisters is now available, so if you are interested in purchasing it, go to our website (www.ootboxford.com) and, as mentioned before, a large portion of the sales goes to helping the children at the hospice.
The best part of the year for us is embarking on tours over the holidays. This year we journeyed around the UK, California and India, running workshops with thousands of children
I will be taking on the role of President next year, while Joel will
be Business Manager so we look forward to the challenges and opportunities this will bring. Thanks to the exposure of the music video, individuals and corporations in Malaysia, Colombia, Sweden, Belgium, Australia and Kazakhstan have contacted us for possible tours. However next year pans out, we hope we can continue to build on the success of this year, in order for a cappella music to reach an even wider audience, whilst also supporting Helen & Douglas House.
More information on our tours, appearances and contact information can be found on our website, www.ootboxford.com, whilst our YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts can all be found by searching @ootboxford.
Jack Remmington
Geography 2013