These Archive Pages are where you will find links to the various Leigh Orpheus archives that have been created over the years. There are several pages of them For earlier archives than 2021 use the 'Historic Archives' button at the bottom of this page.

Contributions from members are very welcome. If you have something relevant - especially pictures of the choir - please let us know.

 Please note that descriptions and opinions stated on our Archive pages are personal comments and should not be interpreted as expressing official LOMVC opinions or positions. Pictures and videos on these Archive pages are for Leigh Orpheus members' enjoyment only. They should not be copied or shared or in any way made public.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed.

Frank Kendall’s Funeral. Southend Crematorium. 14^th April 2025

Many of us regard it as our duty, if we can be available, to attend funerals of departed members of the Leigh Orpheus. Whether we knew them or not, we’ve been Brothers in Song together.

Frank was a quiet, non-assuming Second Tenor. He’d been suffering from the effects of a fall. He’d wanted to get better and return to singing with the Leigh Orpheus. Sadly, Frank passed away without being able to do so.

Seventeen of us gathered in the South Chapel of Southend Crematorium to say farewell to Frank.

It was a slightly unusual service as Frank had already been cremated and his ashes were at the front of the chapel.

As so often happens, through the service and through the Eulogy we learned more about Frank, his life, his interests and his family, than we could ever have known beforehand.

Frank’s family have been loyal supporters of the Leigh Orpheus, regularly turning up at our concerts. They were extremely grateful that those of us there had made the effort to attend. As a mark of their gratitude we were all given a red rose in a miniature clear casket.

Rest in Peace, Frank

Pics: Neil

The Leigh Orpheus Spring Concert. 1^st March 2025 at the Salvation Army Temple

We’d rehearsed since the New Year for this concert and the usual promotions had been in place with members taking flyers and posters and ‘likes’, ‘comments’ and ‘shares’ of our Facebook posts.

The Final Details had been available to members for a couple of weeks before the concert.

Ticket sales by Alan at rehearsals and online had gone fairly well. But not enough for us to use the extra area at the back of the Worship Area.

With the seats having been moved the previous evening at rehearsal, as usual we met early for final positioning and sound-check. And for some pics that we might use for publicity.

No one seemed to bat an eye when, trying to get everyone ready for the pic, Neil said “Come on guys, the ladies are on their knees waiting for you.”!!

The first for a while – the presentation of his Choir Badge to new member Brian Allars on the occasions of performing at his first concert. Well done! (he also received his red waistcoat later!)

This was the Leigh Orpheus’s first concert of 2025, appropriately on the first day of Spring and St David’s Day, and after concerns about the number of tickets sold it was good to have a full house.

Much easier to make last-minute adjustments than with a printed programme, the evening’s Programme was displayed on the screen at the front.

We started our first set with Verdi’s ‘Speed Your Journey’, also known as the ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slave’s. We then moved on to  ‘A Winter’s Tale’, which we’d prepared for our Winter Concert and which we could easily roll out again. Then, as an acknowledgement that it was St David’s Day, and the choir’s roots having been from the Welsh tradition, sung in Welsh, ‘Gwahoddiad’.

Next, a guitar solo by Dave who introduced the piece by describing how he had come to write ‘The Lonely Sea and Sky’.

Then three pieces that were instantly recognised by the audience. First, conducted by Jan, ‘You Raise me Up’ and ‘Yesterday’. Then ‘Unchained Melody conducted by Deputy Musical Director Dave Smith.

A duet for the next ‘Solo’ slot with Jan Walker Kay playing, four-handed, Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A little night music). What’s not to like?! Not only do we get to take the weight off our feet by sitting down – we also get to be charmed by Jan and Kay’s lovely playing.

Our final set of the first half comprised a selection of three pieces from the very popular stage musical ’Les Misérables’. Firstly ‘At the End of the Day’ sung by the full choir and having needed us to do a lot of work getting the words right. Next, a brilliantly-performed solo piece by Ralph Faulkes, ‘Bring Him Home’.

Finally the choir sang ‘Do you Hear the People Sing’. The audience responded with generous applause.

Now the interval, a chance to sample the refreshments provided by the Front of House and Hospitality team in our Green Room.  And the opportunity to catch up with audience members.

The second half of the concert started with the Queen classic ‘Another One Bites the Dust’. This was our first public performance of this piece, made even livelier by the audience participating in the choruses. Choir and audience did well. The lights dimmed for the next piece, the Katrina and the Waves song ‘Love Shine a Light’. We’ve now done this on several occasions. Each time we get better with the tea lights. Hopefully one day we’ll be perfect!

Then it was time for another solo from Ralph Faulkes who sang a piece from the musical Miss Saigon. ‘Why God Why?’.

Again, well-earned applause for Ralph from the audience and choir members.

Two more choir pieces. The first, another ‘first time out’ number for the choir for this piece,  ‘Anthem’ from the musical ‘Chess’. It worked well. Then a favourite ‘Classic’ for many of us - ‘An American Trilogy’.

Dave then returned for another guitar solo. Another piece he had written himself, ‘James Taylor State of Mind’. Dave must have been rockin’ away as the pics of him are all blurred!

Chairman Graham then had a bit of banter with audience members before promoting the next concert at Saxon Hall, thanking those who had helped put the concert on, and wishing everyone a safe journey home.

Finally, to finish this lovely evening, Jan announced our final piece, and to elicit some toe-tapping from the audience, the marathon ‘Back to the 60s Medley’.

From the feedback from the audience it had been another excellent, entertaining and well-performed concert. One audience member said:

 “Just to thank you for such a lovely evening; we enjoyed it so much!! The song selection was excellent and LOMVC never fail to give a great evening….. just love the harmonies and when it’s all at full throttle - fantastic!!! Oh and Ralph was so moving too. Loved it and thank you.”

Yet again a loyal gang of Leigh Orpheus members stayed back to help re-arrange the furniture so that it was ready for the Army's service the following day. Thanks, guys!

Pics: Les and Neil

Dave Brooker's Funeral. Leigh Road Baptist Church. Tuesday, 11th February.

We'd been asked to sing at Dave's funeral and thankfully there were enough members available to sing one piece.

We supported the congregational singing and, when the time came for our pice to be delivered we stood as Kay came from the organ to the keyboard and sang the piece that had been selected, conducted by Jan: 'You Raise Me Up'.

Rest in Peace, Dave

Our LOMVC Christmas Social Event. Friday, 13^th December 2024

What now seems to have become a tradition – an ‘end of term’ Friday rehearsal mini-concert event to which we invite friends and family.

No real pressure on most of us as Jan’s planned programme was a scaled-down version of the Winter Concert programme, interspersed with audience participation, announcement of three-month’s worth of 100 Club winners, and ending with an inspirational ‘farewell and happy Christmas’ from Chairman Graham Halsey. Most choir members had got into the spirit of the evening and worn something Christmassy. Luckily, with a few spare Santa hats available, everyone was able to look the part.

It turned out to be a warm, friendly, convivial evening.

Off we all went – Leigh Orpheus and Audience - with ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’. Many of us not looking so merry – but we were just getting warmed up

We had song sheets to sing from and the words for the audience appeared on the screen behind us, expertly moved on from verse to verse by Les

Then our choir first set – ‘My Lord’, ‘Flying Free’ and ‘Gwahoddiad’. Jan looked pleased and the audience seemed to like it.

Next, another carol – ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’. Mac had obviously come dressed for the next line of this carol: ‘How still we see thee lie’ as he was already ready for bed!

Back to three more Leigh Orpheus pieces – ‘A Winter’s Tale’ (we’re getting ever better!), ‘And So It Goes’ and ‘Unchained Melody’. Was it this piece that Dave conducted?

Onward to another audience participation piece – ‘Away in a Manger’.

Now our final set. ‘O Come O Come Emmanuel’, ‘Zum Sanctus’, and ‘Love Shine a Light’. We’ve got that ‘tea light’ thing sorted. Many members can even switch the light on and keep it concealed without the audience seeing it before it is needed!

The set finished with ‘Amen/This Little Light’. Most of us needed the words for that. Thankfully Jan had suggested that only those of us who knew the words for the ‘fast’ bit should sing them!

Then it was time for Pam to announce the winners of the last three 100 Club draws. If you missed them, or want to see what appeared on screen, click on the pic below to see all of the winners.

Then on to the final choir and audience singing, the ‘Christmas Sing-A-Long’. We ducked and dived to find the words, Kay ducked and dived to find the music, and the audience sang the words displayed on the screen. If you want to look at the animation that the audience saw, click on the pic below.

Finally some words of Farewell from Chairman Graham.

Then it was time to move into George’s Hall for some excellent refreshments organised and served by Pam, Sue and Val.

Our post on Facebook attracted some great responses, including:

A fabulous concert as always by a fabulous choir. Xx

Happy Christmas to all our followers. Looking forward to seeing you in the New Year

It was a joy joining in the singing of carols with the audience.

It was great. Thank you. Happy Christmas to everyone.

A fun evening. Thank you LOMVC and organisers.

Great

Pics and Videos: Jo and Neil   

The Leigh Orpheus Winter Concert. Saturday, 30^th November 2024

The date of this concert had been planned well ahead, and in November in order to avoid the Christmas rush. So much for the best laid plans – we found out only a few weeks before the concert, that it clashed with the Southend Music Festival (that in previous years had been earlier in the Autumn) and some members would be away competing at that.

Chris Pethers came along to a couple of rehearsals to help us to learn ‘A Winter’s Tale’ which then became the title for the Concert.

Tickets went on sale four weeks before the concert. Unfortunately, despite supportive members taking posters and flyers, and several promotions on social media, ticket sales were poor. Something we seem to be getting used to. At one point it looked as if not only would we make a financial loss on this concert, there was also a chance that we’d have more members on stage than we would have in the audience. There would certainly be no need for us to open the screens at the back to use the ‘table tennis area’ for extra seating (although that does have the advantage of giving us a good space to serve the Interval Refreshments).

Having heard that several members would be absent, some through illness and others at the Festival, with the Bass section being especially impacted, Jan made a few changes to the planned programme as well as a few compromises in the singing of certain pieces.

At the rehearsal the evening before the concert members helped to set out the choir’s chairs and the audience chairs.

And the following evening most members arrived in time for a final sound-check. While the audience took their seats, including a fair number of ‘walk-ins’ that meant that we would more than break even financially, a presentation on the screen gave the audience information about the concert. Click on the image below to watch the presentation (be patient – the slides take a long time to move on! Just relax!).

At 7.25 pm we lined up and walked in smartly to take our places on the stage.

Then we were off. As it always does, ‘Gwahoddiad’ went well – giving the audience a good idea of what a male voice choir sounds like. Then on to ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ and ‘Flying Free’, Kay playing in the Flute part and Jan ensuring that we gave of our very best.

Then the last piece of our first set – ‘Unchained Melody’.

We were then to have had a solo sung by a Leigh Orpheus member, but illness prevented that and Jan and Kay stepped in to play a delightful piano duet.

Following well-deserved applause it was back to the Leigh Orpheus to sing the three pieces in this next set, starting with ‘A Winter’s Tale’. It was this piece’s first public outing and our audience were generous in their appreciation. Then another piece introduced to us by Chris Pethers – ‘And So it Goes’, and the set finishing with ‘Stand by Me’.

Some of us knew what a treat was then to follow as we’d heard our guest Soloist rehearsing with Jan. The audience didn’t know. But they were soon transfixed when Zed’s daughter Adriana Dvorakova played a lovely clarinet solo, accompanied by Jan. It was wonderful.

Well-deserved applause followed and many of us looked forward to Adriana’s next solo to be played in the second half.

Back to the Leigh Orpheus for two pieces that we are very familiar with – ‘Softly as I Leave You’ and ‘Rhythm of Life’. Jan kept us in order, and in time.

Then it was the interval. Pam, Sue and Val ensured that both the audience and choir members had adequate refreshments – and the audience responded to the request to make donations for their refreshments, again ensuring that we more than covered our costs.

The second half started with ‘The Mansions of the Lord’. You can listen to an excerpt by clicking on the pic below (the camera must have been teh wrong way round. You’ll either have to use some flashy editing tools to rotate the video or turn your head sideways! Update! Cracked it - you won't need to do anything to see the video in the correct orientation!)

Next, ‘You Raise Me Up’. Again, there’s an excerpt available by clicking on this link – but this time you won’t need to get neckache! Click on the pic.

Now time for us to sit down and time for Ralph to stand to sing his solo. What a Solo! ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Misérables. We loved it and the audience loved it too. Well done Ralph! Click on Ralph to hear an excerpt.

Then on to the set of the Leigh Orpheus ‘Christmas’ pieces. ‘O Come O Come Emmanuel’ with solo verses sung by Trevor Davey and Chris Renault’. Then our second language challenge of the evening (the first being Gwahoddiad in Welsh) – ‘Zum Sanctus’ in German. On to ‘Love Shine a Light. With Lights, of course. Here we are with our lights held high – at the right points in the song!

Then time to tease the audience with a bit of audience participation as we sang ‘Amen/This Little Light’.

Although the evening was coming to an end soon we were all keen to hear Adriana play her next solo. Zed must have been such a proud Dad. She was brilliant again.

Having sung so much during the evening our voices were getting a bit tired, but we had enough left in reserve to give part of the ‘60s Medley’ a good shot.

The traditional words of thanks, and then it was time for the audience and choir to sing ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland’. They seemed to enjoy it as the words popped up on the screen behind us. The song sheets that had been provided heped us get the words right.

Click on the First Verse below to hear part of it (and don't own up if it was your wife who sang out of tune!)

Finally, with thanks to those who stayed to help re-arrange the chairs ready for the SA’s service the following day, it was off home.

The usual post went up on Facebook the following day and was met with many positive responses including:

A really excellent concert which we thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you

A great evening. LOMVC in good voice and the soloists were amazing, as was Adriana. Well done everyone - got us in the mood for the festive season 

Splendid evening. Well done LOMVC

(We are hoping to get some more pics of the evening so check back here occasionally if you want to see them)

Pics and Videos: Jo      

The Leigh Orpheus Concert and Quiz Night. Saturday, 26^th October 2024

It had been on our schedule for many months. Posters, flyers and tickets were available in good time.

But somehow tickets weren’t selling especially well. Maybe the increase of price from our regular £10 per adult to £12 per adult was putting people off. (we knew that they were going to get extra value as a result of the Quiz and the nibbles that would be on their table. But did they?!) The ‘6 tickets for the price of 5’ offer didn’t seem especially attractive, although it didn’t help that a certain choir member was confusing the issue by confusing choir member attendance (free) with paid attendance.

Jan had put together three sets of music to interweave with the three sets of quiz questions that Questionmaster Dave Smith was putting together.

The event was to take place at a venue we haven’t used before – The King John School, Thundersley. An eagle-eyed Leigh Orpheus member spotted that the postcode for the school on the posters, flyers and Concert Details, was wrong and was for somewhere on Canvey Island, not Shipwrights Drive in Thundersley. So much for trusting Google!

On the evening the preparations came on well. Cabaret-style tables were in position; the piano was placed on the side we prefer; Pam and Sue put tablecloths on the tables and then added further ‘class’ with bowls and trays of nibbles.

Then it was time for a bit of a warm-up and sound check. Most of us had arrived in time for it. Not bad, although the piano seemed to have suffered the indignity of being played by careless hands, and potentially having been moved around a lot and was not only out of tune but also very ‘honky tonk’.

We were ready in plenty of time. Many of our Teams arrived in plenty of time. All of the best tables were quickly snapped up. More teams and individuals arrived. More tables were put into place. More nibbles were added and more Answer Sheets were put out.

Then at exactly 7.30 we were good to go. Not only was Kay challenged by the out-of-tune piano, she also, for our first piece, had to add the flute part of ‘Flying Free’ to the mix. Next, ‘Love Shine a Light’. Many thought something was missing. It was! The tea lights. But we didn’t sound too bad.

Finally in the first set, ‘Gwahoddiad’. The audience liked each piece!

Over to Quiz Master Dave. The first round was ‘Literature’. Lots of conferring on individual tables.

Within the questions not everyone knew that Wuthering Heights was written by Emily Brontë!  The first round of ten questions were eventually answered and Answer Sheets were swapped between tables for marking. An interesting range of scores.

Next another set from the Leigh Orpheus. ’Unchained Melody’, ‘Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill’ and ‘An American Trilogy’. Jan seemed pleased with our singing.

Then back to the quizzing. Round Two was ‘Previous Names’.

More conferring. Smug looks and furrowed brows. Who remembered ‘Abyssinia’? Ten questions, further swapping of Answer Sheets, more checking and recording of the results.

There was an impressive array of food, much brought by our audience friends, on all tables and it was progressively consumed. Especially during the Interval.

After the Interval on to Round Three. 'General Knowledge'. Some of the scores were close and this round could change everything. The Dewey Decimal system stumped some (It’s the way most library books are catalogued).

Finally, our third set. We were expecting to sing ‘Back to the 60s (5 – 7)’ but Jan announced that we’d be singing ‘1 – 4’. So that’s what we did. As usual, many a foot was tapping. And then our last piece, appropriate as Remembrance Sunday was approaching, ‘The Mansions of the Lord’. It went down well.

Dave had worked out the final scores. Nice work, Dave!

The two top-scoring teams were close. But it was Table 6 who were the overall winners. Well Done! Oh, and the Wooden Spoon went to Table 5.

A lovely, friendly evening with lots of smiles and laughter. Our Facebook post had lots of likes.

Photos and video: Jo and Neil

The Leigh Orpheus MiniTour, 12th and 13th October 2024

Here are TWO articles about the MiniTour!

First is the Report by the Tour Organiser. Following that is a personal refelection by a Leigh Orpheus Member and his partner. Enjoy reading both of them!

Tour Organiser's Report

Planning for our Autumn MiniTour started in early 2024 with Neil prospecting for Male Voice Choirs who would be up for hosting us at a concert. The focus was the Cambridge area as, previously, the Choir Master at Kings College Cambridge had said what fun it would be to do a joint rehearsal/choir practice together and they rehearsed on Friday evenings. Good plan, but unfortunately he had now left and his replacement didn’t respond to any emails. However, our good friends at St Edmundsbury said that although they had a busy time in early Autumn they would see if they could incorporate us into their schedule. And, out of the blue, Huntingdon Male Voice Choir expressed an interest in a joint concert. Over the months dates were sorted and from a logistics point of view it seemed that a two-day, two-concert, Tour could work.

We can only go on Tour and sing in Joint Concerts if we have a viable choir. Tour Details were produced and in June members were asked to commit to a Tour. Thankfully, we had just enough members in each section to be able to go ahead. Loads of work had been done to get the cost down to a minimum and between them Treasurer Ian and Neil worked out the following prices for a place:

Place on coach and single occupancy room: £149

Place on coach sharing with another choir member or a wife or partner: £99 (= 198/couple).

Group bookings at all of the budget hotel/motel chains are never straightforward. There is little time between receiving their quote for a projected number of a range of rooms and them needing the deposits. Then, any variation from the original projected number of rooms means a variation of the contract with increased numbers of rooms potentially being at a higher rate than the originals. However, gambles were taken with number and deposits were received and then later balances were paid. Forty five members, wives, partners, guests and a coach driver! Negotiations involving Jan took place between both Huntingdon and St Edmundsbury about who would sing what. Both individually and jointly.

It got a bit close to the wire, but a recce trip Neil did a couple of weeks before the Tour weekend ensured that programmes were finally agreed. Neil’s recce visit also ensured that room allocations were agreed, coach drop-off points were sorted, the breakfast arrangements were booked and suggested places to eat lunch were prospected.

Kirbys Coach Company, our go-to coach provider over many years, advised us, only just over a week before we were due to depart, that we could no longer park at their Princess Road Depot. What? We’ve ALWAYS parked there. We looked for alternatives, couldn’t find any, had a minor foot-stamp with Kirbys and, as it turned out, agreed enough parking spaces at their Depot to allow those who couldn’t find alternative transport to park there. Well done and thanks to those who made their own transport arrangements and relieved the pressure on the limited parking at Kirbys.

Neil had sent out the final version of the Itinerary.

The second page of which included further details and the two programmes for the two concerts. (Huntingdon and St Edmundsbury’s pieces on the programmes were what was sent to us. St Edmundsbury’s changed after their MD understood the format of the concert).

Day 1. Our coach driver, Dave, was washing the coach when Neil arrived early, commented that it was far too early (NOT a good start!) but then having realised, because of where Neil was travelling from that it made sense, became far friendlier! A friendly Coach Driver is always a bonus.

The rest of us arrived and by 11.00 am we were all there. Three members had chosen to drive independently. A fairly straightforward journey to Huntingdon. Some members enjoyed the free chocolates, some were converted to the delights of dried apple slices. Several members got involved in operationalising our new AED (portable defibrillator). We actually resorted to reading the Manual!

The weather wasn’t exactly inviting when we arrived at Huntingdon for our ‘main meal of the day’ lunch break. But, hey, it was an opportunity we had to take.

Groups and individuals wandered off to use a variety of eateries. Some visited the Cromwell Museum. Small but interesting.

Possibly a bit too much time for this break, but we’d wanted to allow for hold-ups enroute, but nevertheless wanted to be at our hotel at 3.00 pm.

A call to the Manager at the Premier Inn at Brampton Hut Services confirmed that they were ready for us and that we could arrive before 3.00 pm without a £10 per person supplement!!!

Our excellent coach driver Dave drove us to the door of the Premier Inn and check-ins started. And in a short time finished. The Manager of the Premier Inn reckoned that this was the fastest a group the size of ours had ever been checked in! Result! A couple of hours in our rooms (well, apart from those who ventured out to McDonalds and Greggs; or got called to deal with minor emergencies in the hotel).

The rooms were what we expected. Predictable and reliable.

No complaints (well, the Tour Organiser was heard to complain that the jacuzzi in his room was a bit on the hot side!).

Then it was time to assemble to leave for our first concert of the Tour, at St Mary’s Church, Godmanchester. Time for a group photo. There were several attempts to get the whole party and even the whole Tour choir in a pic!

A quick hop to Godmanchester, via Huntingdon, and Driver Dave dropped us off at the end of the lane to the church. A quick trip into the Church Hall to check where the toilets were, then into the church to sort out seating and staging. And where we were to stand since Huntingdon stand in a different formation than LOMVC. The plan had been that we’d rehearse first, then rehearse jointly with Huntingdon and then we’d have a bit of free time. Sadly, the message hadn’t got through and we had to wait for them to rehearse a few pieces before we got to have our turn. Jan seemed satisfied. Then we rehearsed the second of the joint items, the one that Jan was to conduct.

We rehearsed the ons and offs and we rehearsed with our Tea Lights for ‘Love Shine a Light’. Not sure everyone got the message that at the very end we hold our light against our hearts Thankfully we have three qualified First Aiders who know where the heart is!

All of the plans were working pretty well.

That was until we had to move around on the stage to rehearse the other joint piece. Barry lost his footing, fell against the edge of one of the risers and skinned his shin. Lots of blood. Instant attention by several helpful members of both choirs, including our three qualified First Aiders! But no First Aid kit. Alternatives to bandages were found and pressure applied to reduce the bleeding. An assessment was made that an ambulance was needed. An ambulance was called. Members of Huntingdon MVC warned that it could take hours and suggested that we take Barry to hospital. But even the slightest movement was painful for Barry so getting him to, and into, a taxi was out of the question. Time moved on. The start time of the concert was getting closer. A further call was made by Neil to the emergency services. Ambulance Service: Is the patient in the same condition? Neil: Well, potentially he is going downhill. Ambulance Service: Is he still conscious? Neil: Well, maybe he is becoming less coherent. Ambulance Service: Does he need more immediate attention? Neil: Yes, I think he does. Thankfully they upgraded the status of the call to a ‘Blues and Twos’ and an ambulance would be with us ‘as soon as they have one free’. What to do? The start time of the concert was now very fast approaching. We can’t move Barry. We won’t be able to start the concert with a casualty on stage. With some relief blue flashing lights appeared and two helpful (young!) ambulance people arrived, assessed Barry (who, correctly, told a very different story about how he was feeling, contradicting the one Neil had told ‘Control’!) and eventually put him on a stretcher and took him off, with Pam accompanying him, to hospital.

The decision was made, agreed by both MDs, that, given the issue of climbing onto and from the risers, the choirs would perform on the flat, not on the risers. That message didn’t seem to get through to everyone!

We assembled in our ‘audience’ seats and, with a pretty good audience in their seats

Huntingdon marched on to that fading applause we know so well if we do it. Enthusiastic applause to start off with as the first choir members appear, but fading as more and more choristers move onto the stage, the last ones receiving no applause at all.

As is the convention with Male Voice Choir Concerts, the host choir goes first. Huntingdon sang four pieces, maybe two of which many of us recognised, although none in our repertoire. Of course, as we were to follow them, and were interested in how we compare to them. Any responses that can be inserted here, Leigh Orpheus Members?

Unlike so many Male Voice Choir Concerts these days Huntingdon had someone who introduced their pieces. Maybe a step too far to call them a Compere as what they did mainly was to read what was in the programme anyway. But he took up time between some of the pieces.

Huntingdon having finished their set it was changeover time. They went off down the nave of the church, to eventually arrive back at the seats we’d been occupying, and we went on the short way.

Jan introduced our first piece of this set – ‘Praise My Soul’. It worked well for the acoustic in the church. Then on to ‘Siyahambe’. Did Jan move the dynamic around more than she usually does? We hung on in to her direction and seemed to finish with an accurate, impressive diminuendo. Next, demonstrating a very different style and different genre, ‘Love is all Around’. It seemed to work well.

Then some started fumbling around in their pockets. The pressure was on. We had to have our electric tea lights alight and ready for the chorus of ‘Love Shine a Light’, but without giving the game away to the audience. And we had to remember when to put our lights in the air. (oh yes, and we had to remember to sing our part). Thankfully not only was Jan going to indicate when we needed to have our lights in the air, she was also, for those who don’t know left from right, going to raise her left hand so that we mirrored her with our right hands. It should have worked well. We’d practised it at rehearsal for two weeks and in the main it worked.

It seemed that there were some quizzical faces in the audience as we performed. Some smiled. Maybe, for some it wasn’t what they expected at a Male Voice Choir concert? If so, good! We want audience members to notice us, and remember us. We don’t want to be seen as ‘run of the mill’, ordinary, singers in a Male Voice Choir.

The attention of the choir on Jan was maintained as we sang ‘Unchained Melody’. (Doesn’t Dave usually conduct that piece?). Meaning that we didn’t stay in ‘automatic’ and did (mainly) what Jan required. Sadly one or two (no names) went their own way, not looking at Jan and what she wanted. Or even worse, looking at Jan but nevertheless singing in automatic (as well, potentially, as singing the tune rather than the Sectional part.) It lets everyone down.

At the end of ‘Unchained Melody’ Jan turned to talk with the audience. For many this was the clue to prepare for what was coming next. Some stood aimlessly listening to Jan until nudged by a neighbour or moved by a sudden recognition that as the next piece was ‘Song of the Jolly Roger’ that meant ‘Pirate Accessories’. By the time Jan turned back round many had donned their accessory; after a while more had. We started and made a creditable job of the piece.

There were a couple of strange interpretations of what a ‘pirate accessory’ was…..!

Nearly at the end of the first half of the concert with the joint piece to end it. The incident earlier meant that we hadn’t rehearsed this jointly at all. And it was the Huntingdon MD, Leanne, who was to conduct. We shuffled into our new places so that we would be in Huntingdon’s format, and they joined us. What could possibly go wrong?!! Well actually, whereas there were several things that could have gone wrong, nothing did. It worked well. Even the ending.

The interval. No special refreshments for the choirs, but joining the long queue with the audience. And it involved WINE!

The start of the second half. Neil had decided that we would informally take our places on stage rather than do the Walk of Hope, in line, through the nave of the church, with fading applause.

‘You Raise me Up’ was first. A bit high risk as everyone in the church must know this piece. However, not necessarily the arrangement we sing. Kay’s delicate introduction draws everyone, audience and choir, into the piece. We sang it well. They liked it. Result.

Then on with another change of genre to the spiritual ‘Angels Watching Over Me’ where, as Jan explained to the audience, the tune gets taken up, unusually, by each of the four sections of the choir. It seemed to go down well.

Our final solo piece. Part of the ‘Back to the 60s’ Medley. That got some feet tapping and met with generous applause. Hardly surprising as, looking round the audience, it was their era!

Huntingdon were then back on. Their ‘Tea for Two’ was clever, although unless you had excellent hearing it was difficult to hear the clever interjections. Three of their next four pieces are known to us. ‘The Water of Tyne’ is in our repertoire but it’s along time since we sang it. Huntingdon did it justice. Similarly ‘Anthem’ from the show ‘Chess’. We’ve sung a different arrangement, with a solo at the start. Some of us felt that we do it better! Their ‘Cavatina’ was one we recognised but hadn’t sung.

Then on to ‘We are the Champions’. We know this back to front, top to bottom, inside out. To be fair they made quite a good job of it, but unless it sounds very different to the audiences in front, we do it better! (even if someone does think it’s a jazz piece…!)

A few words of thanks from the Huntingdon Chairman. Some could hear what he said. Then we went back on to join Huntingdon in singing ‘The Mansions of the Lord’. Many forget that we were not supposed to be on the staging! We’d all rehearsed this with Jan earlier and Huntingdon had quickly picked upon our variation (humming the first verse after singing it and before the second verse). The audience liked it. It was the end to a great joint concert.

But the evening wasn’t over yet. It was now time for the Afterglow which was to take place in The Comrades Club. It wasn’t far enough for us to have got the coach back, but was a bit challenging for some to walk there.

But was it worth getting there?! You bet! One of the Huntingdon choir had said that the buffet would beat us. And it did!  What a generous, varied spread of food. No worries about LOMVC getting in first while Huntingdon did their packing away of the staging and so on. There was loads left when they arrived. Even John Riddle stopped going up for more!

To mark our thanks to Huntingdon MVC for hosting us we presented them with a Certificate of Appreciation. Here’s Chairman Graham doing the honours:

Singing together, and often each choir demonstrating one or two of their best ‘afterglow’ pieces, are at the core of a good Afterglow. And, what do you know, it was Leanne, the Huntingdon MD, who started things off. And of course a number of pieces followed. Of varying quality and participation. But the main thing was that it was a lovely atmosphere, drinking, relaxing and singing together.

Of course, throughout the concert and the Afterglow we’d been seeking updates on Barry’s progress. Pam was keeping the pressure on. She must have taken a leaf out of Neil’s book. Whereas he’d, successfully as it turned out, managed to make Barry’s condition so serious that we actually got an ambulance to come to him, Pam was at the hospital with Barry, telling them that they should hurry up and treat him as there was a coachful of choir members waiting for them so that they could return to Southend! (she didn’t mention ‘in a day’s time’!)

With the Afterglow seeming to come to an end our coach driver responded to Neil’s call and came and collected us to take us back to the Premier Inn. And much later Barry was treated and he and Pam came back to the Premier Inn by taxi to arrive at about 1.30 am.

Day Two of the tour.  We’d negotiated breakfast 30 mins either side of 8.30 am. Apparently some hadn’t eaten enough at the buffet the previous evening, and were there for breakfast even earlier. (no names……!). But there was plenty of time, a fairly relaxed packing of coach, and the traditional singing to the staff.

Here’s a snippet of ‘My Lord’.

Then off to Newmarket. The sweets came round again (as did the dried apple slices, gaining popularity) and time for a bit of relaxing and personal reflection.

Although the church we were to sing at (another St Mary’s) was not far from the main street in Newmarket we didn’t want anyone to have to struggle to get to the church. So, our lovely coach driver Dave dropped us off in the High Street so that we could head off for some lunch. And he’d come back at 12.35 to collect those who needed a lift to the church.

Others chose to walk to the church and wait for the main group.

Very similar to yesterday, St Edmundsbury started their rehearsal – in fact they were rehearsing when we arrived – and we politely waited for them to finish. Not that that was a problem as it was interesting to hear them sing, especially for those of us hearing them under a new conductor.

We then rehearsed ‘Rhythm of Life’ together. We’d hardly started before we were stopped. Leslie, their MD, wasn’t having it. We were rushing. It was out of his control. We rehearsed a few starts and started again. Much better.

We rehearsed the other Joint piece, ‘Morte Christe’ which Jan was to conduct. All good. And this time we adjusted the On and Offs so that we sat in one set of pews, St Edmundsbury sat in a set on the opposite side of the church, and when it was either choir’s turn they simply went up onto the stage from where they were sitting. And back to their original seats when they’d finished. It worked fairly well. Would have been even better from a Leigh Orpheus point of view if some could have remembered where to return to after the interval!

With a moderate audience having arrived the concert started at 2.00 pm. A short welcome from a member of the church and St Edmundsbury got underway. They didn’t stick to what they’d indicated they would sing. (has anyone made a note of what they sang and in what order?). We certainly knew several of them and it was interesting to hear the different interpretations.

Unsurprisingly they sounded good!

Then it was our turn. They went off Stage Right and we came on Stage Left. Simple. Barry and Mac and one or two others were placed, for safety, on the floor; no risks of falls being taken.

Our set seemed to roll on quite well. We were clearly singing some pieces St Edmundsbury knew. But our audience possibly didn’t. Both were generous in their applause. ‘Praise My Soul’, followed by ‘Siyahambe’. There were maybe a few eyebrows raised when we sang that as many MVCs sing it within a medley of three pieces which include a version of Nkosi Sikelel’I Africa.                                                

On to ‘Love is all Around’ and then ‘Love Shine a Light’ with no lights! ‘Unchained Melody’ and yes, this time we were all primed and ready. When Jan turns round to talk to the audience it’s our cue to put our Pirate Accessories on. And this time we did! Not sure that everyone was pleased – just check out the next picture!

At least the parrot seemed to feel it was ok!

St Edmundsbury came back to join us for the joint item at the end of the set – ‘Morte Christe’ conducted by Jan. Again, it worked. Jan seemed pleased. And so do the audience!

Time for the interval. Another long queue and a wait for kettles to boil. But plenty of biscuits. And time for some of us to catch up with Paul Lloyd. Originally a member of the Leigh Orpheus, and an occasional return visitor to our events, Paul is now a long-term member of St Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir.

Then we were back on for our last set of this Tour. We were very familiar with it, as with the first half, having performed it at Godmanchester the previous evening. ‘Angels’, ‘Mansions’ and ‘60s’! All seemed to work well and earned justified applause.

We exited to our pews and St Eds came back on to sing their final set. ‘Every Time I Feel the Spirit’, ‘What a Wonderful World’, ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’. We recognised all three either having sung them, or just knowing them. St Ed’s next piece has since been the source of some very different views ‘One Day Like This’ by Elbow. A modern piece. They seemed to like singing it. Some of us liked hearing it. One of us sings it with another male choir. Others felt it was just not a male voice choir piece. Oh well. You can’t please all of the people all of the time!

Then, for the last time for this Tour, back on stage for the final piece. Their conductor, Leslie, introduced it.

And then turned and smiled at us with a smile that must have meant ‘just behave yourselves and do what I direct; remember what I said earlier’. Yep, he’d made a fair point. So we concentrated on him.

And it felt like it went pretty well. Here’s the video:

Jan and Kay are of course key parts of any concert. Poor Kay has to head off on her own to the piano or keyboard, get her piano stool ready, and be ready to play either under Jan or another MD’s direction. And sometimes, as in ‘Rhythm’, four-handed with someone she’s never played with before!

It’s a lonely life! Kay does us proud! 

But after ‘Rhythm’ then it was all over!! Some slight embarrassment about whether or not we should get off the stage (which we had occupied fully!). Maybe the fact that there were so many handshakes, warm words and ‘goodbyes’ from our St Eds Bothers in Song should have clued us up to the fact that many weren’t staying for the Afterglow.

But we did! Over to the church hall next to the church and we put out a few chairs. Then we put out some more. And more. Some food arrived and we politely took our modest shares. The homemade cake went pdq. To be honest, kind as it was for St Edmundsbury to put on an Afterglow for us, it was a fairly low-key affair. But nevertheless appreciated as many of us were ready for a bit of afternoon tea before we left.

Again, as is tradition, our Chairman Graham presented their Chairman Ian with our Certificate of Appreciation and warm words were exchanged in both directions.

Chairs started being put away and soon afterwards Neil announced that the coach would be out on the road in five minutes’ time. We wasted no time in heading to the toilets and out to the coach.

A straightforward journey across to the A14, down the Mll, round the M25 and along the 127. Chocs and apple slices on the way. And there were even seconds. A whip round for the coach driver, words of thanks. And then we were home. Much earlier than we had expected. But there were no complaints.

Thankfully, everyone’s lifts either arrived, or arrangements were made to give lifts, and within a few minutes Kirbys’ depot was empty!

Some lovely, after-the-weekend, feedback from the Huntingdon MD Leanne:

We had a most enjoyable concert and evening together, especially once we knew that Barry was in good hands and getting the right treatment! I'm so glad to hear he was able to sing the next day.

We really enjoyed your sets and my guests were fans of the 60s numbers in particular!

Jan and Kay were lovely to work with, and the choirs followed the joint items admirably with virtually no rehearsal. Thanks to Neil and Hugh for all the prior communications regarding arrangements which meant things could run so smoothly once you arrived.

I'm sure we would greatly enjoy visiting you, and no doubt our committee will put the idea to the choir and be in touch.

All best wishes,

And some great feedback on Facebook

Thank you for two excellent concerts.

A highly successful mini concert tour for LOMVC. Great music and good fun. 

Photos and videos: Jo, Pam, Irene and Neil

Chris and Jo's Report

A PERSONAL VIEW FROM A ‘NEW’ MEMBER AND HIS PARTNER

I have to admit that when I was told about the tour I was a little unsure what to expect, but having experienced it myself and my partner Jo are both very happy that we decided to venture forth.

When we first saw the itinerary, it was obvious that a great deal of time and trouble had been taken in the planning with time allowed for any delays that might be incurred during the thirty-one hours we would be away. As it turned out we had no delays and the whole tour ran on schedule.

We left Kirbys coach park on time at 1100 and arrived Huntingdon at 1300 and by then I was already ‘addicted’ to the dried apple slices that were given out on the journey.

Just under two hours were allocated to look round Huntingdon and to have lunch.

Jo, and Brian’s wife Sue, decided on a bit of retail therapy. Brian and I opted to sample some of the local history at the Thomas Cromwell Museum. Brian took time to dress up as a roundhead. I have always been a bit of a royalist but sadly there were no Cavalier hats to try on.

We all met up for a bite to eat then it was back to the coach and our trip to the hotel.

The Premier Inn at Brampton was our destination, and check-in was very efficiently handled. The room was good although rumours soon spread that Neil had managed to get a jacuzzi in his room 😊.

Before departure for St Mary’s Church at Godmanchester Neil took advantage of the opportunity for photos of the choir. Jo was asked to take some pictures so that Neil could appear in them, she continued to do this throughout the tour and quite enjoyed the involvement.

Then we were all off to the church – nothing like a church venue in my opinion and the acoustics were very good.

There was time for practice, and it was during this, unfortunately, that Barry McGee suffered an injury to his leg when climbing up one step on the staging. Several first aiders came to his rescue and efforts were undertaken to stem the flow of blood. It was decided that an ambulance was required and so we waited, and time approached for the concert to start.

The ambulance arrived at 1925 so once Barry was off to hospital, accompanied by Pam, the concert began.

A most enjoyable concert with two joint songs with Huntingdon Male Voice Choir and us singing songs that due to diligence of Jan our musical director and Kay our pianist (all credit to them) we felt we performed well.

Our ever popular rendition of the Jolly Roger went down really well with the audience and as can be seen from the photograph I had the ‘honour’ of performing next to Elvis and even Father Christmas had taken time off to appear.

Love Shine a Light was performed where the choir managed mostly to combine the singing with the requirement to produce a ‘lit’ candle during certain parts of the song

After the concert it was time for the ‘Afterglow’ something we had not experienced before. We were amazed when we arrived in the church hall seeing the spread of food that Huntingdon had laid on and all members of both choirs used their best endeavours to devour what was on offer. After considerable effort by all we nearly managed it, but a truly magnificent variety of food from Huntingdon which was greatly appreciated – can we go back next year please?

Both choirs also gave renditions of some of their favourite songs, this was carried out in a seated position after the long day and the amount of food recently consumed.

It was then time to return to the hotel for a well deserved rest.

Next morning we were all up for breakfast and in spite of the vast quantity of food supplied by Huntingdon the night before a number of members managed to go for the ‘fully english’.

Prior to departure from the hotel members gathered at the reception area to sing for the hotel staff before departure. It was most pleasing to see Barry there having returned from hospital late the night before.

Leaving the hotel, we arrived in Newmarket just before 1100 where there was time for lunch if needed and a walk around the town. Newmarket is famous for its horse racing museum, unfortunately staff there said the tour would take at least three hours so that was impossible to do with the time constraints.

We all gathered at Saint Mary’s Church in Newmarket ready for some practice with St Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir. After Barry’s experience the night before all members were paying particular care when moving around the stage.

The concert started at 1400 and was well attended. Our performance was the same as the night before and seemed to go down very well with the audience. For the performance of the Jolly Roger I noticed that Elvis was ‘still in the building’ but Father Christmas had obviously been called back to Lapland as he was nowhere to be seen.

Several members remarked that the performance of One Day Like This by St Edmundsbury choir stood out and it was hoped that Leigh Orpheus could add that to their repertoire.

At 1630, after the concert we all gathered at the church hall for the Afterglow. The amount of food was far less than the night before but probably after last night’s fayre and the breakfast in the morning, appetites seemed to have reduced and so the amount of food on offer was adequate.

The other part of the Afterglow – the singing – never seemed to happen – not quite sure why and so we departed early at 1730 and returned to Kirby’s coach park in Rayleigh around 1915

Our thoughts after the tour – extremely enjoyable, very well organised and a memorable experience.

We are both looking forward to the next tour whenever it can be arranged!

Chris and Jo

The Leigh Orpheus Autumn Concert. St Augustine's Church, 22nd September.

We are pleased to be developing a good relationship with St Augustine’s, with this being our third year there for our Autumn Concert. It’s an opportunity to try to attract audience members in the far east of our patch. Taking on board comments about travelling in the dark, clashes with ‘high profile’ TV programmes like ‘Strictly’ and so on, and the fact that for an afternoon concert we wouldn’t need the heating on, we opted for a Sunday afternoon performance. Just to see if it would work. In retrospect we might have made it a bit later in the afternoon, although the friendly Rev Dave reported that an afternoon musical event a couple of weeks before, at 4pm, was a disaster. Not sure what to do next year!

We’d had the promotional materials available for a while, and as usual our members were exhorted to take posters and flyers.

 And to ‘like’, ’comment’ and ‘share’ our Facebook posts.

Which ever ways we were trying to attract ticket sales they weren’t working! And it didn’t help that the Vicar circulated the wrong date in his Newsletter! By the date of the concert we probably had more choir members taking part than audience members. And that would be a shame, partly because it is much nicer to sing to a full-capacity audience, and also because loyal and supportive members had brought in oodles of raffle prizes. It was noted that many of the prizes contained alcohol. Some interpreted this as meaning that lots of Leigh Orpheus members drink a lot of alcohol. Another interpretation we tried to promote was that it was their AVOIDANCE of alcohol that mean they were bringing it in as raffle prizes. Yeah right! Anyway, thanks to those who brought in raffle prizes.

We’d done the usual rehearsing for the items we were to sing, although some hung on to their copies, during rehearsals, never seeming to try without copies, We all had our best and worst pieces.

The day arrived. Zed and Neil arrived in order to get the venue ready for the concert. Plenty of furniture-moving but everything was ready in good time for the rehearsing/sound-checking. And ‘ons and offs’. We are getting there! Maybe it was that the right people were there that there was a critical mass of those who understood what to do? Who knows? We must build on that!

There was time for a choir pic for publicity purposes. We need to continue to build on our stocks of choir pics so that the ones we use don’t become stale.

Jan had planned an eclectic range of music and the programme included two soloists from amongst the choir members and a duet from the Music Team.                

Thankfully, as 2.00pm approached, the queue of people entering the church contained many who hadn’t yet bought tickets. That was quickly rectified and the audience numbers doubled.

A warm welcome from the Rev Dave and we were off. What better way to start the afternoon’s concert than with Isaac Watts’ ‘Morte Christe’! It worked well and felt appropriate in the fine acoustic of St Augustine’s.

Neil mumbled that he’d gone to the same school as Isaac Watts but thankfully no one heard him. (was he in the same School Year!? Ouch!). (However, it really is true that Neil went to the same school as Isaac Watts -  but they were 279 years apart).

Next, Dave took over to conduct  ‘My Lord What a Morning’. Because Dave takes the piece in his own style we potentially all pay more attention to his conducting – making the piece precise.

Then back to Jan for ‘Softly as I Leave You’ followed by ‘Alexanders Ragtime Band’. Several of us still seemed surprised at the repeats, despite Jan making them so clear. However, the audience didn’t have copies of the music and probably didn’t notice. There was many a foot  tapping,

Next, the first solo with Jim singing ‘The Vagabond’. He claimed it wasn’t about him. He also almost broke his own record for making his spoken introduction longer than the sung piece.

The Leigh Orpheus’s second set started with ‘Unchained Melody’ written by Alex North for the film ‘Unchained’ (which is where the song got its name from) and although recorded by several artists, made famous by The Righteous Brothers in 1965. Some of us remember!!

‘Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill’ was next. Another piece where sectional parts intersperse with each other more than usual. The first time that this one has been out in public since, potentially, 2013 when we sang it at the Cornwall International Male Voice Choir Competition. (from memory we came 4^th in our Section of the competition) (probably fair to mention that there were only 5 choirs in our section…!) It worked pretty well and there was extra applause when Jan announced that this was the first time this piece had been sung by the Leigh Orpheus for a long time. Then the Katrina and the Waves piece ‘Love Shine a Light’.

Time for another solo and this time our own Paul Robeson, Harry, one of the bass-est of the Basses, sang ‘I Got Plenty of Nuttin’ from the folk opera ‘Porgy and Bess’. Hearing Harry sing is like eating a teaspoon of Nutella! (well, for one of us it is!)

Finally for the first half of the concert we returned to sing a selection of songs from a ‘Back to the 60s’. Someone in the choir asked why it was ‘back’?

Time for the Interval. The dubious accolade given to Zed (we’re so grateful he was willing) was to lead the audience to the toilets in the Church Hall along the road. Meanwhile in the church Rev Dave and a parishioner were serving hot drinks and some very nice biscuits. And true to form, one choir member was constantly circulating along the biscuits – not even having paid for anything. Hmmm, not cricket.

David Duell (who just thought he had come to transport Kay but was invaluable selling tickets) and Pam were looking after the raffle. The raffle tables were sagging with the 28 prizes – which included mainly worthwhile items although some ticket-buyers were desperately hoping that they didn’t get the cast off that they’d donated! But feel a warm glow if you donated a raffle prize(s)! The concert itself made a loss of £2.36. Unsurprising given the relatively low turn out – but much better than had been expected 30 minutes before the start. But the willingness of audience and choir members to buy tickets (6 tickets for the price of 5 always works!) meant that the raffle raised a very health £298. Meaning that we made a modest profit. Lucky we didn’t need the heating on – that would have halved the profit.

We opened our second set with ‘The Mansions of the Lord’. Another piece written for and made famous by a film – this one ‘We Were Soldiers’. Angels were involved in the next piece too – ‘Angels Watching Over Me’. Next, a fairly recent addition to the Leigh Orpheus’s repertoire – Jerome Kern’s ‘The Way You Look Tonight’. The audience appreciated this clever piece. And we made a pretty good job of it, given that it’s one that we’re not used to.

Then Dave took to the podium for ‘Stand By Me’. We stood by his conducting.

Time for another break from the choir’s singing. This time a duet with Kay Duell and Jan playing a Brahms piano piece written for four hands – Walzer No 15. Charming. Was it at this concert that they’d had to change the piece they played because the original piece had a significant note in it that didn’t work on the church piano? (no, it wasn’t!)

Then another Leigh Orpheus set – ‘You Raise Me Up’, followed by ‘Flying Free’ - with accompanist Kay skilfully playing both the piano part and the flute part (on the piano, not on a flute).

Next one of our favourites (well, favourites for some). Smiles from the audience who recognised the discordant starting notes of BoRhap and gazed in amazement as we journeyed through the complex piece. More applause.

Next, a somewhat unusual format for the next piece. Not sure why we don’t do more like thi?  Jim sang ‘Homeward Bound’ (no, not the Simon and Garfunkel one) with Jan discretely  directing us, in our seats in the choir stalls, into us singing the choruses. It felt like it worked well,

Then Dave took the (figurative) baton again, and Jan and Kay played four-handed (the way it is written to be played) another Leigh Orpheus favourite - ‘Rhythm of Life’. It danced along! More toe-tapping.

Eyes down on the raffle tickets then as the winning numbers were announced. Twenty eight lucky people knew that they had won a prize. But they wouldn’t know what it was until they collected their prize on the way out.

Almost to end the concert, and appropriately, as we started with a Male Voice Choir classic so did we end - with ‘Christus Salvator’. Those Amens at the end!

Finally some words of thanks from Chairman Graham to those who had ensured that this concert was another great success – especially through the presence of our lovely audience – and it was time to go.

But that felt abrupt. What could we turn to that would work easily? An excellent choice by Jan - ‘Siyahambe’. More applause.

A great concert with some excellent feedback:

Well done LOMVC. You cheered us up on a stormy afternoon. Great soloists and pianists. Such talent.

Was a great concert with brilliant solo performances from Harry and Jim. Well done lads, Janet and Kay! XLx

Looking great gents..! Can't wait so sing with you again..! (Stevenage Ladies Choir)

Ted Cockerton’s Funeral. Basildon and District Crematorium. Tuesday, 10^th September 2024

As is often the case we’d been asked to sing at a late member’s funeral. Today it was our Brother in Song Ted Cockerton who we were to say goodbye to. The service was led by Mark Cozens, the Major in charge at our rehearsal venue, The Salvation Army Temple in Hadleigh.

Most of us arrived early. The previous funeral had started late so the pressure was on to get in and get sorted asap. This we did, efficiently filling the first two pews in our usual T2:T1: Bari:Bass format. Thankfully the keyboard, borrowed from the Temple, worked and the copy of ‘You Raise Me Up’ Neil had on a USB stick in his pocket wasn’t needed.

With the mourners in position – about as many of them as there were of us - Ted’s coffin was brought in.

The service progressed, with the Leigh Orpheus giving some useful support to the singing of the hymn ‘Love Divine, all Loves Excelling’. We’d practiced singing it at our last rehearsal. Some eulogies and then it was time for us to sing. We faced Ted’s coffin and sang a piece he would have sung with us on many occasions. You Raise Me Up. Kay accompanied and we moved through the piece with practicaly no conducting.

A short, but appropriate service. It somehow felt appropriate that we were in our formal uniform and the two pictures of Ted were of him in Leigh Orpheus uniform too.

Rest in peace Ted.

Hadleigh Community Summer Fayre.  John Burrows Playing Field. Sunday,  1^st September 2024.

We had a stall at this event last year and it seemed to attract the attention of a number of local guys. So, we thought we’d do it again, this year also singing in the main arena so that people would know what we sound like. And just to ensure that the Leigh Orpheus name is out there

Several of us (well, let’s name names: Mac, Barry, Peter Gardiner and Neil) were up at silly-o-clock  (or in Neil’s case even earlier) to get all of the kit onsite – the gazebo on loan from another charity – and the sound equipment for our performance in the afternoon.

We’d learned how to put the gazebo up last year so that wasn’t too difficult. What was difficult was, despite heavy weights weighing the corners down, stopping the wind from moving the gazebo. Another early arriver helpfully headed off to get some tent pegs. In the meantime we found that we could use a number of screwdrivers from Neil’s conveniently-parked car to ‘screw’ the legs down to the ground. Worked well.

The fine motor skills needed to pin posters and flyers to the gazebo challenged some of us, but with a bit of determination and a lot of cajoling the gazebo was branded with LOMVC literature. Time to sit down and reflect on our work.

The Fayre opened with the sun shining and with the first guys on the rota turning up to staff our stand. John Stack, as usual, gave a number of brilliant demonstrations of how to attract interest in LOMVC.

The rota for each session worked well with Leigh Orpheus members turning up on time and even early for their session. It all settled down well.

Thankfully nobody told the police that John Stack was approaching young children and offering them sweets. But to be fair, he was checking with the parents first and it was one of his several ways of engaging with the dads!

Other Leigh Orpheus members started arriving, ready for the afternoon performance and, as we do, we enjoyed each other’s company. Our red waistcoats certainly stand out.

Time for a couple of pics that we can add to our file of potential publicity pictures.

Then it was time to make our way to the main arena to sing. Not a lot of time to get our keyboard connected to their sound system and no time to do a proper sound check. Just one more pic before we sang.

Dave conducted as we sang the selection that Jan had prepared. Some audience members were seen singing along. Others reported that they couldn’t hear us. Jan said that she couldn’t hear the keyboard she was playing. To be fair it wasn’t our finest half hour. But the main thing is that we were there and people were aware of the range of music we sing.

Most then went home. Some stayed to help pack away.

Will we go next year? Who knows?

Colin Brown’s Funeral.  Pitsea Crematorium. Tuesday 23^rd July 2024.

Colin Brown had been one of the most long-term, committed, loyal and passionate members of the Leigh Orpheus. A well-respected musician he had taught music to choir members, conducted the choir, arranged pieces as well as being on the Leigh Orpheus Committee and serving as Treasurer. Colin’s progressive Parkinson’s disease over 20 years had forced him to have to leave the choir. We’d awarded him the status of ‘Life Member’.

We knew that Colin had been moved into a care home. We didn’t know he was terminally ill and we almost missed his funeral! A technical glitch meant that messages from Colin’s daughter and from the undertaker had not got through on the Concert Manager phone (not sure why they hadn’t tried any other numbers or emailed). We learned about the funeral two days before it was due to occur. Luckily as Neil was on his way to the Priory Park bandstand where we were at least able to forewarn members. Of course, as soon as word got round, knowing of Colin’s history with the Leigh Orpheus, many wanted to attend and sing at Colin’s funeral.

In just two days all was put in place We knew that again we would have an unbalanced choir with more B1s and B2s than T1s and T2s and learning from the previous funeral we knew that ‘Angels Watching Over Me’ could work.

The Concert Manager nearly experienced a heart attack the night before the funeral when a committee member phoned him and told him that we were going to the funeral of the wrong person! Chinese whispers didn’t help and this rumour spread. The committee member was adamant and gave several convincing reasons why it wasn't Colin Brown's funeral! Despite the Concert Manager having spoken with the family and with the undertaker, and knowing that they had referred to COLIN Brown there could be no room for doubt. A rather delicate call was made to Colin Brown’s daughter and it was confirmed, indeed, that it was her father’s funeral we were singing at the following day. Phew! (please don’t do that again Mr S!).

As we routinely do when a choir member dies, we’d posted the news on our choir Facebook page. The responses were impressive:

We have to report the sad news that Life Member of the Leigh Orpheus, Colin Brown, passed away on Wednesday. A previous Treasurer and committee member, occasional conductor, music-arranger and long-time supporter of the choir Colin will be missed by all who knew him.

Our thoughts are with Colin's family. Rest in Peace dear friend

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Sad news Colin was a true gentleman. Always listened and gave good advice. He will be missed by all choir members

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That is such very sad news. As a fellow baritone I often sat next to Colin and came to appreciate his impressive musical ability and knowledge. More than that I enjoyed his company. A lovely man.

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He will be sadly missed. I attended the music tutorials he organised with Peter Dunhill at Rayleigh. They helped us to read music. RIP Colin, the Choir especially the Baritones will miss you.

Voices of the Valley - The Fron Male Voice Choir 

 From our choir to yours, from Wales to England, we send our most sincere condolences on the departure of your friend and brother-in-song. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Colin was just a wonderful human being and one of the nicest kindest souls you could ever wish to meet. A huge supporter of LOMVC over the years and always the voice of reason. RIP my friend

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So sad. Colin was not only talented but had inspiring integrity. Huge respect! RIP Colin.

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Sincere condolences to family and friends from "fellow" choir members at Newquay Male Voice Choir, Cornwall. R. I. P.

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Very sad to hear, he was such a pleasant man and musically talented. May he rest in peace  please accept our condolences 

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So sorry to hear this Colin was always good to talk to such a nice person 

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Such a great person

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Sad new indeed, RIP Colin.

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Very sad Colin taught me to read music

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RIP

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Colin was one of the nicest people I have met

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Music was so important in Colin’s life, and he brought it to the lives of others; sharing, helpful and always with a kind word. A life well lived. He leaves a large void and will be greatly missed.

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One of the nicest, kindest people I have ever met. Rest in peace dear friend xLx

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A lovely man in many ways RIP Colin

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So sorry to hear this.

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A brave and lovely man. My heart goes out to his family. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

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Sad sad news. Colin was a stalwart of the choir, a very friendly man, and he is sadly missed.

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Sorry to hear this, on behalf of the Chelmsford Male Voice Choir, please pass on our condolences to his family.

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Colin was a decent man and an excellent musician. He will be missed.

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Such a lovely man also his wife rip

The second funeral in five days, an impressive number of choir members, especially given the short notice, turned up at Pitsea Crematorium.

As soon as the previous funeral was over we got in for positioning and a sound check. Again there were compromises, again Jan had to stand at her keyboard, just out of the way of the where the pall bearers and mourners would need to walk.

Strangely, there was a bit of down time before the funeral started,

Then at 1.30 pm the funeral started. Colin’s coffin was caried in to ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’ from Handel’s Messiah.

After a welcome and a prayer by the celebrant from Rayleigh Baptist Church Paul Wheeler it was our turn. Again with Top Tenors being reminded to sing the tune we all gave ‘Angels Watching Over Me’ our best shot, in tribute to a former colleague and Leigh Orpheus family member.

A reading by Colin’s brother (SO recognisable as a family member), a reflection on the reading by the Rev Ricky Rew and then the Commital, with Colin’s coffin being left on view during the Blessing. The Hallelujah chorus was played as mourners left and paid their final respects to Colin.

Here’s a completely unprompted Facebook post after the funeral from someone we don’t know, thanking us:

“Thanks you to you all. We attended Colin Browns funeral in Pitsea today and were very blessed and comforted by your singing.”

 We were also delighted to have the following feedback from Colin’s eldest daughter:

“Thank you Neil. It meant everything to us. The choir sounded lovely and when we heard the song it brought back a lot of memories as that was the song Dad would sing around the house all the time. Thank you again and for arranging so quickly.”

Job done!

Photos: Neil

The Leigh Orpheus at the Bandstand, Priory Park. 21^st July 2024.

We have mixed views about outdoor performances! Obviously, the acoustics often aren’t good. Generally things are less organised and less ‘controllable’. Factors we wouldn’t even think about indoors become seriously significant. On the other hand, they are likely to be ways by which we can reach people who possibly wouldn’t consider paying to come to one of our concerts. A promotion opportunity. A recruitment opportunity.

So, at several rehearsals we rehearsed the programme that Jan had planned for our Priory Park performance.

Full details were sent out. Uniform was to be suit trousers, white shirt, red waistcoat and red bowtie. There were mumblings about the need to wear the red bowtie. It was worn! (oh yes, and black shoes and socks, someome!)

Luckily for us the day dawned warm and fair. Luckier still for us (although some would say that it was nothing to do with luck and all to do with appropriate planning by the Concert Manager) we had access to our own private parking area. And yes, lucky for us that we’d been tipped off that, although we’d booked chairs for the stage and a PA system, that didn’t mean that they’d be ready for us. And indeed they weren’t! Huge thanks to Kay’s husband David, and to Leigh Orpheus members who pitched up early, for carrying the 45 chairs we needed from the shed to the Bandstand.

A few of us assembled our sound system. Involved in this was Zed who showed a concern that the running of the various cables could lead to accidents and efficiently taped cables down. We’ve got ourselves a new Health and Safety Officer!

Time for a quick photo opportunity, rehearsal and sound check. At last we managed to get a good publicity pic!

Well, in fact two publicity pics. This one, on our Facbook page, elicited 66 likes and 10 comments! The power of appropriate advertising and promotion.

At 3pm we kicked off with a quick welcome and then ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’. Not sure the audience were expecting that from a Male Voice Choir (despite the fact that they’d heard us rehearse it a few minutes earlier!). They seemed to warm to us. The weather warmed to us too – with a breeeze making merry with Kay’s music. Again thanks to David for coming forward to hold and turn the music. On through ‘Siyahambe’ and ‘Love is all around’ to ‘Love Shine a Light’ (which we did without lights). Dave then seemed surprised that he was to conduct ‘Unchained Melody’ (Dave – you always conduct ‘Unchained Melody’!!).

Next, an opportunity for us to sit down and enjoy a keyboard duet played by Jan and Kay. Not only is it fascinating watching Jan and Kay play (especially if you have a close up if you are holding the music) it’s also a selfless act on Jan and Kays part who get no break themselves in order to give us a break and a chance to sit down.

The first half of the ‘Back to the 60s’ medley had many audience members tapping their feet and singing along. There was little doubt how old most of them were!

Then it was a Dave solo which was not only a refreshing change but also gave us another break and changed the mood.

Our final two pieces of that set – ‘You Raise Me Up’ and ‘An American Trilogy’. The audience had settled down into their picnic-come-concert. The applause throughout had been warm and well-deserved.

Time for a break. We were already running over time and the time taken by some to have their break meant that we had to do some chopping of the next half. Out went ‘Gospel Medley’, we were straight into ‘Flying Free’. ‘Wellerman’ next. The audience liked it and joined in. Must have been the sea air coming up from the Prom. ‘The Song of the Jolly Roger’ was next. It was to be ’no accessories’ (Why? Because so many members give the game away by not disguising their accessory when they walk onto the stage or while they are singing other pieces!). But Kay’s parrot made an appearance and Jan kept us in order

Another solo by Dave gave us an opportunity to sit down again. Then ‘Softly’, the second half of ‘Back to the 60’s’. ‘BoRap’ and finally, sticking to the Queen theme, ‘We are The Champions’. The famous arm-waving was there, but clearly the amount of jazz-hands in the audience, as well as one in the choir, show that they really don’t know how to emulate the Live Aid audience of 1985!

A few words of thanks from Chairman Graham Halsey – who walked back and forth with the mic looking like he was introducing a song he was about to sing – and the show was over.

It had been a great performance with Jan commenting later “it was a lovely occasion with some high quality singing”

Thankfully several Leigh Orpheus members, despite having family members present in some cases, helped with the considerable amount of packing away. Then home for most, back to the safety of SafeStore for our sound system.

The response to our post on Facebook was even more enthusiastic and effusive than usual. Loads of ‘Likes’ and a number of lovely comments, typically:  “A relaxing and enjoyable afternoon sitting outside in warm weather listening to a great choir. Well done LOMVC. ”

 It was another great effort!

Photos: Neil

Maggie McGee’s Funeral. Southend Crematorium. 19^th July 2024.

There are probably none of us who actually want to go to a funeral. But duty called. Maggie, Secretary-of-the-choir Barry McGee’s wife, had been a long-term supporter of the Leigh Orpheus. She’d regularly been at our concerts, she’d been on tours with us. If there was a Leigh Orpheus event Maggie would be there. She was a lovely member of the Leigh Orpheus family. So, when Barry asked us to sing at her funeral we were pleased to answer the call.

Choosing a piece of music from our recent repertoire to sing at a funeral would be fairly easy if we had the full choir there. Selecting a piece that will work with a very unbalanced choir – more baritones and basses than tenors 1 and 2 -  was a different matter. Jan suggested, and Barry agreed, that we sing ‘Angels Watching Over Me’.

As usual we arrived early at the West Chapel of the Southend Crematorium. Twenty four of us. To the relief of many, despite the Details saying that the uniform was to be the full choir three-piece suit, it was a very hot day and waistcoats were not to be worn. We practiced standing in a place in the chapel where we wouldn’t be in the way and could, sort of, be in our usual formation, with Jan standing to play her portable, restricted length, keyboard. We rehearsed ‘Angels’ with the Top Tenors being reminded to sing the tune (which, after all, is the default setting for T1s!)

We were to sing as Maggie was brought into the Chapel, leading the mourners.  

And so it was, with enormous dignity Maggie’s coffin was carried into the chapel with mourners then filling the seats. Anticipating that this might take more than one round of ‘Angels’ Jan had briefed us that we might sing the first verse again at the end. We did so, meaning that ‘Angels’ worked perfectly to allow all of the mourners to be in position.

A celebrant led the non-religious service, talking about Maggie’s life. We learned so much that we wouldn’t otherwise have known. A beautiful photo-montage played to a perfect backing track and one of Maggie’s favourite pieces was played. The curtains came round and Maggie’s coffin was gone.

At Rehearsal that evening Barry thanked us for supporting him and his family by being there and singing. Further feedback from David Clarke, our one-time Musical Director, who subsequently told Jan how well he thought we had sung. High praise iindeed!

Together Again! Our Joint Concert with The Swift Singers. 22^nd June 2024.

This was our opportunity to host The Swifts at a return concert, we having performed with them in South Woodham Ferrers in October last year. The concert slot became free because we were to have performed with Stevenage Ladies Choir around this time but they’d had a bit of internal turmoil and had blown us out. A bit of shuffling of dates and it gave us the opportunity to invite The Swifts instead. Same sort of situation – a Ladies choir we’d previously sung with before at their venue. It was also financially helpful as, as is the case with some joint concerts, the Swifts kept all of the takings when we went to them (but nevertheless we had expenses to pay) and to balance that out we would have all of the takings when the Swifts came to us.

As usual in preparation for a concert we did plenty of rehearsing and fine-tuning. Two of our newest pieces were to be in our sets – ‘Love Shine a Light’ and ‘The Way You Look Tonight.’ The former had had a public outing previously at Chelmsford Cathedral; ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ was having its first public outing. We did lots of work on it. Many of us would have liked to have been more confident about it. (some of us remained completely bemused!)

As usual Neil produced the Full Details sheet, including times, uniform, programme and so on and these were circulated and available from the members’ area of the website.

A brilliant team of helpers arrived early at rehearsal on the Friday before the concert to set the furniture up for the concert the following evening. No mean feat to get enough chairs on stage to suit the two choirs and another set off stage for the choir that isn’t performing. Our helpers made quick work of it. There was also some crafty juggling of the audience chairs. Ticket sales hadn’t been brilliant and we didn’t want so many chairs that it would look like our visitors were singing to a small audience (although to be fair they hadn’t sold many tickets). On the other hand we wanted to ensure that there were sufficient seats for everyone who pitched up. ‘Walk ins’ are increasingly an important component of our audiences.

On Saturday, 22^nd June we started gathering on time to start our sound check. Quite soon the rumour that despite the hot weather we’d be expected to wear our suit jackets was quashed. AND NO BOWTIES EITHER! Some thought that to be going a bit too far and it was the slippery slope to having no uniform at all! Quite a few of the Swifts were so eager that they arrived long before many Leigh Orpheus members. No problem. We like a bit of enthusiasm and the fact that we served them tea and biscuits went down really well. They commented on it in a Facebook post – it does wonders for our reputation of being welcoming and courteous.

One of the aims of getting together early was to take some publicity pics as one or two that we currently use are considered by some to be a bit dated. We posed and Neil took some pictures.

You’d think that as we were taking publicity photos, important for the promotion and therefore future of the choir, everyone would do their best to comply. But, no, one individual routinely breaks with the uniformity we ask for. And he did so again in each of the pics that were taken. So, a complete waste of a photo opportunity.

We rehearsed and sound-checked. Then we practised the off and on stage traffic. Most got it first time round. Practically everyone got it after a second try.

Then we rehearsed the two joint pieces with The Swifts, as well as the stage traffic.

Back to George’s Hall, our Green Room, where we found some very welcome cold drinks and biscuits and where if we’d brought it we ate our tea.

Eventually, time for the show.

The Swifts took their ‘audience’ seats first as, being the hots, we were to be on stage to perform the first set. We filed in pretty smartly and took our places on stage.

Then we were off! Jan conducted ‘Praise My Soul’ It went well. Then the conducting was handed over to Dave for ‘Gwahoddiad’. Dave kept us on our toes, moving it around in ways we aren’t used to. But we followed him. Well, most did.

Next, back to Jan for ‘Love Shine a Light’.                     

To emphasise ‘shining a light’ we’d been given (electric) tea lights for this piece. The house lights went out and off we went, eventually getting to the chorus “And we’re all going to shine a light together”. Jan reminded us when we had to raise our lights. Most but not all got it right. One or two seemed so mesmerised that they were seconds behind and didn’t realise that having raised their lights they also had to lower them at the appropriate point. Oh well, we got through it.

Next, ‘And So It Goes’. And so it went. Moderately good judging from the audience reaction - but they didn’t know what we knew about each of the Sectional parts.

Then ‘Unchained Melody’, again conducted by Dave, and then our first set was over. We filed off and the Swifts moved on. They were a bit slow moving off (it’s not only us!!!!) so there was a bit of a queue for us to get into our new seats. Anyhow, everyone settled down and the Swifts started their set of six pieces. The audience, most of whom after all were there as Leigh Orpheus supporters, took to them with generous applause. So did we. Their fairly new MD (‘new’ as he reminded us during his various introductions to each piece they sang) had taken the Swifts into new territory and moved them on to higher standards than they had expected.

Finally for the first half of the concert, a joint piece ‘You Raise Me Up’. We know it well. So do the Swifts. Tim, their MD, stayed in place to conduct both choirs, and we made a good attempt at following his direction.

The Interval. So that the audience had a fighting chance to get their refreshments both choirs went back to their green rooms where they found a welcome range of drinks and biscuits. The audience went out to what we call ‘The Table Tennis Room’ where they were efficiently served with tea and coffee by our lovely Front of House/Hospitality team And there were, of course, biscuits. Thankfully the ruse of asking for ‘donations’ for the refreshments (rather than making a charge) meant that we took in more than the cost of providing the refreshments. Useful.

Some socialising, some meeting up of old friends, and then it was time for the second half. The audience move back in and so did we, ready for the Swifts to start the second half.

Another relatively long set of five pieces, all of which some of us recognised and two of which we’ve had in our repertoire (‘The Water of Tyne’ and ‘Why We Sing’), the latter being one we’ve sung with The Stevenage Ladies a cople of times.

And then our own Leigh Orpheus final set. Potentially a bit of a marathon as it included ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and part of the ‘Back to the 60s Medley’.

But we started this set with ‘Flying Free’ Kay did a stunning job in this piece, playing in the flute accompaniment within the written piano accompaniment. It went well and we moved on to BoRap. Another challenge for Kay and a challenge for several choir members having to stand for so long and remember so many words. But we did it and were justly rewarded with the audience’s generous applause.

Finally, after the traditional thanks from Leigh Orpheus Chairman Graham. our second joint piece. The ‘I Believe/Ave Maria’ Quodlibet we’ve sung with the Swifts before. Tim conducted again, and thankfully for us, Jan stood near to Tim guiding our Leigh Orpheus ‘I Believe’ within the Swifts’ ‘Ave Maria’. Again it went well (or did we just get away with it?)

Then, concert over, the audience and many Leigh Orpheus members understandably left for home. Some stalwarts of the Leigh Orpheus stayed to re-re-arrange the seating, putting it back to where it had started before the Friday evening rehearsal. Quite a logistical task as, in order to be able to seat everyone appropriately we’d taken chairs from a range of places. Also, at the end, a chance to see a view of part of the kit that AudioVisual man Les sees and operates to ensure that our performances go smoothly.

Then home to bed!

Photos: Les, Pam, Ron and Neil

The Leigh Orpheus at Southend's D-Day 80 Commemoration. 6th June 2024.

As in previous years the Leigh Orpheus were invited to join in this year's 80th D Day Remembrance Commemoration and Lighting of the Beacon at the Southend Cenotaph at the top of the Cliffs in Southend-on-Sea.

As requested, a small number of our members from across the Choir joined other invited local choir representatives from Cantare, Eastwood Chorale, Southend Festival Chorus,  Southend Vox,  The Show Choir,  Waterside Choir and Southend Bach Choir,  the music being provided by The Southend Band, led by Paul Hillson.

As we waited to start the rain decided to fall in a light shower, just enough to keep the dust down!  Guests arrived, including the Worshipful the Mayor of Southend, Cllr. Ron Woodley, The High Sheriff of Essex, Representatives of the Armed Services, Veteran Members of the various Armed forces, including some from our own choir, plus other Council members, and the heads of local Emergency Services and other invited dignitaries along with members of the local Sea Cadet Corps, Unit 312 Nav Training base, T. S. Implacable.

As we sheltered under a shared gazebo, we listened to the Southend Band playing some incidental music such as Aces High from the Battle of Britain film, The Royal Air Force March Past, the title music from the film, 633 Squadron, Blaze Away and Down By the O-Hi-O!  Just as the rain stopped, the choirs were invited to lead the Dignitaries, all of the various invited  representatives and the large number of members of the public, who had braved a cool and what turned out to be a damp evening in the communal singing. This included: The Lord's My Shepherd,  Eternal Father Strong to Save,  Abide With Me,  Guide Me Oh Thou Great Redeemer, The Day Thou Gavest Lord Is Ended, I Vow to Thee my Country, Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory.

Following the communal singing, the Mayor, along with the Lord High Sheriff of Essex and other dignitaries made their speeches which unfortunately due to what may have been, a "Water Effected" microphone system, were not heard too clearly, but in a short time,  someone either knew just what to push, flick, poke or kick, so that we could hear the last part that included the invitation to join in with the singing of the National Anthem followed by the lighting of the Beacon which happened exactly on time.

Thus ended a very moving, and well executed celebration of this, the 80th D Day Remembrance Commemoration in Southend-on-Sea which I, and I am certain all of the other members of the Leigh Orpheus in attendance, were very pleased and proud to have been a part of. May we all say how very grateful we are to all of those who, shall we say, were involved 80 years ago and are still very much involved on our behalf. Thank You.

Report and Pics: Mac McLean

The Leigh Orpheus at Chelmsford Cathedral. 19^th April 2024

Our Performances at Chelmsford Cathedral are always eagerly anticipated. And more so this performance as included in our programme would be ‘Flying Free’ with Evan accompanying us on his flute, a new piece introduced to us by Chris Pethers at one of the workshops, 'Love Shine a Light', and ‘The Song of the Jolly Roger’ where we could max out on our pirate accessories.

Some serious work at rehearsals went into getting to the best standard we could. Evan Davis (flautist) came to two rehearsals to rehearse ‘Flying Free’ with us (despite him having performed this with us several times before). Some members made good use of the Rehearsal Tracks which were available for almost all the pieces we’d be singing. Some didn’t need to. Some said ‘what rehearsal tracks?’. Some couldn’t understand what it was all about and thought Chelmsford Cathedral was a type of cheese.

For one or two members Chelmsford Cathedral is practically on the doorstep. For others getting there was a bit of a challenge but some helpful offering of lifts sorted that out. The weather wasn’t exactly what we’d have hoped for but nevertheless practically everyone arrived on time, wearing their black LOMVC outdoor jackets. One member of the audience was keen to tell Jim how nice it was to see so many men looking so smart. However, it did turn out that she was visually impaired!

A certain amount of arranging, re-arranging and re-re-arranging of the chairs, and bringing extra chairs when more members than had said they would be there arrived (SO irritating when the seating has been planned based on those who have confirmed attendance!) and we finally did a sound check/warm up. Evan rehearsed, as did Whirlwind.

We posed for an official choir picture – always helpful for publicity pictures.

And when asked for the ‘wavy picture’ the request must have been a bit slow travelling from the basses; it didn’t get as far as some of the T2s!

Here’s the programme.

Then, with the audience coming in early to get the best seats, we did our usual mooching about. Some spoke with guests. Some relaxed. Some took the opportunity to get a drink. 

At exactly 12 noon a voice from the pulpit announced us, taking a couple of us by surprise and we had to nip to our seats. Jan wanted a confident start and that’s what we gave them with ‘Speed Your Journey’. Those of us who judge the audience on the applause they give us were satisfied. On to ‘Angels Watching Over Me’ which received equally good applause. The fact that so many members were actually watching Jan, and following her direction, helped.

Then Dave took over the conducting and by all accounts ‘Unchained Melody’ went down well. Click on the icon below for a link to the recording (please bear in mind that this was a live recording where the mic that recorded this piece was near the piano - and the Basses)

Next was the first outing of ‘Love Shine a Light’. We’d done a lot of work on it and for a first public performance it worked. And not only did we sing it – we proudly held our battery-operated nightlights aloft every time we got to a chorus. Which was quite often. Click on the icon below to get the link to the audio recording (usual rider about quality)

Onwards and upwards with ‘Flying Free’ and Evan accompanying. What a treat! Exquisite flute-playing and with Jan’s direction it seemed that everyone sang the right part at the right time. A lovely piece. Get a link to the recording (blah, blah) by clicking on the icon below.

A further treat for the audience next. We’d led them through a variety of styles of music, we’d teased them with the accompaniment of a woodwind player, and now they’d hear more woodwind instruments as we sat down and the ensemble ‘Whirlwind’ played three pieces.

On our feet again for our second set which started with a piece that was so right for this Cathedral setting – ‘Praise My Soul’. Good applause. Even the atheists clapped!

Who isn’t moved by Kay’s playing of the intro to ‘You Raise Me Up’?! Another of those pieces where the lower parts start off and the rest of us eventually join in. It always seems to work well.

Then a piece which has regularly featured in our recent programmes – ‘The Wellerman’. We sang, Dave sang a couple of solo verses, and a few of the audience joined us with the foot-stamping at the end.

Jan then turned to the audience to thank them and introduce our final programme piece. We hurriedly, and conspiratorially, donned our pirate accessories so that Jan could feign mock surprise as she turned to conduct us. She does that so well. And this performance was captured on video. Click on the flag to watch and hear us singing ‘The Song of the Jolly Roger’. Thanks to Lorry McLean for the audio and video recordings.

Finally, an exhortation from the pulpit to donate generously towards the cost of putting on the Lunchtime Concerts at the Cathedral and a request that we sing one more piece. Which we did. ‘Siyahambe’, in which even more concentration on Jan meant that she could move the piece around in the way she wanted.

Then time to go home. And which point the rain, which had paused while we were in the Cathedral, descended upon us again.

Following the performance Jan wrote “Please tell choir members that I was extremely proud of our performance at Chelmsford Cathedral last week. I appreciate all the commitment and hard work that went into preparing the songs.” Twenty Seven people liked us on Facebook and there were a range of congratulatory comments. 

What a success!

To watch the complete concert, complete with Jan singing along and with some unintended background sound (the Live Stream produced by the Cathedral folk that was broadcast as we were singing) click on the icon below (best to scroll forward 7-30 to get to the actual start of the concert; unless you want to hear 7 1/2 minutes of audience babble)

Please remember that videos from these pages are for Leigh Orpheus members' use only; they should not be shared outside of the choir.

Video and audio recordings: Lorry McLean and Chelmsford Cathedral.

Two of a Kind. Our Joint Concert with Chelmsford Male Voice Choir. Saturday, 24^th February 2024

We’d been to sing with Chelmsford Male Voice Choir in Chelmsford in September 2023. This was their return to sing with us.

Members had taken posters and flyers to display in places where they would have some impact (one had done some fly-posting on lamp posts in his local area!); there had been several promotions on Facebook. Ticket sales ticked over but weren’t impressive. It’s not unusual for the Concert Manager to be concerned that we might not cover our costs – which for this concert would need to cover the Music Team fees for two MDs and two accompanists, plus, of course, hire of the building, printing costs and other incidentals. Apart from the financial considerations it would be disappointing, not to say embarrassing, if we couldn’t welcome Chelmsford with a capacity audience. Things didn’t look good.

We’d fine-tuned our pieces over several Friday evening rehearsals. Our programme comprised pieces many of us knew. All credit to our not-now-so-new-newbies who managed without having to look at music scores. Top guys!

At rehearsal the evening before the concert we’d fine-tuned the on-stage/off-stage traffic. With a bit of time and minor adjustments, from a Leigh Orpheus point of view it looked like it would work. Willing volunteers helped move as much furniture as possible so that we were as ready as we could be for the following evening. We had an optimistic 120 seats in place for the audience. Of course, we took the opportunity of putting recruitment flyers on seats.

Saturday afternoon arrived and we pitched up with most of us early or on time to do a final sound check and reminder.

Then the Chelmsford boys arrived for us to rehearse the two joint pieces for the first time together. The first piece we rehearsed was to be the last in the concert. Jan was conducting this one. She started off at our usual ‘Gwahoddiad’ speed. The accompanist, Chelmsford’s accompanist, started at her usual speed. It didn’t feel right as it was so slow. Jan didn’t look pleased. Neil had a discrete word (yes, he can do it!). The accompanists swopped over and Kay brought us relief as we recognised something closer to what we were used to and off we went. Listening from the back, having the two choirs, something like 70 guys singing, sounded amazing.

We then practised swapping over choir positions – we walked off and went round to sit in the seats the Chelmsford guys had been in and they walked on to occupy the seats on stage we were leaving. It worked!

Time to rehearse ‘Rhythm of Life’ with the Chelmsford MD, Paul Smith, conducting. Seemed straightforward. Jan looked pleased.

We then left the Chelmsford guys to do their own sound-checking and rehearsing and went back to our Green Room. Pam and the Front of House team had provided some drinks and biscuits. Much appreciated.

Some down time and the opportunity to relax until we needed to be ready to go on. Not so relaxed in the Reception area where people without tickets kept pitching up. We wanted them there, of course. After all, they responded to suggestions from members of both choirs that they should come along. On the other hand could we fit them in?! We commandeered extra chairs from the refreshment area; we squeezed them in wherever there was room. Probably an extra 20 chairs which meant everyone who needed a seat had one. Just. If we'd known in advance we'd have opened up the Table Tennis Area (although that would impact on how we serve refreshments.)

Then it was 7.20. Chelmsford lined up, went in and occupied their seats. We got lined up in our four rows. Most knew where they fitted into their row. And in we went. Again, it worked.

We stood and we performed. Jan had been pleased at rehearsals that we were following her direction very well (See her comment below). That certainly seems to be confirmed here:

We started with ‘Speed Your Journey’ and followed that with ‘You Raise Me Up’. The applause was good and Kay’s accompaniment was appreciated.

Here's the video of 'You Raise Me Up' (said by some to be one of our finest performances of this piece!) (click on the icon):

And here's 'Speed your Journey':

Then Deputy MD Dave took over to conduct ‘Unchained Melody’. He was pleased with us and we were pleased with him! (well, looking at the pic it seems that one choir member thought it had been a disaster!)

Click on this icon for the video

Jan took back control for ‘Love is all Around’ and finally for this first set, ‘Praise my Soul’. More welcome applause.

Then the traffic on and off the stage. Did it work? YES! It certainly did!

Chelmsford were on. Someone commented that several of their members used folders. Maybe that was because they were new members. But as someone else commented, from the state of their uniforms it didn’t seem likely. LOMVC were definitely the winners in the sartorial stakes!

Chelmsford started with ‘Morte Christie’, which many of us knew. and moved on to ‘Away from the Roll of the Sea’. They received generous applause. Then another piece some of us have sung with the Leigh Orpheus, ‘The Rose’. Paul Smith, the Chelmsford MD seemed to have done his homework as his intro to each piece was fairly comprehensive.

For their final set another piece that we recognised ‘Stout Hearted Men’.

To finish the first half of the concert a joint performance of ‘Rhythm of Life’. Their accompanist had asked to play four handed with ours, and Kay had spent time learning the top part of the accompaniment.

Paul took it at a reasonable pace. We’ve sung it faster with Dave conducting but it went well. And Kay was relieved to have made a good job of it!

Interval time. The choirs exited to their respective Green Rooms and the audience exited to have their refreshments. Cold drinks and nice biscuits for the choirs. Water, hot and cold drinks and nice biscuits for the audience. Our Front of House Team were brilliant. Friendly and efficient, they served swiftly ensuring that the wait wasn’t too long and everyone felt welcomed. It was so impressive that the Chelmsford MD commented on how well they had done.

So, after about 20 minutes we were ready to return. Again, a pretty smart entrance from LOMVC with, once more, nearly every member knowing where they were meant to line up and with the lines walking in efficiently to their places at the side.

Chelmsford kicked off the second half with ‘A Clare Benediction’ and followed that with another number in our past repertoire, ‘There is Nothing Like a Dame’.

Then an interesting setting of ‘Ave Maria’ followed by ‘Pure Imagination’, made famous by the film ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’. Many of us were looking forward to hearing their performance of ‘African Prayer’. Maybe some of them had parked in the Morrisons Car Park and their time was about to run out – they took it pretty fast! Lucky it hadn’t been a joint piece.

Then our final Leigh Orpheus set. We opened with ‘An American Trilogy’ Always a crowd-pleaser. Jan looked pleased and Kay did us proud with her playing of the piano solo.

A complete change of contrast with our next piece, ‘Angels Watching Over Me’ and finally onto excerpts from the ‘60s Medley’. Some of us detected a small amount of moving to the groove when we sang ‘Pretty Flamingo’.

Nearly at the end of the concert, it was time for the ‘thanks’: Alan for being a star in selling tickets; Les for working the sound desk and taking 116 pictures (!!); the Front of House team for their efficient work in getting everyone seated and looking after all of the refreshments; the two accompanists, Kay and Sue; and, of course, MDs Jan and Paul.

Finally, the last joint piece which many had been looking forward to – ‘Gwahoddiad’ (in Welsh, of course!). It was sung heartily and mainly accurately.

Maybe not as accurate as we have often sung it, but no matter, choir members loved singing it and the audience loved hearing it.

Rapturous applause with several audience members getting to their feet (and not, apparently, because they wanted to get out quickly!). Turn the volume up, open the windows, and let the neighbourhood know what a Male Voice Choir sounds like!

It was over! Good night and a safe journey home. Many positive comments on the night. Many more since then, with several being listed below. Suggestions that we must arrange to meet up and do it again.

Neil was well-impressed with the accuracy and speed of the changeovers of the choirs! Take a look at it here (and well done Ron for another fine video!). Walk on!

However, it wasn’t over for everyone. With the Salvation Army people having arrived to reset the building for their service the following morning, a smashing gang of our guys stayed on to do some lifting and moving of furniture. Particular thanks to them. It’s great to share the load and good to show our friends at the SA that we want to be helpful.

If proof is needed that there were well-deserved compliments, here are some of the comments. Firstly from Jan:

My congratulations to the choir for their outstanding singing on Saturday. I could not have been more proud of the choir. The focus was amazing and enabled us to give a very polished performance.

At the time of writing this Report 27 (update - 35; still rising) people on Facebook have liked or loved our post about the concert with the following positive comments being made by choir and audience members:

Lovely to see more than one retired member in the audience, checking up on how we continue to entertain since they left. Lots of compliments received.

 Was a great concert. Well worth going to.

 It was a lovely concert - the two joint items were wonderful. What a rousing sound two MVCs make together 

 A great evening! I thoroughly enjoyed airing the vocal chords and the audience seemed to like it too. Bring on the next concert! 

 A very appreciative audience. A great night with a mixed choice of music. It was a pleasure to take part.

 Fabulous concert. 

 Yes that one Gwahoddiad brought a lump in the throat tho all of the songs were amazing. Well done all.

 Loved it, I found it very emotional, singing Gwahoddiad together…AWESOME 

 Good way to spend a Saturday evening listening to two splendid male voice choirs. If you wasnt there try and catch the next one.

Well done to all those involved in organising this concert

 You all sounded fantastic, a lovely evening x

 It was a great concert.

Further thanks! To Ron Circus for doing more excellent work recording and then editing and uploading videos of every single piece that we sang. Many are included within the Report above. The remainder are here (just click on the title).

Please remember that videos from these pages are for Leigh Orpheus members' use only; they should not be shared outside of the choir.

Leigh Orpheus pieces

Love is all Around

Praise my Soul

Angels Watching Over Me

Chelmsford MVC pieces

Morte Christie

Away From the Roll of the Sea

The Rose

A Clare Benediction

Ave Maria

Pure Imagination

Photos: Les Wilkins. Videos: Ron Circus

The Leigh Orpheus Music Workshop. Saturday, 10^th February 2024.

We’d had such a great time when Chris Pethers had run a Workshop for us last Autumn that we wanted a repeat. Not of the same pieces, of course. Jan and Dave had considered a number of pieces suggested by Chris and settled on Billy Joel’s ‘And So It Goes’ and the Eurovision song winning entry by Katrina and the Waves, ‘Love Shine a Light’.

Librarian Chris had worked hard to ensure that we had copies of the music in advance. And, with thanks to the London Gay Men’s Chorus, we were able to use their rehearsal tracks for both pieces. They’d been available in the Practice and Performance section of our website for several weeks. Some of us had used them!

Thirty four of us pitched up at the Salvation Army Temple on Saturday, 10^th February, with those of us who’d attended the previous workshop knowing today’s workshop was likely to be another ace session. Our participation was rewarded massively.

As usual, stressing its importance, Chris started us off with a wide-ranging Warm Up. We kept up pretty well until ‘Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry’.

Then it was on to learning the first piece. ‘Love Shine a Light’. We all responded well to Chris being able to demonstrate each of the parts. Jan accompanied like the professional accompanist she is. A piece with THREE key changes - that has to be a first for the Leigh Orpheus!

And in about an hour we were fairly confidently singing much of ‘Love Shine a Light’. It sounded good with all of the parts being sung pretty accurately. Maybe being in a semi-circle helped as we could hear each of the other sections. 

With such good progress having been made it was time for a refreshment break. Sue, Gerry and Val served up tea and coffee and we indulged in the biscuits.

Then back for more with this next session concentrating mainly on ‘And So It Goes’. An a cappella piece, again we made good progress and it wasn’t long before we were singing a sizeable amount. Click below to see and hear us (talking of clicks - if you weren't there, the clicks you can hear are Chris telling us when to finish words!):

A quick Comfort Break then back for some ‘performing’. First we divided into two choirs and Choir 2 sang to Choir 1, then Choir 1 sang to Choir 2. A pity that this video didn’t start at the very beginning, but it shows Choir 1 giving ‘And So It Goes’ a pretty impressive performance. Click on this link:

Finally, pushing at boundaries, Chris had us doing something that we aren’t used to doing – singing AND moving to the beat! Here we are with Chris singing so that we only had to concentrate on moving. Click below:

Most of us cracked it.

The end of the session and then the thank you’s – Chris, of course, Jan for her accompanying and Neil for setting the event up.

Having rearranged the furniture into two semicircles and removed the other rows last evening, we had to put the chairs back into the formation they’d usually be in. Amazing! With practically everyone helping it only took a few minutes.

To finish a perfect morning, a super lunch with the friendly Sue, Gerry and Val, supplying sandwiches and cakes and even more tea and coffee. Our grateful thanks to Sue, Gerry and Val (and to Pam who had ordered it). It was so lavish that we were encouraged to take any left-overs home with us. No one did.

Oh wait, some certainly did!

Photos and Video: Neil. Video Editing: Ron

Singing to and with John Palmer. January 2024

From time to time we talk about the Leigh Orpheus Family. And like all families we care about other members of the family, especially when they are unwell.

What a fitting tribute to a past member, John Palmer, that on two occasions members of the Leigh Orpheus visited him in the Avondale Care Home, taking familiar songs for him to hear and to take part in.

Good work guys!

We posted the first pic on Facebook and received some great responses, saying what a lovely gesture it was and appreciating the fact that the Leigh Orpheus cares about its members.

The Leigh Orpheus at the Southend on Sea Civic Christmas Carol Service. 19th December 2023.

Our FIFTH performance in December! That Concert Manager is working us too hard. But this event was a late request that we didn’t want to turn down. Another opportunity for us to be seen – and this time by the good and the great of Essex.

St Mary’s Church Prittlewell was the venue for this prestigious event.

An impressive range of luminaries would attend, including the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, The High Sheriff of Essex, the Mayor of Southend, along with Mayors from neighbouring Councils, Deputies, Youth Mayors and so on.

We posed and prepared, with the majority of us being prepared to be part of a team effort.

Jan, of course, conducted in her usual encouraging way.

After a rehearsal with Stand-In accompanist David Stanley (sadly Kay was ill and couldn’t be there) we were asked to practice looking smart. Most co-operated and looked good! 

But not all!

The good and the great started arriving

And then the service started with the procession of the clergy, the Lord Lieutenant and the Mayor taking their seats at the front. Part of our role was to stand in the chancel and sing the congregational carols in order to encourage congregational participation. It’s probably fair to say that the organ was so loud that it was a struggle to even hear the sound of our own voices, let alone whether or not we were having any effect on the singing in the nave.

Nevertheless the Service rolled on through carols and readings until the Two Elizabeths performed a duet of ‘O Holy Night’. Beautifully-performed; they had an extra verse compared with the version we sing.

Another reading, another carol, another reading and then we were on.

We moved forward smartly into our performance space – well, we’d had enough practice – and watched Jan the way we’d been told to (we weren’t as disciplined as we should have been when rehearsing).

We gave it our best, singing ‘O Men From the Fields’ twice (not sure that anyone apart from us noticed we sang the same thing twice) and got a welcome round of applause at the end.

Back to our seats in the choir stalls for the rest of the Service and then it was all over. As well as our solo piece we'd sung six Carols, with some thought to be traditional by some but being unknown by others.

Well actually, it wasn't quite over yet as we were invited to go across to the refurbished Church Hall where the hospitality was to a very high standard. No points for guessing who managed to consume impressive amounts of the free food – although he did have a challenger!

Great that fifteen Leigh Orpheus Members were prepared to give up their time to support this event and ensure that we are seen at as many public events as possible.

This year there are three Concert Manager’s Special Awards! One to Alan Mechem for being a stalwart in selling tickets at rehearsal and the second and third to Ralph Faulkes and Graham Halsey for attending every single one of the five December events. Well done, guys!

The Leigh Orpheus at Stibbards Candlelight Remembering Service. 16^th December 2023

This was a first for us! We know Stibbards fairly well as they have arranged a number of funerals of past Leigh Orpheus members and we’ve coordinated with them about singing at those funerals. They are potentially the most straightforward and pleasant undertakers we are associated with. So we've 'done' funerals with Stibbards, but never a 'Remembering Service'.

They’d contacted us a few weeks ago because they wanted a small choir to sing carols to support the audience/congregation at one of their Candlelight Remembering Services. From a straw poll we took at rehearsal it seemed that we could get a sufficiently-large group of carol singers together.

Which is why nine of us pitched up at the Jubilee Suite of the Saxon Hall in Aviation Way on Saturday, 16^th December. All of us in the correct uniform; all of us wearing our Leigh Orpheus outdoor jackets. Impressively smart and coordinated. We’d originally expected more choir members to be there but a range of circumstances meant that some weren’t able to get along. Oh well, work with what we’ve got! And we worked well together. After all, we were singing in unison so balance of sections wasn’t as important as it would otherwise have been.

They were providing an accompanist and keyboard – which turned out to be an electronic piano. A quick play with the piano to get it sounding more ‘Christmas Carols’ and less ‘Honky Tonk’ and we did a brief sound check. (note some of the rows of unlit tealights on the left which will be lit during the service).

The temporary, assistant, part time, deputy MD for the next few minutes commented that the volume was good but the presentation could be less ‘football ground’ and more ‘quality with meaning’. What do you know? The guys responded and it sounded good.

We re-ordered into a more compact group. Looked better and potentially sounded better.

Probably all of us, certainly the Concert Manager, were surprised at the number of seats ready for the audience/congregation. The Jubilee Suite was full. Stibbards said that they were expecting 250. OMG!! Nine of us are going to be singing to a huge audience - if they all turned up. Maybe Stibbards were being over-optimistic. Hopefully the audience would join in. We practiced looking smart.

The event was due to start at 6.00pm. At 5.40 pm a few groups of people were occupying seats randomly across the Jubilee Suite. Maybe that number of seats had been unnecessary. The lights were dimmed and tea lights glimmered along the aisles.  By 5.59 pm practically all of the seats were full. At 6.04 they were setting out more seats. This was an audience size we’d love to have at all of our performances!

The service started. First an introduction from Stibbards, talking about bereavement and grief, assuring everyone present that their memories and experiences would all be different and they could express emotions in ways that were best for them, and assuring them that they were in a safe place.

The Celebrant, Jonathan, then took over to take the service. He mused on his own experiences while at the same time we looked at our Orders of Service and noted that as soon as he finished we’d be on!

He finished and we were on! ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’. Several of us looked around to see if anyone else was joining in, singing the carols. They weren’t! We were on our own. Fair to say that it was working ok with our until-now unknown accompanist and we made a pretty decent job of that first carol. We’d planned that the ‘How Silently’ verse would be sung at a reduced level. Not sure that was noticeable.

The service continued and it wasn’t long before we were on again. ‘Silent Night’. We were working well. Thankfully we all realised that the words on the Details, which Neil had copied from the draft order of Service and which were easier to read in the dim light, weren’t the same as those on the Order of Service which everyone was looking at as we sang! We squinted at the Order of Service in the dim light. But we're sure Jan would have been pleased to see that we didn't hide our heads in our folders! We sang out!

This Service was unknown territory for us. We’d all been at funerals where there would be one set of bereaved families expressing their emotions. Here there were lots of them. After a reading there was the most significant part of the service - The Roll Of Remembrance - where names of the bereaved were read out and those who wanted could come forward to light one of the tea lights at the front. A constant stream of people, for possibly five minutes, came forward to light tealights. Some came up several times. Many passed us on the way back to their seats. Many were sobbing, in tears or obviously trying to hold them back. Made it tough for us watching them. Probably not an experience we’d expected. Eventually the ‘lighting’ came to an end with any unlit tealights being lit in memory of those not represented (or was it just to give the most impressive visual effect?!)

Further readings and then the final carol ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’. Again, we were on our own (apart from the accompanist). But we sailed through the verses and the refrains like true pros.

Then the service was over.

Everyone was invited to refreshments in the next room. Most of us decided to give them a miss and those who thought they’d go for it saw the queue then decided to give them a miss and go home to watch ‘Strictly’. The Stibbards’ organiser thanked us. Several members of the audience/congregation commented that they enjoyed our singing. It occurred to us that if it hadn’t been for the reason people were there, we potentially had a brilliant recruitment opportunity – men left alone looking for something new to do now that their partner was gone.

Finally, a quick discussion with Stibbards about how we might be involved in the same event next year. Watch this space.

The Leigh Orpheus Christmas Social. Friday, 15th December.

It seems to have become a tradition! For our last rehearsal of the season, we invite partners, friends and those who have supported us throughout the year, to an informal evening of audience carols, some of our best Christmas pieces, input from our unofficial LOMVC Chaplin Rev Canon David Tudor and comments from our LOMVC Chairman, this year Sam Coley.

With the success of our performances at the Victoria Shopping Centre last Sunday still fresh in our minds, this evening we got sorted in our places on stage pretty well, even with a few late arrivals.

Here's the programme which the audience could see on the screen behind our heads. We had to rely on the Details which had been on the website, attached to weekly emails and available in two sizes of hard copy; some of us had the most recent version!

Then we were off, singing the first verse of 'Once in Royal David's City' and with the audience joining in for the next two verses. It went well.

Then our opportunity to sing some of our best pieces - 'O Come O Come Emmanuel' (Dave and Ian doing solos), 'Angels', 'Torches' and 'Away in a Manger'. Jan looked pleased as she sparkled in her sparkly purple jumper. (talking of Angels - Chris Jenkins - back row - seems to have a halo! Well, being the choir's Librarian is rather special!)

Next, Rev Canon David Tudor. We know David well having been at funerals at which he's officiated and sung at his church on Canvey. David reminded us that  it was, in fact, our 25-year anniversary of us singing for him.

We were reminded of the problems in the world we currently live in. But then David moved on to his recent research that prcatically all religions celebrate similar events at this time of year. It's appropriate for us to wish people "Happy Holidays" (= Happy Holy Days).

Another set from LOMVC - 'This Nearly Was Mine', 'Wellerman' (another Dave solo), and 'You Raise Me Up'. Jan continued to look pleased. Phew!

We all, audience and Choir, then Walked in a Winter Wonderland before our next set - 'O Men From the Fields' (Dave did us proud again with another solo) and 'Glory To Thee My God This Night' (we finally seem to have cracked it!).

Next, it was Sam's turn. Having thanked everyone who had made the year's events possible Sam couldn't resist emulating his forebears' Mehodist Preachers' sermons for a short while.

A final audience-participation carol, 'We Three Kings' and at last it was time for us to don our Santa Hats and other accesories.

'Jingle Bells', 'Santa Claus is coming to Town' and 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas'. We really didn't look as serious as in the previous picture (well, some of us didn't!).

Finally, a blessing from Rev Canon David and the 'concert' part of the evening came to and end.

But not the celebrations! Off we all went to George's Hall to chat with friends and to enjoy non-alcoholic mulled wine and the sumptuous spread of goodies Pam, Sue and Val had prepared.

What a lovely way to end our rehearsals for the year!

Photos: Les.

The Leigh Orpheus at the Victoria Shopping Centre, Sunday, 10th December.

At Christmas we’ve sung at the Eastgate Centre in Basildon, and more recently at The Royals Shopping Centre in Southend. We were conned into singing outside, after the indoor Royals experience, on one occasion. That convinced us never to do that again.

An invitation to sing INSIDE the Victoria Shopping Centre gave us the opportunity to show that we are out and about in the public domain and to raise money for a worthy charity.

The Victoria Shopping Centre did some promotion that didn’t mention us, and some that did!

However, promotion or no promotion, we were committed to the event. On the allotted day several of us made very early starts in order to get the keyboard, amplifier, speakers etc in place on time. In doing so we got to see behind the scenes of the Shopping Centre, carrying the equipment from the loading bay up a goods lift (which trapped us inside at one point!) and through the sawdust, dirt and dust of a vacant shop to where we were to perform in front of the Christmas Tree.

We looked very good with almost 100% adherence to the uniform requirements and Neil had us lined up for a few pictures, one of which received several positive comments when we posted it on Facebook (“What a lovely photo of the boys. Such a great thing they do with all their fundraising”).

Then we were off on the first of several sets.

Some stopped and listened; some passed by on the other side. Dave and Jan did a fine job!

We’d decided that we’d collect for Prostate Cancer UK, and had the wording on our collection buckets approved by the charity.

Pam and Sue also did a brilliant job, collecting donations from the public and a very generous donation from a choir member.

After our first set, time for a break and the opportunity to get a coffee. Somehow Neil had managed to negotiate a 15% discount for us from Esquires, located just beside where we were performing.

Then back for another set. Dave continued conducting and thankfully we had the advantage of Jan accompanying becaue Kay wasn't available.

Dave was kept busy - not only conducting but also singing the 'Wellerman' solo!

One of our reasons for being there was to promote the Leigh Orpheus in the hope that we might attract new members.

And maybe we have.

Nice to see Les there too. Some of these pics were taken by Les.

There was an enthusiastic, friendly vibe within the choir.

Our next coffee break was a bit of a disaster for those who used Esquires. We had a 25 minute break but we only learned after we’d ordered that there would be a delay of 20 minutes for our orders to be brought to us.

Back for more singing

Then our last break when some of us caught up with the coffee and cake we’d ordered in the previous break. There was the opportunity to sing to the staff of Esquires to thank them for the discount. They chose ‘Wellerman’, we crowded round the outside and sang to them. Rather more people than throughout the whole morning clapped along enthusiastically.

Pam and Sue continued to rattle their buckets subtly (bucket-rattling is not allowed!) and the donations kept being put through the slots in the buckets. The final total of the donations was a little short of £200. Not bad for a morning’s singing.

Then it was our final set. Then it was the end – somewhat forced up on us by the next group, Sweet Charity, arriving and insisting that they should start at 2pm. We were to finish at 2pm

Oh well, We finished promptly and in double-quick time our gear was moved out of the way.

It might then have been all over, but Neil had the idea that a pic on the escalator would be good. It sort-of worked.

Apparently Neil thinks, as we are getting so good at getting into place smartly, that we can do better next year. He thinks we can enter down the escalator, already singing, and take our places in rows in front of the Christmas tree. We’ll have to see about that!

We think our appearance there was probably best described by another Facebook post: Just brilliant - what a start to the Christmas season.

Nice to get a Thank You letter from Prostate Cancer UK: 

Photos: Les and Neil

The Leigh Orpheus Christmas Concert. Salvation Army Temple, 2nd December 2023

We often ‘share’ our Christmas Concert with other choirs, including Jan’s Boys’ choir. There are a couple of advantages in doing so: Leigh Orpheus only needs to learn material for half of the concert and we have twice the number of people promoting the concert and buying tickets.

But this year we decided to go it alone. That the concert would be themed as a ‘traditional’ Christmas Concert with solos and readings and congregational carols. Which meant that we still only needed half a concert’s worth of material. But most of that would be pieces that we only bring out at Christmas and the decision was taken that we would use folders and be able to refer to the music as we sang. That, of course, led to the ‘heads in folders, not looking at Jan’ syndrome. We rehearsed for a few Fridays. Most pieces came together fairly well. One or two remained a mystery to some sections – ‘A Child is Born in Bethlehem’ being one of them. Getting those ‘Alleluias’ in the right place at the right time was tricky.

Neil wanted some formal pictures of the choir, in uniform, for publicity. So we arrived on the Saturday of the concert and dutifully got in our places ready for our pictures to be taken. Neil said we looked good. But he was only looking at the small screen on his camera. The full size pics turned out to be of limited use. One was fairly ok, but possibly demonstrating that, however much we try to be uniform, there are those who just won’t be.

As this was a more formal concert than usual our Concert Manager wanted us to arrive on stage formally. Some practice was needed. We were drilled in how to get in the right order off stage so that we arrived on stage in the right order. A couple of goes and we got it right in practice.  

Positioning and Sound check over, we had time to relax, the doors were opened and our audience surged in. It’s always a bit of a gamble at the SA Temple (not that gambling is allowed) to know how many seats to provide and whether or not to open the dividing wall to give more space (but spread the audience out more and have lots of gaps if the 50 extra seats in there aren’t needed). We chose not to open the dividing wall. Our lovely Front of House Team got it just right. All of the intended seats were filled. Most of the ‘use them only if we need to’ seats were filled. No one was turned away. We’d invited a whole host of local dignitaries and politicians. Most were busy elsewhere but Rebecca Harris, MP for Castle Point, turned up and was generous in her comments about us.

The time to start approached. We lined up in our two rows, headed by two choir members who really got the hang of how it was meant to work. And we were off to our places on stage. What do you know?! It worked!

In a brief welcome Neil managed to mix up the ‘welcoming of everyone including the MP’ with the ‘boring bit about toilets and fire escapes’ but, unbored, Rebecca Harris magnanimously smiled throughout.

Then we were off with the programme which the audience could see on screen:

We all sang ‘Once in Royal David’s City’. We had the words in hard copy, the audience sang from the words on the screen above and behind us. It was a shame we couldn’t watch the seamless transitioning of the words of one verse to the words of the next. It was a joy to behold for those who could behold it (and wrongly attributed to Les’s skills!).

Following that first carol Mike Elmes was to do the Advent reading. He paused for just a millisecond too long before standing to walk forward and, enthusiastic to get going, Jan had us on our feet and singing ‘O Come O Come Emmanuel’. Alistair and Mac sang solo verses and we joined in the chorus.

 After that a bit of fine-tuning and Mike told of the coming of Christ.

(sorry about the pic, Mike – the official photographer was dealing with other issues!)

Then angels watched over us as we sang our next piece after which Jim came forward to delight us with an extended introduction to his piece and, eventually, his singing of the Wexford Carol.

By now we’d settled down and Mike Hurst came forward to read about the Birth of Christ. We liked his delivery, accentuating the story that was being told.

Then it was a run of four pieces for us

We started this set with ‘Away in a Manger’. Pretty straightforward

Next ‘Zum Sanctus’. Some watched Jan and remembered to increase the volume as we went through the Heiligs. Others just sang in their finest German

Then ‘A Child is Born in Bethlehem’. It’s rumoured that many of the ‘Alleluia’s were the right notes in the right order

A finally, ‘Torches’ which we seem to be able to do without much rehearsal. Maybe because it was written for Children (or so it is reported by a member of the T1s!).

Back to congregational carols. The next one being ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’. Even the audience responded to the ‘how silently’ verse 2.

In next to no time it seemed we’d come to the end of the first half. The audience were given the good news that we would be giving them free refreshments and the bad news that the only hot drink was non-alcoholic punch (which actually morphed into non-alcoholic blackcurrant juice when the original ran out – but could anyone else tell?). And the further bad news that we wanted donations for the refreshments. Some put in notes, some opted not to put in anything.

Because we’d done so well marching in for Part 1 we were allowed to take our choir seats informally for Part 2.

Off we all went with the congregational carol ‘While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night’. None of us resorted to that naughty ‘While Shepherds Washed Their Socks by Night’ version. (‘all seated round the tub’, etc)

Then up popped Alistair. Poor chap. It had been touch and go if his voice was going to be ok for him to sing a solo verse earlier in the first half. During the interval he’d had a nosebleed and things were now on a knife edge as to whether he could read about the shepherds visiting. But, consummate professional (some have used other words!), he delivered. (note the halo above Alistair's head!)

Next, our set of three pieces.

‘The First Noel/Pachelbel’. Well we possibly got our ‘Noels’ in better in this one than we got our ‘Allelujias’ in earlier.

Next, ‘O Men from the Fields’. No excuse for not getting this one right as it’s in unison. It went down well – possibly our best piece of the evening. And of course, enhanced by Graham Halsey singing the solo which had improved each time he’d sung it (move over, Dave!)

‘O Holy Night’ to finish this set. Many of us managed to move on to verse 2 successfully.

Next it was another reading. Well at least we got to sit down. Eric read about the Wise Men. Well he would, he was surrounded by them.

Having heard about the three kings we then sung about them in the congregational carol that followed.

The next piece, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ was originally to have been sung by Harry. But he was indisposed. With remarkable bravery George stepped in, almost at the last minute, to read the piece. Good work, George.

Time for our last set. Firstly ‘Amen’. This has been in our repertoire for some time and it wasn’t too difficult to roll out tonight. We enlisted help from the audience, Jan conducted them and they enjoyed it. Looks like Jan was enjoying bringing both us and the audience off at the same time!

Then our final choir-solo piece, more cannons, ‘Glory to Thee My God this Night’. A good way to finish our own pieces, especially pleading for a safe and secure night’s rest.

Jan then announced that the more formal, traditional part of the concert was over and that Ron would move us into the next section singing a piece that Ron announced he had only recently learned – ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’.

That got us in the festive mood and full of goodwill to all men (and women). Sam thanked everyone who had been involved in the concert, its organisation and its delivery.

Finally the Christmas Sing-A-Long. We Walked in a Winter Wonderland, we Jingled our Bells, we looked forward to Santa Claus Coming to Town and we Dreamt of a White Christmas – which wasn’t difficult on the bitterly cold day it had been.

Some very nice comments on our Facebook page, including the very appropriate comment from one of our loyal supporters “A great start to the Christmas season. Thank you to all at LOMVC. You warmed us up on a very cold night”

Photos: Les and Neil

A Joint Autumn Concert with the Swift Singers. Holy Trinity Church, South Woodham Ferrers. 28^th October 2023.

This concert was to be our third Joint Concert in October 2023! On 7^th October we went to Chelmsford to perform with the Chelmsford Male Voice Choir. On 14^th October we went along the road to Leigh on Sea to perform in a concert which included the Leigh Salvation Army Band. For this concert we crossed the River Crouch to get to Holy Trinity Church, South Woodham Ferrers. There were some challenges! A number of members couldn’t be there, it was a pretty wet day and there was talk of parking restrictions that if we didn’t observe would cost us £85 fines.

The Swift Singers were the hosts and we were the Special Guests.

Most of us arrived on time and dropped our stuff off in the our Green Room – the assembly hall of the Catholic Primary School which directly adjoins the church on one side with the Anglican Primary School directly linked on the other side of the church. We were soon positioned behind the Swift Singing Ladies to rehearse the two joint pieces, conducted by the Swift Singers MD, Tim Rhys-Morgan. ‘You Raise Me Up’ went well, with a couple of minor adaptations to ensure that we all knew where we needed to come in. We were to sing the first verse and the Swifts the second. Possibly more risky was the second half joint piece – a quodlibet, which of course we all knew meant a piece where two well-known pieces are joined together; these were two quite different pieces. ‘I Believe’ made famous by Frankie Lane in 1953 and ‘Ave Maria’ written by Franz Schubert in 1825. We rehearsed it and it worked quite well, in no small measure because although Tim was conducting, so was Jan and we had our eyes on her as well as the music in our folders.

Then on to our own rehearsal. It went smoothly although the quality of sound from their keyboard wasn’t to the standard we are used to with our own kit.

We practiced getting on and off stage so that we were in the correct formation, and ensuring that we were seated in our ‘waiting to perform’ seats so that our entrance went smoothly - and to Neil’s delight it worked and we looked good as we went on and off (well, apart from the very end). Here we are in our ‘waiting to perform’ seats.

Then some time off to relax, eat and chat. Some spent their time in our Green Room, some chatted with their guests. A sign asked us not to place anything on the altar which has been moved off the stage into our Green Room. Someone either didn't see the sign or didn't care and placed their folder on the altar. As far as we know there was no bolt of lightening, but we won't know until the next rehearsal if there was plague or pestilence wrought on the sinner!

At 7.20 pm we lined up and eventually walked in to take our seats. It worked well.

At 7.30 pm the concert started.

The Swifts started with ‘Why We Sing’ which many of us recognised because we’ve sung it with the Stevenage Ladies. Then ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, a piece written by singer-songwriter Steve Perry and performed by him in 1981.

Next, a piece we all knew, Elton John’s ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ from the musical ‘The Lion King’. They finished their first set singing ‘Only You’, another 1980s piece.

Time for us to do our thing. We left our seats to take the long route round to the stage as the ladies left the stage to take the short walk back to our seats. It worked, even if the audience did undertake some marathon ‘welcoming’ clapping.

We kicked off with ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’. Just when the audience thought we were coming to the end we split Tenor1s&Tenor2s and Baritones&Basses and went round again. They seemed to like it. Next we shared the love with two love songs: ‘Love is all Around’ and ‘This Nearly was Mine’. Some swayed to the waltz rhythm, some perfected their lipreading skills watching Jan.

Next it was a demonstration of how Estuary English might be our native language but we can move round the world. First, mainly in Zulu, ‘Siyahambe’ where, if we were an army marching in the light of God, we moved closer and further away a few times before heading off into the distance. You could have heard a pin drop. If we are on secure territory with ‘Siyahambe’ so too were we with ‘Gwahoddiad’. As usual our Welsh was perfect and we were just about in tune each time the keyboard came back in. Generous applause suggested they liked it. Jan seemed pleased!

Then the ladies came back on (we could have taught them a few things about coming onto a stage!) to join us in singing ‘You Raise Me Up’ together with Kay accompanying and Liszi turning the pages.

Again, the audience loved it.

It was time for the interval. The ladies set an example by making a bolt for the Anglican School school hall where the refreshments were, so we followed. The audience didn’t object meaning that we got to the biscuits first. Raffle tickets were sold. Old friendships were rekindled. A pleasant break.

We lined up well in our Green Room and made a superb job of walking to the stage and forming in lines to start the second half of the concert.

‘Wellerman’, the sea shanty, was first. As usual Dave sang the solo verses and we foot-stamped in time during the last chorus.

The sea theme was maintained, but in a very different style, in our next piece , ‘Pokarekare Ana’. Maybe our Māori was a bit rusty but Jan mouthed the words and we sang along pretending we knew exactly what we were singing. Indeed, many of us did when the lower sections sang the English part!

A Freddie Mercury/Queen theme had been introduced to this concert and we kicked it off with our next two pieces. Firstly ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ which we were giving it’s first outing (for the Leigh Orpheus, Freddie had done it many times). Not only did we finger-click and knee-slap pretty well, we were pretty confident with the words and our parts. Jan looked pleased. Having been warmed up by a bit of clapping the audience were ready for more Queen. This time ‘We Are the Champions of the World’. Jan had warned them that there would be some arm-waving, the Swift ladies couldn’t hold themselves back, and soon after we started singing they were in action. No lighters, but there were maybe one or two phone torches being waved. We dutifully joined Jan in arm-waving at the correct point and waved away with most of the Leigh Orpheus and some of the audience moving in sync.

More applause.

Then it was back to the seats once the ladies had vacated them. Maybe it was because the seats were in formal rows that it worked so much better than when we have church pews to return to sit in?

The ladies continued the Queen Theme with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Very nice but some of us thought that we do it better. Rumour has it that BoRhap could be a joint piece at a future concert with the Swifts. Well why not?! In fact, perhaps each choir could put forward a soloist and they could do ‘Barcelona’. OK, maybe not.

In contrast to their BoRhap came ‘When I am Silent’, then Ben E King’s ‘Stand by Me’, ‘ The Lily and the Rose’ (which they obeyed their MD by agreeing that they now loved it) and Carly Simon’s ‘Let the River Run’. It was great to be able to sit and be entertained by another amateur choir doing their best to perform to the highest standard they could.

Then we were all on again. Another smart entrance on stage, a bit of shuffling about to fit everyone from both choirs in, two conductors in position, and we started the ‘I Believe/Ave Maria Quodlibet’. The Swifts watched Tim, their MD. We watched Jan and Jan watched Tim. We sang ‘I Believe’ as well as we’ve ever done.

And the audience loved it. Many stood in appreciation. To see and hear a video recorded by a member of the audience click on the link below (usual Ts & Cs about not sharing):

And just as we thought it was all over, there was a request for us to do it again. And we did! More applause and one more person standing.

We could now leave, safe in the knowledge that we’d provided a good evening’s entertainment and that if we do it again on home soil it will promise to be another good concert.

Some collected their things and left. Several of us stayed to help take down the stage and re-arrange the church. We are generally appreciated for the help we give on such occasions and we try to do what is required However, we decided, when it was nearly done, that when we were being given orders that wasn’t what we were there for and it was time for us to go!

It had been another great Joint Concert. An email from the Swifts says:

Just wanted to say what a wonderful evening we all had last night, the Concert was extremely well received, and I think both choirs complimented one another.

 Please give our best wishes to all the men, and thank Janet and Kay, on our behalf, I hope we can have a repeat performance in the not too distant future.

Photo Credits: Bob Owen. Neil

The Leigh Orpheus Singing Workshop. Saturday, 14^th October 2023

As part  of our current recruitment initiatives we planned a Singing Workshop, open to all of our Leigh Orpheus members, as well as any other men who might  be interested. It would be good for us, as well as possibly attracting new members.  As it turned out, the first was certainly true (the second less so!)

We wanted something different, our aim being to enjoy a morning singing together. The facilitator of the workshop was Chris Pethers, Assistant Director of the London Gay Men’s Chorus, a men’s singing group with over 200 members performing on stage at their high-profile gigs at large venues.

Here’s the agreed Plan for the session:

      10:00 Introduction and Warm Up

      10:30 Session 1: Singing is Fun!

      11:10 Break with Refreshments

      11:35 Session 2: Close Harmony

      12:35 Comfort Break

      12:45 Session 3: Performing a song

      13:45 Recap, questions/discussion

      14:00 End                      

      14.00 Buffet Lunch

Chris started with Warm Ups – which he regards as vital if we are to get our voices ready to sing. Like many physical activities best performance can’t be achieved, and damage can be done, if there is insufficient Warming Up. We did loads of exercises some of which included rhythm and dynamics. We are all pretty good at ‘1, 121, 12321, 1234321 (etc)’ although clapping on ‘1’ challenged some of us a bit.

We moved on to have fun singing! Simple rounds and some rhythm exercises. Within a few minutes three pieces, based on the ‘four basic chords’ idea, were being confidently sung in harmony! And who would have though that blokes in their 80s would be beatboxing!

A break, during which Pam and Sue treated us to drinks and nice biscuits. Smashing.

Next, we were learning a new piece. Chris bobbed and tapped and conducted from the front, willing us to give our best. And we did! Within a short while we were singing one of Chris’s own arrangements of Jerome Kern’s ‘The Way You Look Tonight’. And he made us mix up in parts! Who would have thought that singing alongside another part could be such fun?! It was actually helpful hearing one’s own part alongside a different part!

We worked hard and all that moving around and standing up meant that some were ready for the next Comfort Break.

Then it was the final session – Performance. And what do you know, we learned a further new piece! Another of Chris’s arrangements (he’s a talented chap). Billy Joel’s ‘The Longest Time’. Another opportunity to get all mixed up and it wasn’t long before one half of us was performing to the other, and vice versa. There was even some move to the groove!

Thankfully Chris helped us by making it very clear whether we were starting at ‘A’ or ‘B’ after each chorus. And we got it right! The Tenor 2’s had the tune and were at the centre of this piece – and what a brilliant job they made of it! The backing singers were pretty good too!

You can see and hear us singing both pieces in this excellent YouTube video, expertly crafted by Ron Circus, (thanks, Ron) by clicking on the link below. Probably best viewed 'full screen'!

(as usual, these recordings are for Leigh Orpheus eyes only)

Finally, Chris gave us some tips on performing, engaging with our audience and so on. Then, in case anyone was interested, a plug for a London Gay Men’s Chorus show at the Cadogan Hall on 25^th November and being hosted by Sandi Tocsvic. (click here for details)  It’s fair to say that there was a lot of interest and there’s talk of getting a group together to go to the matinee. Six seats for the price of 5 should help!

Then a perfect end to the session with a lovely buffet lunch. Pam and Sue provided a lovely spread!!

And what do you know?! An even more perfect end to the session with loads of enthusiastic Leigh Orpheus members willingly getting the furniture in the Salvation Army Temple back to the way it was before we started.

Thanks to everyone (and especially Chris) for a brilliant session!

The Leigh on Sea Salvation Army 121st Anniversary Concert. Saturday, 7th October 2023.

We were asked to perform in a joint concert with the Leigh Salvation Army Band to help them celebrate their 121^st Anniversary Weekend. An opportunity to perform locally, but in a different venue to our home venue. So, we went for it.

Like many other serious music groups in the area, the Leigh Orpheus publicises its performances on the local Anti Clash Calendar. Some groups don't, and it was disappointing to find that another local choir had arranged a concert just down the road at the Leigh Community Centre. Meaning that some of our Leigh Orpheus members were missing, that audiences for both would potentially be reduced, and that there would be pressure on car parking.

It’s probably fair to say that it turned out not to be what many of us were expecting! For starters, although we’d been asked to perform alongside the Leigh on Sea Salvation Army Band the concert wasn’t at the Leigh on Sea Salvation Army. It was at the Leigh Wesley Baptist Church up the road. And it wasn’t actually with the Leigh Salvation Army Band. They were joined by the Southend Salvation Army Band and we know that at least one of the players was from Hadleigh Temple. We’d been invited to join them in a Concert. But it turned out to be much more ‘church service’ than we’d expected! Prayers, readings and something very much like a sermon made it much less ‘concerty’ than we are used to.

Nevertheless, all had been put in place and we were committed to it. As usual, we rehearsed, particularly concentrating on ‘Praise My Soul’ which was to be our opening piece.

There was less time than we would often have to rehearse and sound-check at the church. And their electric piano was judged to be not up to the quality we needed. Thankfully, our own gear had been brought from our storage unit at Safestore and helpfully those who transport it and know how to set the gear up arrived early enough that it was ready for us.

Here we are rehearsing ‘You Raise Me Up’

Here we are posing after the sound check! Nice to get a pic with Jan and Kay in it.

But what of the ‘concert’ you say?!

Here’s the programme. We never quite understood why each time we performed we had to reduce the number of pieces by one! (four, then three, then two)

For a second concert running our ‘march in’ for the first half was very good with everyone knowing who was in front and behind them and everyone (well, nearly) getting to their correct seat straight away.

Our first ‘sing’ was along with the audience (congregation?!) singing a hymn. Well, it was written by Wesley and we were in his church. Some of us knew it without needing the words!

Then, after a prayer, ‘Praise My Soul’ seemed good as an opener for the Leigh Orpheus, although as they are probably used to singing it as part of a service, the audience seemed torn – should they not applaud because they don’t applaud when they sing a hymn? Or should they applaud to show us their support for singing something religious (they’d have scanned the programme and realised that it was 50% secular!).

A clever choice for our next piece – ‘You Raise Me Up’. Popular, fairly modern, and could still be perceived as sacred.

Next it was ‘Love is All Around’. Again, maybe another clever piece as some of the audience might have thought it was about God’s Love. From the looks on many of their faces they weren’t feeling the lovin’! Especially the conductor of the Band who all evening looked pretty grim.

Our final piece for that set – ‘Fly me to the Moon’. Given all those science versus religion arguments during the Middle Ages, and what believers should and shouldn’t believe, this might have been considered sacrilege in Wesley’s day. But he wasn’t there so it probably didn’t matter.

Next, we got to hear a piece from the band. Everything the band played had been composed by a Norwegian Salvation Army Salvationist, Eric Herikstad who, when the concert was planned, was expected to be at the Anniversary Weekend, but had died in the meantime. Lucky we weren’t singing with the band as they’d have drowned us out. Ear Defenders weren’t available. From where we sat we had a pretty good view of those skilled musicians doing their thing.

Next Bandsman Martin, who seemed to be a big noise in Salvation Army music circles, treated us to two pieces, accompanied by David Stanley on our very own (still new; still on its early outings; still sounding good; still good value for money) Leigh Orpheus keyboard and associated sound system.

Then it was time for our second set. Just three numbers this time. All clearly secular. ‘Alexanders’ Ragtime Band’ might have had some feet tapping but ‘Wellerman’ was maybe a bit risky for an organisation that promotes temperance! “Soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and…….RUM.” We smiled, Dave soloed, and many seemed to enjoy it. Perhaps it was the thought of that forbidden rum? Finally for that set ‘Wade in the Water’. A spiritual, so we’d expect our SA pals to like it. Especially as there is reference to “askin my Lord to save me please”.  Not sure that “I heard a rumbling up in the sky. Musta been Jesus passin by.” isn’t a bit flippant?

Anyhow, back to the service, and it was time for Capt Robert to introduce Eric Herikstand’s daughter Maria who had travelled from Norway to represent her family and hear a special piece that her father had written especially for the Leigh SA - ‘JubeLeighonSea’. It would be good to have the opportunity to hear it played again as two of us at least thought we heard The Village People’s ‘Go West’ within the music. If so that made it even more relevant that there was a Diversity and Inclusion Flag above the Band. (the SA are totally cool about LGBTQ+ issues and the Methodists vary depending on what type of Methodist they are). Maria was presented with a ‘then and now’ picture of the Leigh SA. She seemed pleased.

Then it was the interval. There had been a previous querying of whether the drinks we were routinely helping ourselves to were actually for us or for the church’s Harvest Festival! They were for us and we indulged appropriately and relaxed in a room that wasn’t ours but which we very effectively took over.

On to the second half. Despite Capt Robert confirming what time we needed to go back in at the end of the interval, Bandleader Paul didn’t wait for us and started before we made our entrance. Sadly a less precise entrance this time. One member let us down by deliberately not complying and another just couldn’t get himself in the right place at the right time.

We all sang another Wesley hymn – ‘Love Divine all Loves Excelling’ (in retrospect we could have sung one of our ‘love’ songs afterwards!).

Then our final set where we left the English language to sing in Zulu and Welsh. starting with Siyahambe where the variations in the level of sound we were producing had us marching into the distance and then back again quite quickly.

Next Gwahoddiad. Despite the fact that they wouldn’t understand us singing in Welsh, as the audience had been told that this was a hymn, they were potentially back on board, And they liked it! So, of course, did we. Who doesn’t like those final ‘Amens’?!

Those of us looking at our programmes knew we had a long slog until the end and nothing for us to do. We listened to another Herikstad March from the band.

Next there was more Tuba/Martin who this time gave us a bit of background to his musicianship.

The band again. Yes, another Herikstad piece.

Next, a bible reading by Colonel Jenine Main, followed by a reflection (aka a sermon). Colonels Paul and Jenine Main were special guests for the 121^st Anniversary weekend. Some reflected on what Colonel Jenine said, some reflected on the meaning of life and some reflected on the fantastic wooden roof in the church.

Another hymn with the band and yet another Herikstad piece played by the band. Those of us analysing the programme realised that we’d been on for three sets and the band had been on for six. Again, not exactly the ‘joint’ concert we were expecting.

Finally we were blessed and it was time to go. There were potentially much worse ways of spending a Saturday evening. Another good opportunity for us to promote the Leigh Orpheus. An opportunity for us to sing in the town whose name we take. And joy of joys, a performance where Jan used the pic to introduce our pieces!

Some of us went straight off home and others who could stay generously helped pack up the sound equipment and carry it to Neil’s car where, as long as it all went in in the correct order, it all fitted and could be taken back to Safestore.

An Autumn Extravaganza. Trinity Methodist Church Chelmsford. Saturday, 30^th September 2023.

This concert has a bit if history about it! In Autumn 2022 we did a Hertfordshire MiniTour including a performance at a lovely deconsecrated country church in Great Munden. The locals liked us so much that the neighbouring folk of Little Munden asked if we could go back and sing for them to help to raise funds for their still-being-used church. Why not?! They would cover the costs of our Music Team and, significantly, give us an afternoon tea which would equal the quality and quantity of the tea provided at Great Munden. What’s not to like?

We agreed a date, plans were made, a coach was booked, the programme was arranged, a final visit was made to check out the logistics. Then, without much notice, they cancelled on us! With no apology that we’d therefore been left in the lurch and expecting a 30^th September performance. Not exactly ‘Love thy Neighbour’!

In an attempt to rescue the situation we put it about in Male Voice Choir circles that we were trying to find somewhere to perform on 30^th September. And, what do you know, our neighbours, the Chelmsford Male Voice Choir came forward and invited us to join them in an evening concert. So generous of them. The usual planning of programme, agreeing of joint pieces, visiting the venue and so on went on. As did rehearsing our own and the two joint pieces.

And so it was that we pitched up at Trinity Methodist Church on Saturday 30^th September to sing in Chelmsford MVC’s Autumn Extravaganza Concert.

Many a challenge was overcome! Car sharing, travelling all the way to Chelmsford, car parking, avoiding going past the Bus Station and the associated £40 fine and so on. Zed arrived so early that he got involved in helping them get the place ready! Sadly during our time there negotiating the podium wasn’t so successful for Barry McGee’s wife who got a nasty gash on her leg as a result of its sharp corner.

It turned out that we were in for a pleasant, and from all the feedback, very successful concert.

There was some degree of waiting around while choir seats were put in position and even more waiting around while we sorted out our own Leigh Orpheus sectional positions. But eventually it all went very well and we ended up with seating that worked and positions for singing that worked too. It was lucky for us that the Chelmsford folk had put us in front of them. As they use a different formation for their sections the fact that they were spread around us potentially helped.

Time for a rehearsal of the two pieces we’d be singing together at the ends of each half. Here we are with Jan rehearsing 'An American Trilogy'.

Then a bit of down time. Some went off in search of a sandwich. Some made it to our Green Room which had been moved to the first floor from the second. Nice of Chelmsford to supply us with some bottled water. (We would do at least as much if we had a visiting choir). Some stayed downstairs as the lift to the first and sending floors was out of service.

Then it was on with the show.

What do you know, having lined up on the stairs, and with those who couldn’t manage the stairs joining us as we went in, we did one of the best ‘line by line’ entrances we’ve ever done. Proves it’s possible!

As the programme shows, as the hosts, Chelmsford went first, their MD Paul Smith (who had come to one of our rehearsals to rehearse ‘Softly’ with us) conducting them. How nice to just sit and listen to another Male Voice Choir, even if those right behind were, on many occasions, pretty loud. If you were there you know what they sounded like. If you weren’t – well it was pretty good and possibly helped us realise that we’d need to put on a good performance if we were to match them.

Next, a soloist. Again, very nice to sit and listen. Colin Barron had the best view!

Then we were on, conscious of Jan’s warning that our first impression was important – we needed to look like we were enjoying it. Is it just me, or do audiences not give us a lot of feedback by not smiling back at us?!

‘New York New York’ was followed by ‘Fly me to the Moon’. Here we are singing it with a video kindly taken by Brian Hickey’s wife Sue and expertly formatted by Ron Circus who sadly couldn’t be at the concert. (Click on the pic)

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Next was ‘This Nearly was Mine’ and ‘Love is All Around’. Finally for our last piece in this set, ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’. Having been sitting comfortably and still the audience seemed to get their feet tapping at that point! The applause was generous, including from our colleagues from Chelmsford MVC behind us.

We’d got as far as the interval with no obvious glitches and with an air of satisfaction from the audience. Jan’s subtle appreciation as we finished the pieces had been both welcome and reassuring.

After the interval it was back on again. Not quite as smart or organised as our first entrance. Maybe concentration had dropped.

We were on first for this half in which it turns out we’d demonstrate our language skills by not only deploying our native Estuary English, but also Zulu, Māori and Welsh. (and later Yankee if you count ‘American Trilogy’!).

Each of the pieces seemed to go down well in their own way. Dave Smith’s voice had held out well for his solos in ‘Wellerman’ and he did us proud. Those who were standing on the wooden parts of the floor foot-tapped appropriately. (note from pedant – the piece is entitled ‘Wellerman’. Not ‘THE Wellerman’!!!), In ‘Siyahambe’ Jan took the dynamic to extremes we hadn’t experienced for a long time.

The soloist again with two more pieces, one a duet which was pretty cool.

Then it was their turn. ‘The Drinking Song’ with their two soloists was great, ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ made it difficult for us to not join in and they finished with ‘Men of Harlech’ which was certainly rousing.

Time for the thank you’s by very many. The Mayor of Chelmsford was generous in her praise. It was possible to be convinced that she really did prefer attending yet another event the Mayor is expected to pitch up at than an evening at home in front of the TV. Our Chairman Sam had the opportunity to say how grateful we were to have been invited and what a great evening it had been.

Then the final piece. As might be expected from a church (although it’s not always the case) the acoustic was pretty good and with Jan conducting, and Kay accompanying, the two choirs embarked on ‘An American Trilogy’ (pedant alert!).

It felt good having so many singing a piece that we know and love. We loved singing it. The audience loved hearing it. And you can view the video here by clicking on the pic:

And that was it! The end of a fine evening. Some of us especially appreciated just being able to pick up our things and go. Not cajole, or be cajoled, into staying to put the furniture back ready for a church service the following day.

We’d had a good evening and came away considering what pieces they had sung which we’d maybe like to add to our repertoire. Lots of good feedback from Chelmsford MVC and others. Jan commented  “I was extremely proud of the choir last week. It was a lovely concert and we performed well.”

Onwards and upwards – next week it’s another joint concert, this time with the Leigh on Sea Salvation Army Band. (We won’t be doing any joint pieces!)

The Leigh Orpheus Autumn Concert. St Augustine's Church, Thorpe Bay. Saturday 16th September 2023

For the second year in a row our Autumn concert took place at St Augustine’s, Thorpe Bay. We were warmly welcomed last year and had a good audience. We hoped for the same this year.

Some Leigh Orpheus members were there early to get things organised – seating for the choir when not performing, an uncluttered performance area, the piano, a raffle table – that sort of thing.

Then the inevitable ‘positioning and sound check’ which was supposed to start at 6pm. To be fair most members were there on time. It has to be done and actually helped us to find that our performance here sounded many times better than our lack-lustre singing at rehearsal the previous evening.

After the sound check the opportunity to present Ian McClean, Mac, with his choir pin, this being his first full, in uniform, concert.

St Augustine’s is one of those venues where we are able to have a raffle. Leigh Orpheus members had been very generous indeed in donating raffle prizes.

We’d been rehearsing the pieces for this concert for some time. Words were challenging for some. Sticking to the sectional line was challenging for others. But, work having been done on them, it all came together pretty well on the night.

With Rev Dave having welcomed us (and having somewhat dubiously invited audience members to follow him to the toilets in the Church Hall during the interval) we kicked off with our first set. Two Frank Sinatra pieces – ‘New York, New York’ and ‘Fly Me to the Moon’, then Siyahambe and ‘Every Time I Feel the Spirit’.

Here’s a video of us singing ‘New York, New York’ (Click on the image)*

Here’s a video of us singing ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ (click on the image)*

Here’s a video us singing of ‘Siyahambe’ (you know what you have to do!)*

The audience liked them all!

Then it was time for the first of our first of three soloists – Ron Circus singing ‘If You Were the Only Girl in the World’ expertly accompanied by Jan.

Click on Ron's pic to hear and see his performance.

Our second set comprised three love songs, ‘Love is All Around’, ‘Three Times a Lady’ and our first public outing of ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’.

Time for Dave’s first of three solos. A self-composed piece written in 2013 called ‘England 63’.

Then it was audience participation time. The ‘Gospel Medley followed by ‘We are the Champions’ All the usual arm-waving towards the end of ‘Champions’. Some even enjoyed it. And no ‘jazz hands’ (It’s NOT a jazz piece!)

Interval time and the relief of a trip to the Church Hall for many. Some held out in the queue for the single toilet in the church.

More raffle-ticket-purchasing meaning more lovely money into our Leigh Orpheus funds; every little helps! (and as we’ll see later, the income from the raffle wasn’t insignificant).

Lots of friendly chatting with guests.

On to the Second Half, with songs associated with water reminding those who hadn’t been to the loo during the interval that maybe they should have paid a visit.

‘Wade in the Water’, ‘Calm is the Sea’ and ‘The Wellerman’ with Dave doing another solo within this piece. That guy’s talents!!

Time for us to sit down and listen to another solo. After a surprisingly short intro to his piece Jim wowed the audience with Benjamin Britten's arrangement of WB Yeat’s ’ The Sally Gardens’.  An old Irish folk song sung by an old Australian!

Then time to share even more love with three more love songs. ‘This Nearly Was Mine’, ‘Pokarekare Anna’ (crib sheets were discretely brought out) and ‘Stand by Me’. Tony Grellier’s Review on the public part of our website tells us that we are the 400^th group to have performed this piece!

Here’s a video us singing of ‘Pokarecare Ana’. Our Māori is impeccable.*

Then on came Dave again with his guitar, to sing another Smudger Original, ‘If It’s Raining Where You Are’.

We try not to miss the opportunity to do a recruitment promotion and this concert offered one. Out stepped Sam to talk about how great it is to sing in the Leigh Orpheus and to exhort men in the audience to come along to our Singing Workshop on 14^th October.

Then, the raffle having been drawn by Pam and her Front of House Ladies, the winning numbers were announced. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait for everyone to go and get their prizes – there were 27 of them. Audience members could collect their prizes as they left.

Then it was almost over, But not before we’d impressed the audience with our last two pieces: ‘You Raise Me Up’ and ‘American Trilogy’.

Here’s a video us singing of ‘You Raise Me Up’*

And here’s a video us singing ‘American Trilogy'*

Another successful concert at St Augustine’s. Jan was pleased and we’ve had some lovely feedback from the Vicar at St Augustine’s saying how enjoyable it was.

We managed to do a little bit more than break even with ticket sales. But our saving grace was the raffle that itself raised £350.

Thanks to Ron Circus for videoing the pieces sung in the concert and editing them so that they are available for us to watch via the links above.

• VERY IMPORTANT. The videos on our Members' area, which includes those in this Report, are for our own enjoyment only. ON NO ACCOUNT should they be shared or copied. There could be some that are not necessarily of a quality that we would want made public

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The Hadleigh Community Summer Fayre. 3rd September 2023

With so many local people likely to attend this event it would be a good opportunity to promote our Autumn Concert at St Augustine's, Thorpe Bay, on 16th September and our Singing Workshop - another of our recruitment initiatives - on 14th October. We wanted to sing but there was no time for us. Nevertheless, a stall would give us a good opportunity for Leigh Orpheus promotion.

The ‘set up’ team were in place early, putting up the gazebo and creating an image that was clean and professional (which could not be said for some of the other stalls in the vicinity!).

Mac, John Hillier, George Lockheart and Neil did their finest, much assisted by items brought along by John and George.

Then it was time for the fun to begin. John Stack (who was there for a double-session), Jim Ryan and Dave Smith and Sam (both of whom would return for another session in the afternoon) kicked things off at the start. 11,00 am. As the uniform that had been suggested didn’t work, and it was going to be a hot day, open necked shirt and red waistcoat was agreed (with trousers and shoes and socks of course).

Members of the public started drifting by, some interested, some trying to avoid us. It didn’t take long to learn appropriate responses to “I’m not interested, I can’t sing to save my life.” with gems like “Never mind, let me give you this flyer for our next concert and you can come and hear us sing!”

Flyers were given out; conversations were had.

John Stack used a potentially-risky technique of approaching children and offering them sweets! All was above board though as it meant he could then very effectively interact with the accompanying father! Brilliant!

Then at 12.30 pm it was time for the next team to take over. John Stack stayed on and Michael joined.

It has to be said that everyone did well in interacting with the punters, but the team of John and Michael went the extra mile to keep people engaged. No excuse would get past them. No comment not responded to with an appropriate quip.

It was rumoured that the Orpheus Singers sang. We heard the introductions but we didn’t hear them. A challenging place to sing outdoors.

Half way through the day and the next team were in place for the 2 pm shift. Peter, Colin and George.

Again, plenty of interactions, interest shown and flyers distributed. Sadly no tickets sold by Neil who was there all day to work the Card Machine but good feedback from a member of the public that we looked good in our red waistcoats. That’s ‘marketing’ for you!

There was some consternation when one of the team exclaimed, with earshot of those around, as he talked to a lady “It’s all right, I’ve given her one.”. He was referring to having given a lady a flyer. Others misinterpreted the comment!

Then the graveyard shift at 3.30 pm. But Zed, Dave and Sam kept things alive and managed some more engagement with potential new audience and choir members.

By 4.30 pm other stalls were shutting up shop and the trickle of punters was lessening. Time for us to pack up.

Huge thanks to Mac, Dave, Sam, Zed, John Hillier, Colin and George for their swift packing away work. We even overcame the challenge of how to collapse the frame of the gazebo without bending it out of shape!

An excellent day’s work which will hopefully pay off in terms of audience members at St Augustine’s and new recruits at our Singing Workshop.

August 2023. Leigh Orpheus Welcomes Another Three New Members. 

Their first full, in-uniform, perfromance was on Saturday, 19th August. On Friday, 25th August they were presented with their choir pins by Chairman Sam Coley.

Welcome, chaps!

The way we promoted our concerts in 2014!

Effective promotion is always a challenge! Getting the  message across in a way that attracts people's attention can involve a number of techniques. Generally the more effective they are the more expensive they are. So no-cost techniques that might work are always worth considering.

Whatever made us think that pushing a piano around Leigh on Sea on a Saturday morning would attract people to a Leigh British Legion concert at West Leigh Baptist Church?

Well some of us did!

It wasn't all easy-going!

As it happened, our then President, Sir David Amess, was passing by and he joined us.

We must have thought it was effective because we did the same thing again in November 2014, promoting our Christnas Concert and a Mayor's Charity Variety Night we were involved in.

And we did it in the dark!

Don't we look different in our 'old' LOMVC uniforms?!

Who can name all of the LOMVC members involved?!

From the Southend Echo February 2008. 

Recruitment in 2008. Come and Sing (2).

The LOMVC Summer Concert 2023

The Concert was preceded by our Supporters Tea to which we'd invited Patrons, Life Members, Committee Members and Honarary Members. All people who give us invaluable support. Good to see some old friends and to chat over old times. Loyal Life Member Paul Lloyd, now a member of the St Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir was there. Pam had bought in some sumptuous sandwiches, cakes, and of course scones, cream  and jam. The hospitality team served them to our guests. They loved it!    

Also before the concert an opportunity to present two new members, performing a full concert for the first time, with their choir pins. Welcome to being a Full Member lads. We hope your time with the Leigh Orpheus will be an enjoyable and memorable one.

On to the concert which was held on a sunny evening at the Salvation Army Temple in Hadleigh. Alan had done a brillaint job selling tickets at rehearsal and our online ticket sales were fairly popular too. Hence, a good audience in our home venue but no need for us to open the back area for extra seating.

The rest of this Report is based on a Review of the concert written by Tony Grellier who was in the audience.