I sing in a choir in Kinvara, a small ex-fishing village near Galway. Once a year, we have a wonderful weekend festival called Cruinniú na mBád which is essentially a regatta for the local traditional wooden sailing boats (called "hookers" - but that's another story!). On the Sunday morning, there's always an open-air Mass on the pier, in the Irish language. The choir (a mixed bag of all faiths and none, I suspect) always perform - in Irish and Latin (and at least one macaronic with both). Anyway, one year, the set list contained an Irish language version of a gospel number (damned if I can remember which) as a closing recessional. During rehearsal, one of the group had been accompanying the singing on an electric keyboard, with a nice muted organ setting. On the morning of the Mass, without warning, she switched to what I can only describe as a "whorehouse piano "setting, turned up the volume and laid into it as though there were no tomorrow. I was consumed with laughter, totally unable to sing the first verse, at least! Fortunately, enough people managed to stay with her. To make the whole thing even more bizarre, the Mass was being broadcast live on the national Irish language radio channel!

Regards