Author Archives: DA Walker

I retired as a medic in 2011. I gave up playing rugby aged 44 and cricket aged 60. I’ve sung baritone with New Mill MVC since 1994. I learned to write sentences at Huddersfield New College in the 1950s, starting a diary in 1990. Since then I’ve tried to write regularly.

A walk up to the Ramsden Clough rifle range

March 6, 2023 – 4:49 pm

Clic for more information https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/Ramsden_Clough_Rifle_Range

Five singers walked up to the disused range. Tom’s neighbour, Martin Tweddle, and his son joined us.
We parked at Yateholme and went up the rough track, rougher and spoiled by Chelsea tractors.
Then winding up the moor on uneven, barely visible paths. Ibbo and I, 74 and 75 years, equally balance-challenged, slipped and slid. I fell once.
Great to be out in the hills. Streams, heather, ruined stone walls and range residue (clic on link for detail). Disturbed grouse the only wild life.
Back the same way, supported by Emidio.
Martin and son turned off right and carried on. We retired to the Pickled Pheasant.

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Favourite Venues

October 12, 2022 – 1:59 pm

Pinched from Sir Willard’s Town Hall programme.

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New Mill MVC go to London (2)

August 6, 2022 – 1:56 pm

The two bus journeys, there and back, were excellent.

The venues, Southwark Cathedral and St Alfege’s, Greenwich, were great open spaces. ‘St Alfege Church has a rich musical tradition and is the burial place of Thomas Tallis, the father of English church music, who composed and directed music under four monarchs from Henry V111 to Elizabeth 1. St Alfege Church maintains a fine reputation for cathedral-standard music with over 30 choir members led by Director of Music, Ben Newlove’.

Appreciative audiences. Enjoyable good performances. The final note in You’ll Never Walk Alone is odd – I had a ‘hypo’ and was listening at the back of the church.

Getting about was mostly on foot, with ‘Uber’ boats for distance.

Accommodation a brown-grey student block. Basic and okay, great breakfast. Hot sleep.

Organisation superb – Steve Flynn.

London mvvc4

Our Pick. The walk over Millennium Bridge, 11 pm return from the afterglow at The Cockpit, near St Pauls. Cool breeze and magnificent illuminated views of London’s riverside skyline. Solos from the usual suspects. Emidio on ‘South Australia’, a tribute to David Haigh. A final Sunday pint in The Swan. The barmaid gave us a tutorial on electronic ordering at our table. I’m no wiser.

English National Theatre production; a restoration comedy along the line of Sheridan’s ‘The Rivals’. Caroline Quentin as Mrs. Maloprop. We ate here. I won’t go into the price of water and other hidden extras. There’s a war on. An RAF station during the ‘Battle of Britain’. Men die and it’s horrid. What did they do in their spare time? No guesses. All but one of the actors ended up with a partner in the final act. The ‘but one’ was killed flying a spitfire, defending an air raid. So, many of the malapropisms referred to sex. Quite salacious. The play came alive in the second half for me. Lots of action and a song and dance routine. Class wars a subplot.

London mvvc2

London mvvc

A successful and enjoyable weekend. We spoke to quite a few singers and wives we didn’t know well. Some with a London background which helped. After my ‘hypo’ Steph Horne talked about her diabetes – she is brilliant. I shared some of the older male preoccupations with baritone Ibbo and tenor Chris after a few pints of Landlord. Can’t remember what they were. And time away from our busy lives in the north.

Additional thanks to pianist Emm and musical director Dorian.

There were frustrations. Inevitable with popular bars and eateries, good weather and the weekend. So lots of people and queues. And expense, but that’s everywhere these days. Suck it up and enjoy. Most of us won’t do it again. The tall buildings might almost be alien and intimidating. They block the sun. Confusing maze-like back alleys away from the river and many disorientated singers and wives. Walking took on extra distances. It was Mackie’s first substantial London trip. He loved it but, “Can I go home now?”

Back home, Mackie presented Steve with a decent bottle. Steve wants the organiser’s job next year.

ps. on recent narrowboat trips we didn’t cruise as far as expected. Sowerby Bridge to Aspley – no, Brighouse instead and great. In Scotland no further than Linlithgow from Stirling. So it was on Sunday morning in London. Tate Modern? Borough Market? No – a walk to The Swan and back, quickly taking in some of the sights, smells and sounds of the market.

JRR – John Rotchell, one of the deaf basses, seen mostly from behind.

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New Mill MVC go to London

August 4, 2022 – 3:10 pm

The two bus journeys, there and back, we’re excellent.

Appreciative audiences.

Getting about was mostly on foot, with ‘Uber’ boats for distance.

Accommodation a brown-grey student block. Basic and okay, great breakfast. Hot sleep.

Organisation superb – Steve Flynn.

London mvvc4

Our Pick. The walk over Millennium Bridge, 11 pm return from the afterglow at The Cockpit, near St Pauls. Cool breeze and magnificent illuminated views of London’s riverside skyline. Usual suspects and Emidio on ‘South Australia’, a tribute to David Haigh. A final Sunday pint in The Swan. The barmaid gave us a tutorial on electronic ordering at our table. I’m no wiser.

English National Theatre production; a restoration comedy along the line of Sheridan’s ‘The Rivals’. Caroline Quentin as Mrs. Maloprop. We ate here. I won’t go into the price of water and other hidden extras. There’s a war on. An RAF station during WW2. Men die and it’s horrid. What do you do in your spare time? No guesses. All but one ended up with a partner in the final act. The ‘but one’ was killed flying a spitfire, defending an air raid. Many of the malapropisms referred to sex. Quite salacious. The play came alive in the second half for me. Lots of action and a song and dance routine. Class wars a subplot.

London mvvc2

London mvvc

London mvvc3

However hard I try I cannot correct behiend to behind

A successful and enjoyable weekend. Any additional benefits? We spoke to quite a few we didn’t know well. Some with a London background which helped. I shared some of the older male preoccupations with Ibbo and Chris after a few pints of Landlord. What were they? And time away from our busy lives in the north.

Additional thanks to Emm and Dorian.

There were frustrations. Inevitable with popular bars and eateries, good weather and the weekend. So lots of people and queues. And expense, but that’s everywhere these days. Suck it up and enjoy. Most of us won’t do it again. The tall buildings might almost be alien and intimidating. They block the sun. Confusing maze-like back alleys away from the river. So walking took on extra distances. It was Mackie’s first substantial London trip. He loved it but, “Can I go home now?”

Back home, Mackie presented Steve with a decent bottle.

ps. on recent boat trips we didn’t cruise as far as expected. Sowerby Bridge to Aspley – no, Brighouse instead and great. No further than Linlithgow from Stirling. So it was on Sunday morning in London. Tate Modern? Borough Market? No – a walk to The Swan and back, quickly taking in some sights, smells and sounds of the market.

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Rita Tushingham – shares our repertoire

June 26, 2022 – 10:15 am

Continue reading →

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New Mill Publishes in Learned Journal

May 25, 2022 – 4:19 pm

Strange but true

Yes. It’s a bit of fun really. My CV doesn’t need any more massage, padding, bumf.

It’s about that visit by a well known local choral guy to advise the choir on singing.

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Upperthong – book now to avoid disappointment

April 27, 2022 – 9:02 am

Clic here

Concert Booking

New Mill MVC starts the concert season with our “Swing into Spring” Concert at St John’s Church Upperthong on Saturday 7th May at 7.30pm
£10

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Dvorak – New World Symphony – Going Home

March 29, 2022 – 11:21 am

Dvorak wrote this piece in 1893, soon after getting to America, newly appointed Director of National Conservatory of Music. Influenced by great spaces and nature and also nostalgia for his European roots.

Premiered at Carnegie Hall 1893.

Dvorak was influenced by Traditional Spirituals. The opening Adagio contains music similar to Swing Low Sweet Chariot. The second movement, Largo, contains the themes to which a Dvorak student, William Arms Fisher wrote the words – ‘Goin’ Home’, published 1922 – also a spiritual feel.

This haunting melody is now part of New Mill’s repertoire.

Many will remember the Hovis ad.

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New Mill’s 2022 concert schedule

March 28, 2022 – 2:00 pm

(1) May 7th – St John’s, Upperthong

rearranged from Low Moor – still awaiting details

(2) Platinum Jubilee Family Picnic Concert

29 May 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

£10

Bring the whole family along to our Platinum Jubilee Family Picnic Concert with Hepworth Brass Band and New Mill Male Voice Choir to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 70 year reign.

Bar and refreshments will be available and you can bring along a family picnic to enjoy during the concert.

Click Book here to go to the ticketing page and then click on “Details” to select and purchase your tickets.

Family Tickets £20 (2 adults + 2 Children)

Adults £10

Under 16’s £2.50

(3) Netherton Summer Concert

Netherton Methodist

11 June 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

£8

(4) New Mill on tour – London 2022 – Southwark Cathedral and Greenwich

30 July 11:30 am – 4:00 pm

The Choir will Sing at Southwark Cathedral and St Alfege, Greenwich in July.

More details will appear as they are finalised

(5) October 8th – Sir Willard White joins the choir at Town Hall, Huddersfield

It’s not a throat lozenge

February 9, 2022 – 5:56 pm

fish Our habitual Manchester visit.

Train from Greenfield. Walk through the city.

Bridgewater Hall. I couldn’t see a bad seat.

A choir of Cornish fishermen from Port Isaac – together since 1995.

Covid-cancellation twice.

Well-sung sea shanties – not for everyone but an enjoyable night.

Overnight stay and home the following morning.

S Australia

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Faure and Tom did not disappoint

February 9, 2022 – 3:16 pm

Faure Requiem Concert Flyer 2022

Our annual visit to Mrs Sunderland. Great. Over 100 mixed voices. 3 from New Mill. 2 guest singers.

Faure’s name is apparently derived from ‘blacksmith’.

Day-long workshop topped off with a concert. One of those where the singers outnumbered the audience. Matter it did not.

Workshop director, the incomparable Tom Meredith. Teacher (tasty bits of music history, theory), mentor, coach (lips, mouth, cheeks, smiles, even eyebrows, breathing support), vocal exemplar. Relaxed, clearly enjoying himself enormously. Forever doing that tic-tac move over his head where to pitch one of those horrid ones. Decrying keeping heads in copies, but pleasantly.

And funny – it makes a massive difference. And humble. Wish we could bottle him.

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January 2022

February 4, 2022 – 10:29 am

The facebook page has been active throughout the pandemic. So has the choir – zoom rehearsals, then back to the club, a Town Hall concert with the Ukes and now an audition for Britain’s Got Talent.

Zoom was a bit weird. Singing on your own. But thanks to Dorian, invaluable. Keeping something going.

Back to the club has been cold for all those near the doors. No complaints – rehearsals have been great.

The Ukes concert was a triumph. Love the Bowie tune Heroes.

And Britain’s Got Talent:

bgt-2

There were lots ofs:

Cables and wires, screens and knobs, equalisers, big spaces, little spaces.

Hanging around spaces, queues in corridors spaces – like waiting for a flight at an airport. Supposedly singing at 2ish. Finally 4.30.

Staff in black – several for each task. Majority said well done, great gig. Frosty the ginger-haired floor manager’s mantra was “cool, brilliant”. You’re from Holmfirth; you came down this morning; you’re going back tonight – “cool, brilliant”.

Masked, loud, whistling, shouting, sitting, standing men, women and children – the audience.

All a bit of a blur one week on. The waiting and tiredness did deflate us, but I think most of us got some passion and energy for the performance – down the baritone end anyway. Simon Cowell was insulting – the token nasty, another different kind of nob.

I’m not sure where we are going with it now.

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Christmas Christchurch concert

November 26, 2021 – 5:26 pm

The event of the season

Saturday 18th December

7pm start

Christ Church, New Mill. HD9 7ER

Price £10 pp

clic here to book tickets

Only 50 tickets left

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Stop the Cavalry

November 10, 2021 – 12:55 pm

A hit for Jonah Lewie in 1980 (number 3 in the charts). A Christmas hit at that, yet primarily an anti-war song.

Initially inspired by the Charge of the Light Brigade (1854) from the Crimean War, the song includes WW1, with reference to Churchill, and the nuclear rivalry between America and the Soviets during the cold war of the 80s. So covers several generations of conflict.

The main message is the disconnect between a cold hungry soldier, either in the trenches or charging on his horse, and the generals far from the front line. A cold hungry soldier who was well aware he could easily die.

A simple request:

‘I wish I could be home for Christmas.
Wish I could be dancing now in the arms of the girl I love.
She’s been waiting two years long, two years long’.

Contrasts with an impossible dream:

‘If I get home, live to tell the tale, I’ll run for all Presidencies.
If I get elected, I’ll stop! I will stop the cavalry’.

…………………………

Flanders

Related, but unrelated and timely.

Remember Flanders 2014 (see link). Most of us abhor violent conflict on any scale and the heartbreaking loss of young lives. Yet there was dignity here in Flanders, in the white symmetrical stones and the neat names carved on walls. Row on row, just on the edge of our personal family histories, still not a remote date in a history textbook.

**We sang at the Menin Gate – Peace on Earth, Abide with Me**

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Christmas Concert Schedule

November 5, 2021 – 10:30 am

All the following concerts are now confirmed subject to any government changes to COVID regulations.

New Mill Xmas Fair Sat 27th Nov
A short concert in support of the church. It will start at 1pm and is a great opportunity to promote the choir in the local community. We will sing for approx 30mins

Denby Dale Rotary, Penistone Paramount Sat 11th Dec 7.30pm £10
Tickets from the venue, online.

Low Moor BASF Mon 13th Dec 7pm

Our Annual Christmas Concert, Christ Church, New Mill Sat 18th Dec 7pm £10
New Mill Church with Elizabeth Hambleton presiding. Sue on piano.
The ever popular chocolate coin raffle will be held.
Tickets will be available on line from November 6th on our web site.

An afterglow with a buffet will be available at New Mill Club.

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Hallelujah – Michael Posner Times Oct 16th

October 18, 2021 – 3:27 pm

Untold Stories:From This Broken Hill.

In June 1982 Cohen began an affair with Gabriela Valenzuela, over 20 years his junior. A student from Costa Rica. He had been working up to it for 2 years.

Her story – one night he wanted a haircut. So she did, both naked. “I tied him to the kitchen chair and seduced him, kissing without letting go”. He wrote all that night.

Another evening she slept on the roof and they made love. “We held tight to each other like sailors in a bad storm”.

It didn’t end well 4 years later.

“I don’t know if the song is about that, but when I hear it my soul vibrates”.

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Halleluja

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New Mill and the Ukes

October 12, 2021 – 3:21 pm

ukes1 ukes2

Great concert, though I didn’t catch a lot of what the Ukes were doing. By the audience reaction they were doing okay.

Yes, agree with John Middleton, Heroes was the high point with its connection to the story of the Berlin Wall.

Respect to Dorian and Emma for getting us up to concert speed. Also to Steve and his colleagues for getting us up to venue speed.

Concerts have space, between rehearsal and performance. Time to catch up on the last 18 months. Families, projects and preoccupations.

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Heroes – Ben Macintyre, Times, Oct 2nd

October 4, 2021 – 3:30 pm

bowie

Bowie died 5 years ago.

The lost album Toy, songs from past present and posthumous, is now available.

In 1977, Bowie lived in West Berlin with Iggy Pop. He recorded Heroes, his most frequently downloaded song. ‘He was inspired by looking out of the studio window and seeing two lovers embrace beneath the machinegun watchtowers.’ Symbols of Germany’s ’emotional and political gulf created by the wall.’ Each verse ends with ‘nothing can keep us together.’

There is hope ‘But we could be safer, just for one day.’

10 years later, when political change was in the air, he featured in a three day concert in front of the Riechstag. Thousands of East Berliners crowded as close to the wall as they could. Bowie said it felt like a double concert, hearing them cheering and singing from the other side. The police overreacted violently.

The concert and reaction helped ‘crystallise popular resistance’ supporting political and economic unrest which had been present for decades.

The Berlin Wall fell on November 9th, 1989.

Is there a link between this and the concert and the song? Bowie was ever questioning and undermining authority, but music tends to reflect change rather than initiate. Still a challenging character.

‘His ideas would find the most powerful and lasting impression in a song about love thwarted by totalitarianism.’ He asks the question ‘can ordinary people bring about great changes?’ I guess they would no longer be ordinary.

We can be heroes, just for one day.

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New Mill Male Voice Choir tour to the Czech Republic – Summer 2002 Doug Shuttleworth

October 2, 2021 – 3:36 pm

Of the overseas New Mill MVC’s tours, the Czech Republic stands out in my mind as the best. It provided the members of the choir and their followers an insight into a beautiful country which suffered under the communists prior to the 1990 bloodless revolution. From a personal point of view, it allowed me meet again the brave men and women I worked with in former Czechoslovakia, employed by Allied Colloids, who also employed me for much of my working life. The choir visit came only twelve years after the fall of communism, a time when I was traveling regularly with work to the former East European countries. I had to endure ‘meat free’ days (once a week), when it was forbidden for any person to consume any meat or meat product! Can you imagine Tesco’s or Morrison’s taking all meat from their shelves every Wednesday and police having the right to enter restaurants and even your home to check that you were not indulging in a meat orgy? There would be riots in the streets! In those former Soviet satellites, shortages required draconian measures to prevent total collapse of the system and starvation of the people. We don’t know how lucky we are! The tour was the first major overseas event for our new conductor at that time, Elizabeth Hambleton. Our accompanist was Sheila Asquith, a first for her also and one of many splendid stand in performances we enjoyed from her until her retirement. The tour was organised by NST, a Blackpool based company specialising in music and group tours. They provided a full hotel and travel package, recommending a two-centre tour to Prague and Cesky Krumlov in the south of the country. Guided tours of the best sights of both cities was included along with a guide, Walter, who spoke excellent English. In addition, to provide a fuller experience, I was able to arrange, through former colleagues in Prague, a number of special events sponsored by Allied Colloids Ltd. Jerry Rudovsky, a close friend who lives in Prague, was able to overcome some of the more challenging requirements for the tour, such as securing a suitable electronic keyboard for our concerts. Remember this was only twelve years after the fall of communism, items of this kind were still hard to come by! Through Jerry’s son, who sang with a local Prague boy’s choir, we performed in Prague’s famous ‘Hall of Mirrors’, the top choral venue in the country. Jerry followed this by an evening in a cellar restaurant, with a special local meal and a musical performance comprising a folk group and a clever chap who could play the musical saw. All was kindly financed by Allied Colloids Ltd! Of particular pleasure for me was the arrival of old Eastern European friends and work-mates for the concert in Prague and the restaurant afterwards. The famous Czech beer flowed. The following night, some of the choir attended the famous Prague opera, followed by a meal in a top Italian restaurant. A day visit to Karlowy Vary, the famous spa town in the west, provided a fine outing, though samples of the famous waters, in my opinion, did not compare with the Czech beers. An open choir concert in the town centre colonnades rounded off a great visit to the north. Our hotel in Prague was practical but uninspiring. The hotel in Cesky Krumlov in the south was a former castle, located on a tight bend on the river Vltava (which also flows through Prague), a much more appropriate place for a quality choir! The facilities were excellent, with spectacular views over the river and the World Heritage town in which the beautiful 16^th century streets and buildings were a pleasure. A boat race was held; a timed transit between two bridges during which we could easily have lost half the choir if the maritime genetic make up of we British had not prevailed! A coach tour to nearby Budweis, famous for Budwar beer, allowed the men to continue their sampling of excellent Czech brews. There is no doubt that as we ate, drank and sang out way through the final evening in the Czech Republic, all agreed that this tour had been something really special!

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How I came to join the choir – Steve Flynn

September 27, 2021 – 3:39 pm

January 2007

It’s not every day you ‘retire’. After 39 years of the day job I’m just waking up to the fact that my daily bike commute to Leeds Road is over. So what do I do now? I’ve worked in IT since the age of 19. Back then a computer filled a warehouse and had substantially less processing power than the average mobile phone. My early intentions are to provide a service to anyone in difficulties with home PC’s or who wants to know a bit more about the software they have, particularly Microsoft Office. Broadband seems a real minefield for some people so there’s probably work there too. And have you seen how much PC World charge for these services? Must be an opportunity to undercut those guys. So lets see how things develop.

March 2007

Remember when you were in work and that smug retiree would tell you how busy they were? Did you believe them? Course you didn’t. But it’s true. There’s lots of things to get involved in, most of them unpaid and time consuming. Projects at home and the odd bit of work, mostly for peanuts but rewarding nonetheless, fill out the days. Your social life begins to expand into daylight hours as well as nights. You begin to make the transition into ‘The Third Age’.

May 2007

Met Graham in Holmfirth. Still banging on at me to come along to New Mill choir. He says some of the guys get together on a Tuesday afternoon to play bowls which sounds a nice change to bashing pedals round on my bike. Although I can see through his cunning plan, I have to admit to an interest. But it’s raining so the bowls will have to wait.

June 2007

Still raining.

July 2007.

More rain.

September 2007

Met Graham in Holmfirth (again). The seed he planted in May must have germinated somewhere in my subconscious and I find myself provisionally agreeing to go along to a choir concert at St Paul’s in October. My resistance is beginning to weaken.

October 2007.

The concert is good fun and I genuinely enjoy it but can I sing like these guys? Three pints in the Star and it’s been agreed that I’m a baritone and I’m going to the next rehearsal at New Mill club. Beer: the salvation and downfall of men! It’s Tuesday night and I’ve walked to the club. It’s all hustle and bustle, smiling faces, lots of introductions and before I know it I have a thick book of music and I’m invited to join in and sing. I find the experience exhilarating. As 50 male voices rise to a crescendo, the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I want to be part of this. The music, to my ears and eyes, is difficult to follow at first but I quickly start to get the hang of the simpler stuff though anything with the remotest degree of difficulty is mesmerising. Afterwards there’s a very sociable gathering in the bar with supper and a well earned drink. This isn’t bad at all!

November 2007

The first night has set the pattern for the following weeks. Raymond, my neighbour, has put aside his apprehension and come along too. We’ve signed up to go to the workshop in Scarborough which, I understand, is not to be missed.

Scarborough 2008

I won’t try and describe the weekend in a serial manner; rather I’ll just give my impressions and observations. It is an excellent way for the choir ‘newbie’ to broaden his choir experience and anyone new to the choir should go. Energy levels are high and the concentrated workshop sessions give me more confidence. The social elements of the weekend are an opportunity to meet and chat with the people I am singing with and even though I wondered whether the invitation to go for a run at 7:00 am was a wind up, it did happen. Probably the most impressive thing about the weekend is the concert in Tadcaster where the choir demonstrate that they can produce a very emotional performance even when vocal chords have been constantly exercised and many have drunk long and deep at the bar. I can only assume the Spirit of Elvis is upon them – those at the ‘show’ on Saturday evening will know what I mean.

Spring Concert, St Paul’s

First sing in public with the choir. I’m pretty nervous and even take the words to some songs with me to the Town v Tranmere game. A quick run through at half time and again in Sainsbury’s café after the match. I have sung in the massed choir event at the Town Hall but that was relatively anonymous and we had the words in front of us. This time it’s from memory and I know how that can suddenly go blank. Even though I’ve appeared in amateur shows and performed simulated sex on stage at the LBT (yes, really!) the nerves drag at the stomach. Fortunately we begin with ‘The Heavens Proclaim’ which gives me the chance to open my lungs, have a good rant and settle down. The rest of the concert consists of songs I can make a contribution to, songs I know bits and pieces of and some in which I really should keep my mouth closed but instead try to follow Elizabeth’s guidance and at least do something with. Note to self – make more effort to get these things learnt! The concert finishes and I seek the verdict of my ex-choir accompanist and partner Sue with some trepidation but she judges it a success. So it’s back to the Star to round off the evening with a beer or more. Which is where this started really. Here’s to the next time!

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Famous baritones of the 20th century – Ibbo

September 22, 2021 – 3:43 pm

Baritones are often synonymous with flawed anti-heroes, men of uncontrollable emotion and sometimes, outright villains. Here are two of the most famous baritones of the twentieth century who may or may not have exhibited some of these qualities. I will leave you to make your own judgements.

Bing Crosby, Singer / Actor

Born: 3 May 1903
Birthplace: Tacoma, Washington
Died: 14 October 1977 (heart attack)
Best Known As: The singer of “White Christmas”
Name at birth: Harry Lillis Crosby

Crosby was one of the biggest music and movie stars of the mid-20th century. He started out as a member of the Rhythm Boys, a jazz vocal trio, before going solo in the early 1930s. He quickly became a radio star, a silky-smooth crooner who could sing both pop and jazz. As such he is often credited with inspiring Frank Sinatra and other modern pop singers. Crosby also became a film star, winning an Oscar for his portrayal of a good-natured priest in the 1944 movie ʻGoing My Wayʼ. His long running comic feud with comedian Bob Hope was milked for laughs on their radio and TV shows, and they co-starred in a series of movies that became known as the “road films”: Crosby first sang the tune “White Christmas” in the movie Holiday Inn (1942); his recording of the tune remains a holiday favourite, and for many years was the biggest-selling single of all time. In the 1960s and ’70s his annual Christmas special was a popular TV fixture. He died in 1977 on a golf course in Spain, having just completed the 18th hole. In 1955 whilst filming the Country Girl he had an intense affair with his co-starGrace Kelly, a fellow Irish Catholic, which was kept quiet to protect both their reputations and at the insistence of Kellyʼs dad, a millionaire Irish builder, who didnʼt want some old crooner getting the dosh.

Adolf Hitler, Painter /Politician

Born: April 20 1889
Birthplace: Braunau am Inn, Austria
Died: 30th April 1945 (suicide)
Best Known As: Führer and Reichskanzler of Germany
Name at birth: Adolf Schicklgruber

Adolf Hitlerʼs life has been exhaustively researched and documented from his early years in the Bavarian Army Rhythm Boys, a jazz vocal trio, before going solo in the early 1930s with his unique style of National Socialist demagoguery. He quickly became a radio and film star no doubt due to his absolute control of the German media from 1933 and his subsequent dominance of most of continental Europe until his timely death in 1945. He spent most of his later years touring extensively with notable success in Poland, France, Italy, The Balkans and North Africa. His popularity reached its height in 1942 with his initial early successes in Russia, but his failures to dislodge The Joe Stalin Red Army Ensemble from the no 1 position in the Moscow Hit Parade led to a rapid and then complete eclipse of his once dominant position in European popular culture. With the rediscovery of the only known tape of Hitlerʼs singing voice in a Finnish garage in 1992 we can now conclusively prove that he was a baritone. Previously all his recordings were of the intense delivery he used for his official ranting and ravings. It was secretly recorded by Finnish intelligence agents in the buffet of Hitlerʼs private train when he sang Happy Birthday to the Finnish war leader, Marshall Mannerheim on his 75th birthday on 4th June 1942 Although somewhat marred by the accompaniment of a drunken Scotsman at the other end of the buffet car it proves that Hitler was a baritone. His inability to remember the second verse or indeed the baritone line supports the conclusion.

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Dorian Kelly: MD New Mill MVC

August 24, 2021 – 8:57 am

Dorian Kelly was educated at Reading Grammar School and went on to study trumpet and piano at the Royal College of Music Junior Department (part-time for two years), followed by Trinity College of Music (full-time for three years). After leaving college he worked as an instrumental music teacher and a professional freelance trumpet player, with performance credits including Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Neil Diamond, Jamie Cullum, The Temptations and The Drifters at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, The Festival Hall & Glastonbury.

In 2005 Dorian relocated to Yorkshire and switched his attention to composition. Since then he has composed and recorded the music for over 30 short films, animations and documentaries and has had over 250 media music tracks published, resulting in international broadcast usage on the following channels – Sky 1, Sky 2, Netflix, Amazon Prime, ITV2, ITVBe, Discovery Channel, Lion TV, Living TV, Access Hollywood, Sky Go, Apple Music, Now TV, EDGEsport, The History Channel, Travel Channel, Recipe TV, E! News Live, E! News Daily, E! Entertainment and BBC radio.

In 2010 Dorian returned to studying and completed an ALCM (Composition) in 2011, followed by an LLCM (Composition) in 2012, as an external student with the London College of Music. During this time Dorian composed numerous choral works (SATB, SSA & TTBB), ensemble arrangements and several music-based educational resources, which are published on his own web site www.modalmusic.biz

He was the musical director for Chapel-en-le-Frith Ladies Choir for seven years and the Halifax Cube Choir for over two years. He is the musical director of Saddleworth Male Voice Choir and The Oldham Choir (SATB) and also works as an examiner for Trinity College London (Rock & Pop Syllabus), as well as a brass teacher both privately and for Bradford Music & Arts Service.

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Scottish well-travelled baritone

August 22, 2021 – 9:41 am

As part of the choir 30th anniversary celebration, read about Bob’s early travels and reflections on Babylon’s Wave.

Written by Bob Carrick

I came late to singing and almost by accident – looking for pastimes in a new community having had a late career move south !

In common with a lot of choir members there is a lot of pleasure in working with an entirely new subject and I am sure we all find it quite therapeutic.

Music was not part of my early life and the nearest would be a few hymns at Sunday school. We were brought up in South Africa where my father lectured in theology and languages at the University of Fort Hare. SA was almost idyllic then with total freedom in and around the small town where we stayed at the foot of the Winterburg mountains. Our house was next door to the college hostel where the African students lived and my brother and I spent hours in their company – being taught to ride a bicycle, fish and use an air rifle. There was an amazing feeling of freedom and we never ever wore shoes after school! In these pre-apartheid days there were few pressures on us although the students, even then, were restricted in the town centre. Any angst was with the Afrikaans boys from whom we were segregated by language but we did meet in the school playground!! Still no music not even jungle drums!!

With some sadness we left SA and arrived in Kingston, Jamaica – what a contrast – nothing like the feeling of Africa but a truly multi-racial society (African, Indian, Chinese and European and all possible combinations) and everybody seemed to be trying to make music by hitting something. Looking back it was a noisy place and we probably witnessed the birth of reggae. We did most of our secondary education in Kingston until the day when, shortly before qualifying as a beach bum, I was commanded to Scotland to receive some worthwhile education. Two and a half years in the highlands with bagpipe and fiddle for company saw me off to Glasgow and, of necessity, in employment as a student apprentice with Dunlop. Various positions in manufacturing and quality management saw me wending my way south and finding music at last.

Everything else is history!!!

THE COOKIE JAR

It is quite nice to be asked to put your hand in the cookie jar and pull out your favourite or most memorable piece of music especially since there is so much in the jar now.

I was pleased when an epic biblical piece emerged telling the story of the Jews in captivity. Not for us the version popularised by Boney M in 1978 to a very catchy tune and using the words from Psalm 137 almost verbatim. This was of course By the rivers of Babylon. That though would have been too easy and I can just see the front row bopping along to the rhythm!!

No – the piece chosen was the far more compelling version by Charles Gounod entitled By Babylons Wave. The power of the piece lay in the words: first of all the lament in captivity, ‘How shall we raise thy song so Holy far from our fatherland’; the pride and memory of the homeland, ‘Jerusalem if we forget thee’; the threat to the captors, ‘Woe unto thee Babylon the mighty’ – this does not sound much of a threat now but when accompanied by the wrath of God, as happened in those days, would have been quite significant; and finally the anger in the retribution against the captor, ‘In that day shall the babes be taken and dashed against the stones’. Powerful stuff.

Gounod wrote many religious works including The Saint Cecelia Mass and a version of Ave Maria. His best known work is Goethe’s Faust and his version of Romeo and Juliet is highly regarded.

By Babylons Wave was given to us as part of the Yorkshire Cancer Charity Concert repertoire for massed male voice choirs when we were still in our early days as a choir. Many of us had never seen a piece of music of this complexity and it was quite daunting at first although we would grow to like it later. It was also obvious that we would never learn this piece on a Tuesday evening and help was needed but from where we knew not.

Salvation came in the Baptist Church Hall in Golcar where we were invited to join with other choirs in rehearsal. Not only was this outside the Holme Valley but I for one had never set foot in a Baptist enclave and went prepared with wings and flippers lest the weight of the presence was overwhelming.

We made our way in on the first night and assembled in rough sections amongst a good crowd of choristers. A charming man took to the stage and suggested that we just sing it through before starting to tune the many voices – each of which carried their own persuasion.

Of course we did as bid and by the time we had finished the look on his face had changed. Maybe the close proximity of the concert date in Huddersfield Town Hall bothered him?

This bad look lasted only a very short time – then we saw the very best of Roy Firth, a good musician with the patience of Job. He assumed correctly that we knew very little and set about explaining first the story, because some had never read psalm 137, and second the mysteries of the tune line by line .

It was all a slow process but somehow his enthusiasm made us more attentive and we began to make some sense.

However by 10 pm each Thursday evening we were clock-watching since the route home passed the Wills ‘o Nats where we would find welcome pints of beer and good company.

The first performance was to be in Huddersfield Town Hall. It was my first appearance on stage in a choir and the first time I’d met Ray Burkinshaw. But all did not go to plan as, having planned to be on the back, I found myself on the front row with Ray. The instruction to lead on from the back had been taken to mean fill the back rows first and this was quite wrong but irrecoverable. Then someone lifted the lid on the grand piano and all of a sudden half the audience were hidden from view! Blessed relief.

The performance complete we entered a pub walking ten feet tall and went over every note again. A night of many firsts and a great piece of music. The second performance was to be at The Albert Hall – it held no fears for us now.

I thought that this was a worthy piece of music from which we learned much and got a greater satisfaction in bringing to the performance stage. There are many more of this ilk in my cookie jar.

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Whiffs and Riffs

August 12, 2021 – 11:27 am

Continuing the celebration of the 30th choir anniversary. From the magazine.

written by Andy Johnston

Our esteemed co-ed kind of asked if I wanted to write a few lines for the Winter Newsletter. He said that he’d still got my last bit on ‘something or other about Ireland’ and that it would probably be going in. It didn’t make it in the Summer Newsletter and I thought it was considered the ‘wrong stuff’, so I asked what the right stuff would be. “Something about music,” said David. “But I don’t know much about music. I’m a back bencher, deaf, and a bass to boot. Will something else do?” I had the impression that it wouldn’t do at all.

One of the wonderful things about music is that snatches of a tune, or a riff, can drag you straight back in time. It’s the same with smell, so I thought I would recall and a few sounds and smells that touched my formative years – maybe they touched yours too.

First, an early smell or two. Marmite. Rubbish sweets in a brown paper bag. Brylcreem. Carbolic soap at Infants. Your dad’s shed. Next door’s dog. I was reminded of one recently on a local radio programme – the smell of a rubber hot-water bottle. It takes me back to age 7. My bottle was shaped like a rabbit, and was a hand-me-down from my big brother. Do you remember taking the rubber plug off and sniffing in those heady, steamy, rubbery vapours? However, I’ve a confession to make – the first time the truth has been exposed in nearly 50 years. Although it’s scent improved with age, the old rubber rabbit eventually got the worse for wear. Then, oh no! one winter evening, a primal urge took over. I’d acquired a small penknife and I had been reading The Three Musketeers. I mercilessly put Roger the Rabbit to the sword with a daring lunge. It has been on my conscience a bit lately.

In the same era – the mid 50s, I fell in love with Doris Day and the magnificent Black Hills of Dakota. Our neighbourhood gang would meet in Jimmy Toolan’s alleyway and sing it over and over again. It was the same with “Born on a mountain top in Tennessee /Greenest State in the Land of the Free”. You can sing the rest yourself, surely! Time travel to that glorious evening in 1965 when the 17 year old goddess, Marianne Faithfull filled the 14 inch, black and white TV screen on ‘Top of the Pops’, and exploded the imagination of every red-blooded boy with those immortal lines “Winters almost gone, Oh how I’ve waited so long, for summer nights. When there’s magic in the air, And I don’t have a care, All that matters to me, Is that you are here And so am I”. Wonderful poetic words sung so sweetly by that vision of promise and innocence. It was a seminal moment in more ways than one.

Fast forward a few months to 1965 and student days when we smelled of Gold Leaf or Consulate and, though we would rather forget it, the pop charts still had ballad singers. Then along came glorious liberation and ‘Talking about my g-g-generation’ ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ ‘Maybe the Last Time, I don’t know-ow, Oh No!’ and ‘Hey, Hey we’re the Monkees’. Sergeant Pepper and Lucy in the Sky with Diamondsblew us all away and into the next life phase.

Some whiffs and riffs just do it for us, don’t they?

**Rugby club lunch** – Andy right middle

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New Mill Male Voice Choir 30th Anniversary

August 10, 2021 – 10:16 am

Mackie reminded us last week of this date.

Why not celebrate?

Facebook could be a place for comment, memories, music and anything to do with male voices and New Mill.

Try Reasons for Singing

Chris Rowbury writes (http://chrisrowbury.com)

1. Singing is a community activity

Making friends with people from different backgrounds who have a shared interest in singing. Contributing to a shared goal through teamwork.

2. Singing creates a sense of achievement

Improving singing technique and vocal skills. Remembering words and melodies and nailing a new song before performing in a concert in front of an audience. Being challenged by more difficult material.

3. Singing together makes for a great sound

Through harmonising with others in rehearsal and performance, creating together to make a really good big musical sound. Getting positive feedback from audiences after working hard on a song.

4. Singing is good for your health

Physical – warm-ups improve the body’s flexibility, sense of rhythm, balance, self-awareness, etc.

– aerobic activity increases oxygenation in the blood stream and exercises major muscle groups.

– singing can increase lung capacity, improve posture, clear respiratory tubes and sinuses.

– healthier heart and immune system.

Mental – reduces stress levels, increases mental alertness and emotional well-being.

– choral singers are happier, more alert and relaxed after a rehearsal.

Weekend Scarborough workshop
What does beer do that is good for you?

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Lockdown Release

July 23, 2021 – 9:01 am

First concert since lockdown.

Rehearsals have gone well – should be a cracking concert

Friday 3rd September

venue – St John’s, Upper Denby

time – 7.15pm

ticket price – £8

tickets from the George pub, Denby and Adam Brown, second tenor

fund-raiser for the development of St John’s Church

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We are Back – July 21.5

July 21, 2021 – 9:29 am

Robert seems to have captured the moment

Excellent. Our new MD, Dorian, has the measure of us.

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Blogger to WordPress May 11.1

May 11, 2021 – 2:48 pm

The Google Blogger site (Swinglo) was not renewed during the pandemic year and cannot be revived. The promotion WordPress (newsletter) site was available and can now take over posting which can feed to Facebook page and group.

A recent post which also appeared on Facebook group suggested that my personal site (shallilo-foreveryoung) stop feeding the choir Facebook – and it has.

The Facebook group is however a great place for choir members to write news and views. Steve Flynn recently wrote ‘as restrictions are eased and we can meet face to face I think we should get together and see where we take all the various strands of our digital presence.’ So watch this space.

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vowels

April 18, 2020 – 10:37 am

From \’Sounds Appealing\’ by David Crystal, Profile Books, 2018. One of my Oxfam Bookshop purchases.

It all begins with a 12th century Icelandic scholar, \’consonants can neither be named nor produced without a vowel.\’ There are words that are all vowel. There are no words purely of consonants. Vowels have a primeval status \’the breath that gives existence to words. In the beginning was the vowel.\’

We singers know these things.

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December 2010 – extract from Yorkshire Life

February 4, 2020 – 10:44 am

Anyone remember this?

\’New Mill, near Holmfirth, has a male voice choir, with more than 60 members whose home is the New Mill Club where they meet for rehearsals every Tuesday evening.

New Mill Male Voice Choir was formed in 1991 when 12 singers got together in a local pub. It is the youngest of the choirs in the Huddersfield area and many doubted it would ever get off the ground. But it has performed at many venues throughout Britain and has made successful tours to Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland and Italy. The choir has recently achieved first place in The 2010 Don Valley Male Voice Choir Competition.

Many members of the choir sang in the recent BBC television programme Songs of Praise, filmed in Christ Church, New Mill, celebrating the final episode of Last of The Summer Wine. And the choir is mightily proud of a photograph of Bill Owens Compo conducting the singers in the mid-1990s. In 1993, the choir sang as part of the World Choir at Cardiff Arms Park under the baton of Owain Arwel Hughes with Shirley Bassey as the main attraction.

Their favourite venue is Huddersfield Town Hall and their guest singers have included Aled Jones and Sir Willard White. In October, the choir hosted a concert in Huddersfield with guest star Julian Lloyd Webber accompanied by Di Xiao.

Choir chairman John Mallinson, who runs the family butchers shop in New Mill, said: Male voice choirs are a tradition in this area and in a little village like New Mill, many people thought we would struggle to get established. But we have grown a lot since 1991 and I like to think we are very well-respected. We are proud that we have managed to get some big names as our guest performers.\’

Sounds just like today.

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New Mill Male Voice Choir – 2020 concert schedule latest information

February 3, 2020 – 5:04 pm

Swing into Spring with New Mill MVC

21 March 7:15 pm – 9:30 pm

St John the Evangelist, Upper Denby, Denby Lane
Upper Denby, HD8 8UN United Kingdom

Barnburgh Joint Concert

16 May 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

St Margaret’s Church Swinton, Church Street Swinton, South Yorkshire S64 8EG

Netherton Summer Concert

6 June 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Netherton Methodist Church, 1 Deyne Road, Netherton, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD4 7ET

Afternoon Concert to support New Mill Church

Sunday Sept 13th 3.00 pm

London – Yorkshire Day 2020! Weekend away

1 August @ 11:00 4:00 pm

Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge SE1 9DA

Back Again – Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

October 10th 2020 Huddersfield Town Hall

Christmas Schedule

Dec Low Moor to be confirmed

Dec 12th Penistone Denby Dale District Rotary

Dec 19th Christchurch, New Mill Christmas Concert

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New Mill\’s Christmas schedule

November 20, 2019 – 3:49 pm

Penistone Paramount
7th December, 7.30-9.30pm (£10).

The Choir is a guest of Denby Dale Rotary at their annual Christmas Concert at the Paramount, also featuring Skelmanthorpe Band. Always well supported so get your tickets early!

Tickets available online from the Penistone Paramount

Concert Programme

Set 1 – Deck the Hall, Away in a Manger, Seasons of Peace, Let there be peace on earth, Candlelight Carol, Hallelujah.
Joint with Band – Hail Smiling Morn.
Set 2 – Masters in this Hall, Hush be Still, Anthem from Chess, Do you hear what I hear (+Ann Wilkes) 12 Days of Christmas, White Christmas.
Carols – O come all ye faithful, Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

Christ Church, New Mill

21 December @ 7.00-8.30pm (£10)

The Choir’s annual Christmas Concert for New Mill.

Tickets available from 21st November, to order click on the button here.
Again we welcome special guest Soprano, Charlotte Browne

Concert Programme:

ALL: Once in Royal David’s city
Choir: Hail smiling morn | Away in a manger | Seasons of peace | Masters in this hall
SOLO : Charlotte Browne
ALL : Carol – to be decided
CHOIR: Deck the hall | Hush be still | When a child is born | Candlelight carol | O Holy Nightl (with Charlotte)
RAFFLE:
ALL: Carol – to be decided
SOLO: Charlotte Browne
ALL: O come all ye faithful
CHOIR: 12 days of Christmas | Do you hear what I hear (with Charlotte) | White Christmas
ALL: Hark the Herald Angels sing

We are also singing at Low Moor. Bradford, Monday

16 December 7:15 pm – 9:00 pm

The annual BASF Christmas concert

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New Mill MVC\’s newest SUPERSTAR – EMIDIO

November 10, 2019 – 9:57 am

An email dropped out of cyberspace last night. Emidio wrote:

\”Should have mentioned this, Tuesday.

Tickets went on sale from 1^st November for a Huddersfield Light Opera Company production of Jesus Christ Superstar, six evening performances and an extra Saturday matinee.

I auditioned for Caiaphas and got the part. Doesn’t interfere with choir, at all, rehearsals are Mondays. Time enough to get on top of the part, I hope.

Performances are at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, 20-25^th April 2020.\”

KEY INFORMATION from Stageagent

CHARACTER

Caiaphas

SHOW

Jesus Christ Superstar

GENDER

Male

AGE RANGE

Adult, Mature Adult

ROLE SIZE

Supporting

DANCING

Non Dancer

VOICE

Bass

HIGH NOTE

LOW NOTE

C2 (low C)

TIME & PLACE

Biblical era israel

Russian \’flash mobs\’ and national anthems – don\’t forget \’The Temperance Seven\’

September 26, 2019 – 3:44 pm

$Local music society looks at some Russian \'flash mobs\' and national anthems - don\'t forget \'The Temperance Seven\'$

A recent local music appreciation session at Holmfirth U3A covered \’Russian Flashmobs\’ and \’Anthems\’.
The flashmobs appeared informally in car parks, high street shops and supermarkets. There were also formal choir concert excerpts and small groups who simply turned up and sang. Moscow, Siberia, Leningrad and others. There were a couple of points for me. First the audiences. The flashmob audiences were surprised and delighted and at the finish joined in. Presumably the concerts were performed to audiences, but they were heard not seen. The small groups sang to themselves with no one listening. I\’ve experienced this in Inverie, Scotland and at the Male Choir Festival, Cornwall. Get into a circle and enjoy harmony and singing for their own sakes – people can listen if they wish but it\’s not mandatory.
Second, singing in Russian. We couldn\’t understand, but we were an equally delighted audience. The flashmobs included acrobats and everyone was smiling and moving. Infectious. The concerts and small groups had to rely on their singing quality and choice of music. Kalinka and The Red Army Choir didn\’t inspire me. A girls\’ choir was marginally better. The small groups, all girls, went for tight harmonies and gentle music. They moved and smiled and looked at each other. I could have listened to more. It\’s vocalisation (clic and see Rod Williams) – music and voices and body language and an audience that wants to do the same.
What makes a good anthem? Much of the following: large or small audiences having an inspired experience, instinctive, emotional, not planned, people with something in common – young, old, generational, country, district, oppression, triumph (I could go on) – adopted by sports and other organisations, traditional or modern music, dramatic chorus.
So again it\’s the audience that confers power to an anthem. And again voices alone or with music. Not always in recognisable language. I defy anyone to be down the Arms Park, Cardiff before an international and not be moved by 90,000 singing the Welsh National Anthem.
Examples – God Save Our/The Queen, Rule Brittania, Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem.
With apologies may I add Born in the USA (Springsteen), You\’ll Never Walk Alone (Gerry and the Pacemekers), My Generation (The Who).
Is your fist pumping into the air? It\’s an anthem. The audience says so.

New Mill MVC are in concert at Huddersfield Town Hall with

The Temperance Seven on 12th October

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Will Noble and family – don\’t forget THE TEMPERANCE SEVEN

September 22, 2019 – 4:29 pm

Roderick Williams has featured previously on the blog – choral singing. Lately, his radio4 podcasts outlined some social history behind singing – (clic on A Singer\’s Guide to Britain). Songs are about people and places and belonging. Whenever and wherever their origins they help us make sense of our world. Folk songs especially seem to define who we are. Among pieces of welsh singing, Billy Bragg talking about English identity and Robbie Burns, guess who pops up? Cuthbert and Lydia Noble, children of the famous Holme Valley Will Noble, with songs about the local area and dry-stone walling.
Barry Meeres and I share experiences of cycling a ridiculous distance up and down Holme Moss (clic on here for mountain bike challenge) and a dry-stone walling course up on Crosland Moor (clic on here for dry-stone walling). We enjoyed the walling.
Will Noble released an album of his favourites, including the Watter Rattle made infamous by non other than our Chairman, John Mallinson. Cuthbert and Lydia also feature. (For a review, clic on). The walls they repair in their day job have endured since the 18th century when the government sanctioned enclosures.

Clic here for an album sample

New Mill MVC are in concert at Huddersfield Town Hall with

The Temperance Seven on 12th October

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Ain\’t Misbehaving – not at my age anyway – a new New Mill song for the \’Temperance Seven\’ Concert

July 6, 2019 – 10:34 am

\’Fats Waller wrote this oft-recorded jazz tune with lyricist Andy Razaf and composer Harry Brooks for the off-Broadway revue Connie\’s Hot Chocolates. Even though the narrator is lonely, he promises to stay true to his lover and he \”ain\’t misbehavin\” by staying out late or flirting with other women. Waller told Eddie \”Rochester\” Anderson (of Jack Benny fame) that he wrote the song on a miniature piano while in jail on an alimony charge. His lawyer sold the song to a publisher for $250 so Waller could pay back his alimony and get out of jail.\’

From songfacts

\’“Ain’t Misbehavin” has resurfaced many times over the years and interpreted by many jazz artists, including Anita O’Day, Nat “King” Cole, Django Reinhardt and Dave Brubeck. It was also adapted as a rockabilly tune by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1957 and sung by actor Burt Reynolds in the comedy film Lucky Lady (1975).\’

From jazziz

We have just started rehearsing this song, as a joint item I think. It\’s a bit odd at the moment, but we\’ll get the hang of it. Quiet period for the choir just now.

October 12th

Town Hall Huddersfield

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The Northern Choir at Wakefield Cathedral

May 20, 2019 – 8:58 am

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Gala Charity Concert with Holmepride Community in Action

April 10, 2019 – 8:56 am

Gala Charity Concert with Holmepride Community in Action

Holy Trinity Church, HD9 1HA – Sat. May 25, 2019 7:15 pm

Holmepride Community in Action is a constituted group that was set up in 2017 for local people to improve all aspects of living within the Holme Valley.

They have been involved in many projects where they have improved the environment and amenity value of, for instance, Victoria Park, St John’s Church, Upperthong and the closed Rose and Crown car park in Almondbury.

They have been highly successful in the local community,winning the Holme Valley Parish Council Community Champion award in 2017 and

HRH The Duke of York’s Community Initiative Award in 2018.

The Choir is delighted to perform this Concert, raising funds to help this Group carry on their fine work in the Holme Valley.

Please visit the choir website to book tickets online.

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Swinglo – guest Steve Flynn drops in to write a post

March 22, 2019 – 11:54 am

Steve Flynn writes about Upper Denby concert

Spring Voices

New Mill MVC & Denby Dale Ladies\’ Choir

St John the Evangelist Church, Upper Denby. – Sat. March 16, 2019 7:15 pm

First concert of the year!

The rain fell ceaselessly all day but two Choirs performed admirably in Upper Denby. The joint items, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and Tell me its not True from the musical Blood Brothers went down a storm (sorry!) with the audience and by the end of the concert it had stopped raining! Just shows you what singing can do.

After eight years this was Sarah’s last concert as Musical Director of the Ladies’ Choir. Liz, Chair of Denby Dale Ladies’, recalled the achievements of the Choir since her appointment. Consistent competition success has been a feature over the years and augmented the Choir’s reputation. However, the overriding memory will be the fun the Choir have enjoyed during both rehearsal and concert performances.

watch the following performances

Carrickfergus

Sound of Silence

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Swinglo celebrates the day the pipe organ came to town

March 20, 2019 – 5:22 pm

The organ in Birks car park

clic on this link

Last Wednesday afternoon, I was minding my own business taking in a few rays on my upper deck. Suddenly a pipe organ played, sounding close enough to be at the bottom of my garden – my lower deck. We were transported to the fairground. I looked over the fence and there it was in the back of a van.

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Swinglo captures New Mill relaxing

March 18, 2019 – 4:41 pm

$Upper Denby concert - sorry no Denby Dale ladies - we\'ve no wish to offend$

We have just had our AGM. Well orchestrated and brief.

Our secretary\’s report was interesting. We have recently discussed the Peterborough experience – several choirs developed and run by the musical director. And not just the music. He manages their various committees as well. Apparently our conclusion was the Peterborough set up was not all it was claiming and not a model New Mill wished to follow.

I didn\’t hear a formal strategic New Mill direction.

There were however several clear messages.
New Mill is a village choir.
Fellowship is the pivot around which the choir thrives.
Our repertoire will be entertaining.

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Swinglo joins The Northern Concert Choir to sing Faure\’s Requiem and Vivaldi\’s Gloria

March 5, 2019 – 10:27 am

Laurel and Hardy join NMMVC workshop in Scarboro

Laurel and Hardy tribute, Scarborough

So I\’m Dave Walker, baritone, (the one on the left) from New Mill MVC and I have volunteered to help Viv out with content on Facebook. I enjoy writing so it\’s not much of a chore. The one on the right is Clive Hetherington, bass, another NMMVC member who is singing with The Northern Choir.

A cold wet Sunday afternoon in the back streets of Skelmanthorpe. Possibly not your ideal landscape for Faure and Vivaldi rehearsals, but it is what it is. I cannot remember where I first saw this venture advertised. It\’s the brainchild of Jane Hobson and Dan Timmins, both accomplished singers and choir musical directors. I\’ve been aware of a personal need to sing choral pieces and this is a chance. Well over one hundred have signed up. A bit of a squeeze for rehearsals at Skelmanthorpe Methodists, but probably okay for our two concerts at Sheffield and Wakefield Cathedrals. Faure\’s Requiem and Vivaldi\’s Gloria are the planned performances. Two thirds or so will then move on to Malta for three further concerts.

The pieces are in latin and to say I don\’t get latin is an understatement. I was so bad at school they didn\’t waste their money on an \’O\’ level. There are translations, but the Requiem can be a bit dark. So the words are notes to hit. Vocalising – a recent article in the Times described a number of choirs who simply turn up and sing, with a conductor, but it seems to be primarily about enjoying making sounds and pitch could be secondary. Maybe choral music in latin is well-organised vocalisation. I\’m happy with that.

Homework is expected and rehearsal aids are plentiful and helpful.

Parking is not a problem around the chapel, but I wonder what the residents think?

So far so good. $The Northern Choir rehearsal sings Faure\'s Requiem and Vivaldi\'s Gloria$

Dave Talboys is practising beer drinking, watched by Chris. Both are from Thurstonland Community Choir. Clive\’s attention has wandered.

I\’m with David Millward (also sings with Holmfirth Choral), tenor, and Alan Brierley with two black eyes, musical director (also with the U3A choir).

Viv did wonder whether Facebook could make a feature of all the choirs represented in this venture. I wondered if some pics like the above might do the same with some text?

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The Beach Boys – Bob Carrick inspires Shallilo-Foreveryoung with his tale of Anglesey

February 22, 2019 – 5:48 pm

We moved south of the border in 1991 and very soon after arriving I joined the new Mill Male Voice Choir which was in its early days. That was a breath of fresh air and an entirely new subject for me. Life was good so we better have a holiday but where to go. We had usually holidayed on Scottish Islands.

A kindly neighbour and a Welshman across the road suggested Anglesey. Not too far and friendly folk they said. With Celtic blood in the veins we thought we would be okay. And it’s an island.

A search of adverts revealed ‘secluded cottage on a farm’. Just about right. Booked for two weeks.

We arrived at the appointed time to find a delightful cottage beautifully renovated and just ideal. However its seclusion meant that it was the last in a line of byres at the end of the farm yard. By default we were part of Owens farm which he ran with two teenage sons and the district nurse who was also his wife.

While we enjoyed exploring Anglesey (or Ynys Mon as they call it) it was inevitable that we became involved in the farm. There were 80 cows to be milked twice a day and a bull who had separate privileges. On top of that the boys on the farm were bored and needed a hand to fix the quad bike which was probably their only amusement.

Owen soon got us involved by suggesting that I give a helping hand at milking time. Green wellies and a green overcoat with one sleeve were duly supplied.

Owen said I, “There is a sleeve missing on this coat.” “It’s okay boyo, it will be good.” All was made clear as we entered the (very modern) milking shed and stepped down into the pit. The cows walked on to feeding stations along the outside walls on either side thereby presenting the business end towards Owen, two boys and myself in the pit. The uncovered arm was used to apply a group of suction cups of the right number and then move swiftly out of the way lest the unexpected occur. So that’s why!

A level of skill was required in observing the presence of an older lady on the milking station and improving the efficiency of the suction cups by placing a hefty pebble on the suction cup support thus providing a useful extension and a higher yield.

The boys were highly amused at my presence and were quite overcome with laughter at my applying the milking device upside down – but were pleased that their monotonous routine had been changed and the boredom relieved at my expense. To relieve his own boredom Owen would start singing in the pit (in Welsh) but I soon got the gist of it and we discussed the merits of Male Voice Choirs which were plentiful thereabouts.

That was okay until the next day when Owen announced that the family were going to the Welsh Agricultural Show for four days – 80 cows twice a day and the bull – but don’t worry said Owen someone will come in . Okay? “Fine” said I.

Owen called in the next day to say they were ready to leave. Since my cottage had the only serviceable bath/shower on the farm he informed me that the district nurse had managed a shower under the hose in the milking shed. “Too much information Owen” I said.

Upon his return after the show Owen invited us to see a new born calf which was poorly. We pushed our way past 80 cows and the bull to see a small calf which was all but gone. Owen produced what seemed to be a piece of hose and a bag full of warm milk. The milk was then poured down the throat through the hose and almost immediately the calf’s eyes cleared and very soon after the poor thing stood up and sought out its mother. A sight probably rarely seen by city dwellers but common to the skill and presence of the farmer.

By this time we were buddies and would I like to go to choir practice with Owen? “Which choir would that be?” I asked. “Cor Y Meibion y Traeth” he said in Welsh – the choir of the men and the beach – “we call ourselves the Beach Boys.” Off we went to the local school in Pentraeth where I was announced and made to stand to receive the warm Welsh welcome from 70 or so choristers.

Their evening was being used to perfect a rendition for the forthcoming Eisteddfod. The offering to be made was Calon Lan. The conductor was half the age of any of the choristers and he had absolute control. There was no talking. Each section was taken aside and rehearsed until perfect and the whole piece performed and again. That process occupied the three hours of the practice. There followed a welcome pint but not many of the choir stayed on – maybe because there was a bit of travelling to do.

They were a proud group of men in a choir founded in 1969 and with a membership of 80 at its peak. They had enjoyed a deal of success at the Eisteddfod over the years and enjoyed tours to Canada, Hong Kong, Germany, and the USA. Like New Mill they had raised funds to support tsunami victims and other worthy causes. Such was the local tradition and dedication that they had the same accompanist for 46 years.

Regrettably Beach Boys are no longer gathered. They had failed to find a new conductor and realised that their membership was ageing and so late in 2016 decided to go out at the top – that’s nearly 50 years of singing. Time passes by and it is salutary to recall that I met them over 25 years ago. On the positive side there are still three male voice choirs thriving on Anglesey.

We have been to Anglesey many times since and the memories of that trip are still vivid – Owen’s friendship, 80 cows and a bull, how to milk and how not to, how to fix a quad bike, the recovery of the calf and not least the district nurse and I still don’t know the words of Calon lan.

Bob Carrick..

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Swinglo updates on New Mill MVC

February 11, 2019 – 6:02 pm

Alan the MD has taken a second holiday within a month – lucky him – he didn\’t have any holiday last year. Anyway, a double dose of Elizabeth which we all enjoy.

Our new pieces from the Scarborough workshop weekend (in no particular order):

Hallelujah – 1984 Leonard Cohen song. The draft contained 80 verses. Covered by lots of singers, including Alexandra Burke and Jeff Buckley who topped the UK singles chart in December 2008 – first time ever to have the same song at 1 and 2. Leonard was number 34.
Always on My Mind – top 20 hit for Elvis 1972, John Wesley Riles 1979, Willie Nelson 1982, Pet Shop Boys 1987. 300 recordings by dozens of artists. Elvis released it within weeks of separating from Priscilla.
\”Anthem\” from Chess – we first sang this back in Llandudno days which is pre 2008. The song describes the feelings of Soviet Russian chess challenger, Anatoly Sergievsky, when he defects. A concept album and later musical. First sung by Tommy Koberg in 1984.
Love Changes Everything – released as a single in 1989 from musical Aspects of Love composed by Andrew Lloyd-Webber. A love song.
All for Me Grog – traditional folk song originally popular with sailors, later adopted by folk music performers and pub singers. A tale of sacrificing everything for drink and tobacco.

The New Mill MVC music committee is going to function throughout the year. Get your ideas in quick. I\’ve already suggested we bring back Softly and Londonderry Air.

Sadly three recent funerals and many thanks to those who donated generously.

Lots of positive feedback from the Mrs Sunderland workshop day featuring the Messiah at the Town Hall.

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Voice Coaching

January 25, 2019 – 11:00 pm

This hoary old chestnut has come round again.

It started with Elizabeth and Colin Jones of Cantorion. They were at college together. Then two or three more, but none seemed to go down too well.

It is still probably a good idea given where we finished in the competition in Cornwall. I think it also fits with the notion \’what sort of a choir do we want to be in 5 years time\’. The Peterborough philosophy of continuous learning and improvement.

The breathing techniques and engaging the core are not contentious. \’Singing is about a series of vowels interrupted by consonants\’ is not controversial. That is possibly enough for one session.

Sarah is great.

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Ed Turner – A Cry to Men – first published Summer 2008

January 21, 2019 – 8:31 pm

Hi, I’m Edward Turner, one of the newer recruits to the choir. I began as a boy soprano and joined Honley Male Voice Choir in my late teens. Sport and studying at Huddersfield Technical College unfortunately forced me to give it up.
As I have a captive audience I want to say few words to all you members and your partners. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 55 and would like to make you all aware that it does not just happen to ‘old men’. Any symptoms, however trivial and you really must visit your gp. Early diagnosis is an important factor here and generally a simple blood test can say you definately do not have prostate cancer and even a positive does not necessarily mean that you have it.
I have been fortunate in that I have had excellent treatment both from HRI and Cookridge, though things have kicked in again and hence more treatment. Please, all you do if there is a doubt get checked out, and partners, do nag the men to seek advice.
Prostate cancer is thought by many to be easy to treat and is quite curable. Sadly, I know that is not always the case. I have recently lost my brother-in-law at a young age and he was diagnosed with the same units of cancer in his blood as me. So come on all you men and don’t let it happen to you. The prostate’s not the real problem. It’s the secondary cancer that gets you, if you leave it too late.
Gentlemen, out of nearly 50 men in our choir I am sure there must be others with the problem. Let’s be open about it and encourage as many men as possible to get an early diagnosis.
I’ve recently had to give up my sport because of aches and pains, but I still play tennis twice a week.

(A Cry to Men is also the title of an anonymous 19th century Irish poem, written by a woman, about the dominance of men in everyday life. Now there’s a perspective)

Ed\’s funeral took place today at lunchtime 21.1.2019

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New Mill in Scarborough Jan 2019

January 15, 2019 – 3:47 pm

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Endings and Aftermath now available on Amazon

November 20, 2018 – 2:26 pm

For all followers of WW1 history

Toms\’ third book, commemorating 100 years after the armistice

What happened to people from the Holme Valley when peace broke out?

An ideal Christmas present

Now available on Amazon – clic the link to order

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Tom\’s latest WW1 book is on Amazon – Endings and Aftermath

November 15, 2018 – 4:30 pm

Hurray we are now on Amazon

clic on the link

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Abide with Me

November 14, 2018 – 4:39 pm

Posted by Dave Walker 14th November 2018

Robert Coombs\’ (tenor) and Alan Brierley\’s (musical director) mums have just passed on. Alan\’s mum wants Abide with Me at her funeral. This was my mum\’s favourite hymn. She died in 1994 after a long illness and I found great comfort in singing with the choir.

Here is an audiovisual of my thoughts and feelings about the hymn and its connection to my family.

Abide with Me

Here are the images – I didn\’t add titles to the movie as I didn\’t know how at the time

Edward Addy, coalman

Hillhouse sidings and coal schutes

5 Willow Lane

Engine Tavern

Main stand Fartown

me and older brother

New College

mum and dad

3 generations of Fartown supporters

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Town Hall Ukulele Concert and Dinner Dance at the rugby club went very well

October 30, 2018 – 11:49 am

No need to say more

Thanks to \’Ibbo\’ for working hard on both events

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Singing and laughing against the grain

October 29, 2018 – 4:02 pm

Posted by David Walker

Our choir has its share of funny moments. When we go away on workshop weekends (Llandudno, Scarborough) and tours (Italy, Czech Republic, Barcelona, Poland) there are many opportunities to raise a smile. What follows is a collection of anecdotes. You may regard them as a series of in-jokes. We would prefer them to be seen as a celebration of our humanity and fellowship.

Moments of wonder, like arriving in a foreign land – the sights are familiar but the signs are in Chinese. Many of us are not musically literate; insecurity we can share in fun with Rupert Wilson, our bemused baritone. Surprise, when going over a choir favourite, that we haven’t been singing the right notes for several years. Geoff Gill, bass, advised us not to worry “you’ll be singing somebody’s notes.” Meeting someone we don’t know. The face, from another section, is recogniseable, but “What’s your name again?”

Llandudno, I ate breakfast with Graham Dawson, second tenor and Chairman. He finished and set off for his room. Five minutes later, I followed and bumped into him on one of the corridors, lost and puzzled. Same hotel, different year, some of us pitched up to the rehearsal room. Not nearly enough, not even Musical Director or pianist. Graham went in search and found them in the ballroom which was for our break-out sectional practice. We broke later, tenors to the ballroom. Basses and baritone stayed put. Who sat in the bass front row? John Mallinson, first tenor.

Sheila Asquith, a pal of Elizabeth Hambleton, a previous Musical Director, deputised when our pianist, Ann Levitt, went shopping to New York. Sheila had keyboard button failure. We were never sure what sort of piano, organ, harpsicord, banjo or whatever was coming next. It was a relief to get the metronome.

Poland, six of us sat out in Krakow Square. Big Dave from Edinburgh rubbed his hands together “I could just eat a biscuit.” We ordered. The serving wench only understood coffee however. Big Dave thought he mimed eating a biscuit. A huge slab of chocolate cake soon arrived. “Can we have five more spoons please?”

Time away is escape, from home and from the ‘tyranny of logic’. Permission to be faintly ridiculous; a zany view of the world that makes you smile. Jack Bex, first tenor, was run over by a car in front of New Mill Club before we’d even set off. It was said he was ‘trying to inspect the tyres on a moving vehicle. He was unbalanced, deflated and tyred. Radial pulse was measured. Cross, he was plyed with a cup of tea and soothed by middle-of-the-road music.

John Rotchell, bass, and I at the Llandudno hotel early Friday night. Escorted to our room by the hall porter who carried our bags. Hadn’t shaved and those trainers didn’t really go. Later in the bar we discovered he was the landlord. Just twelve of us and he bought us all a drink. The bus then arrived and suddenly the round got a lot bigger.

John, my room buddy, likes detail, things as small as Brian Cox atomic particles. Guess what his bedtime reading is? The Home Guard Manual 1941.

Peter Kennedy, who died recently, thought the world of the choir. His room buddy, John Ibbotson aka Ibbo, retired early after the Scarborough Saturday night Highlander ‘afterglow’. He’d leave the door ajar. Rod Gooch and Dave Haigh followed and shut the door for security. Pete couldn’t get in and Ibbo was not for rousing. Rod and Dave were and spotted the problem, “We’ve a spare bed.” Pete was undressed and in bed before the bedroom door was closed and locked. They’re just good friends.

Many opportunities to be a clot. Ibbo is our expert. Dressing up in various costumes, like in khaki, shorts and all, for Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Goes on too long and forgets his words – brilliant. Always tempted to overstep the bounds of propriety – hands over eyes and ears if we are out in public.

And there are things that just make you smile. Brian Higginbottom, a former bass, sang a classical piece beautifully, a twinkle in his eye as he acknowledged the applause. More than one fellow bass decided not to audition for future similar roles.

Some guys are intending to be funny, some are not. Some want to perform, some don’t. The choir interpretation makes it funny; a communal funny bone that celebrates the individual whatever their background and temperament.

The choir has three aims. Learn to sing, learn to perform and enjoy both within a diverse and cohesive community. Singing and performing are guided by our professionals, pianist Emma and Musical Director, Alan. We already know how to enjoy each other in singing. Workshop weekends (Llandudno, Scarborough) and tours (Italy, Czech Republic, Barcelona, Poland) contain all of the above.

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Hats and watches – New Mill and Llandudno 2018

September 26, 2018 – 3:42 pm

There are a number of exquisite public art wooden carvings based on \’Alice in Wonderland\’. The Mad Hatter was opposite the Queens Hotel on the promenade. Inland, there were March Hare, Queen of Hearts and a caterpillar. Queenie had rotting toes. Graham Evans suggested she was incontinent.

The Mad Hatter has a famous attribute, a feature shared by Rod Gooch and myself. We don\’t have the same hairdresser, but we do go in for the same style of headgear for the follicularly challenged. \’Peaky Blinder\’ is my current favourite. Rod was concerned about the button on the crown. Caps without are inferior apparently. My other touring cap is a match with my \’Harris Tweed\’ jacket and is buttonless. It\’s a personal blow.

The fund-raiser for the children\’s hospice caught me without cash. Unintended – the childbride is a similar volunteer. Rod met him when in full regalia – multicoloured T-shirt as well as trousers, red jacket and wait for it … red top hat. Splendid, less so when I came later. Did Rod put in a bid for the hat?

Great to see Anne and Jim. Anne is one of Colwyn\’s pianists. We had a much better experience in \’Dylans\’ restaurant than they did.

I admit to being a child again with a new toy. It\’s a comfort thing. Second-hand pocket watch from the repair shop at Elsecar Heritage centre and chain from Beaverbrooks. I was cooling off from the Gt Orme ascent.

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Up the Great Orme – New Mill and Llandudno 2018

September 26, 2018 – 1:49 pm

Wiki tells us this is GB\’s only remaining cable-operated street tramway. The cars are permanently fixed to the cable. In San Francisco the cable is always running and the cars attach and detach. Opened in 1902/03, the winding gear was steam powered, changing to electric in 1958.

The first section is a steep walk and then it levels off. Or you could go by tram. It\’s a must do thing and most people did.

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Llandudno and New Mill Choir 2018

September 25, 2018 – 2:00 pm

A concert with a male voice choir from Colwyn Bay. A mix of travel and accomodation, resolved for the concert, held in St John’s Methodist Church, Llandudno. Usual high standard of Welsh singing; disciplined, enthusiastic, technically spot on and great for the hard of hearing. Their serious Welsh Language repertoire was a good foil for our more light-hearted fare. The audience was appreciative.

It wasn’t quite deja vu, but nevertheless a reminder of our workshop weekends from the past. We would hire a bus and go down on the Friday, back Sunday. Just the guys in the Queens Hotel. Did we rehearse in the ballroom? I had a different room buddy every year – four in total before we moved to Scarborough in 2008. Our music guides were Len and Elizabeth and Anne and, on one occasion, Sheila Asquith.

On Saturday night, a dozen of us would go to the Snowdon before joining the rest of the choir in the Kings Head. The current Snowdon, I discovered this weekend, must have had a makeover. It certainly didn’t resemble the one in which we used to play ‘bunnies’. A strange game where guys put their hands up to their ears (https://h2g2.com/entry/A697999) according to a set of rules. There was a chairman who’s word was law and lots of ways to make mistakes and get punished. Barry Garside was as brilliant as he was clueless – a more uncoordinated bloke I have yet to meet.

One night they had a turn; guitar, amp, voice and long hair. He had a Liverpool accent and kept referring to the times he’d met ‘John’. We stood and sang Myvanwy and brought the house down.

The Kings Head would but a barrel on; was it Tram Driver? The pub was next to the Great Orme terminus. The regulars knew we were coming and we did a proper choir sing.

Our free time was spent walking on the prom and the pier, dodging the lethal dive-bombing gulls. The locals recommended we ate our sandwiches under cover in one of the slot arcades.

Back then we also had contacts with a North Wales Choir; Cantorion Colin Jones, an elite selection of singers from many choirs, under Colin’s direction – Colin was a close friend of Elizabeth. During our Llandudno weekends we would stop off in Bettws on the Sunday afternoon to listen to their rehearsal and perhaps do a joint item. They were impressive. We sang with them in Bettws and Wrexham and they came up to Huddersfield Town Hall. Colin also travelled to us in New Mill as a singing coach. Elizabeth recalls the contact with Colin and his men resulting in a step change in our performance quality.

It was not our first time in St Johns either. We once did a Sunday morning set during regular morning worship.

Llandudno today is the jewel. Long curving bay, wide promenade, pebble beach, lively seas and pale clean fronted hotels and boarding houses. Plenty to do, including a visit to Venue Cymru, the original site of the Arcadia Theatre, founded by Scarborough’s Will Catlin in 1915. Pierrots are making a Llandudno come-back this coming Saturday, 29th September. Lots of shopping opportunities and coffee. Plenty of accessible walking. The Great Orme is a challenge, but worthwhile. Dylan\’s is an excellent restaurant. Earlier in the year, we visited here and Menai on our wedding gig visit for Charlie’s daughter over in Anglesey. Lifeboat station as well. The Albert has quaffable real ales.

Is there anything to conclude from the then and now comparison? It’s a great place, with and without our ladies. They do influence the style of the weekend. Meeting fellow singers who you rarely see is great too.

I’m not really qualified to comment as to whether our singing will improve.

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Suffering 1: A Bike Ride with the choir

August 28, 2018 – 9:13 am

Yorkshire Rider mountain bike challenge

One year, New Mill Male Voice Choir cycling section asked me to join them for The Yorkshire Rider Mountain Bike Challenge. How difficult could that be? And it was for charity. Maybe I was knocking on, but not that old.

We’ll need to try out the route they said. The chain on my road bike broke within five minutes, followed by long walk home and a trip to buy a chain repair kit. Next practice, on a mildly undulating strip of mud and rocks, I lost my grip, fell off, hurt my elbow and bust a toestrap. Remounting, the rear mech rattled and scraped against the wheel spokes.

I told my wife I wasn’t doing it. But she’d baked a cake. Have a piece and sponsor this idiot she’d asked her workmates. ‘I’ve got you £30 and they’ll want to know if you’ve done it.’

I’m still not doing it. I’ll give the money back. No, I’ll do half and give half back. Oh, shoot, I’ll do it.

A friendly bass offered me a bike, ‘I’ve borrowed one from a mate so you have my old one. The rear brake’s a bit sticky and the chain slips.’

‘Well if you’re not riding it, neither am I.’

I gave the hire shop a ring. Collect it Saturday. £20 to hire, £50 deposit, add on £12 to enter the race, £7.50 for a chain kit, cost unknown for the mech. Over three times the sponsorshop. They told me how to take the wheels off, use tyre levers and replace an inner tube. Then I had a test ride. Easy. Gears here, the brakes work, seat was a bit low, needs adjusting. Five minutes and I’d got it? Ha ha.

I didn’t look out of place at the start. ‘Where’s your front brake?’ a baritone asked. ‘I’m sure I had one yesterday,’ I replied. But I couldn’t see the cantilevers. ‘You’ve discs,’ said a bass. ‘Oh good.’

We started in the second row. The third row was past me before I’d got to the end of the village. Right on the first track and the saddle dropped. I got off and tightened it. The gear was too low to get going again and until I got on I could’t change gear. By the time I was riding again, all the women and children, veterans and wheelchairs had gone passed.

Every few miles, small groups bunched round upended bikes, tools and grease everywhere, and guys walked sadly holding broken chains. All my downhill were fights. With the bike, the stones, the steepness, and the brakes. My forearms were on fire.

Then a break on Holme Moss, lovely dry sunny and windy. My saddle suddenly lurched forward, really loose like a sea-saw. Second tenor Barry fixed it with a spanner from his large rucksack of tools. He had a fan club, which lurked round corners unseen. ‘Come on Barry,’ they shouted. Then their faces would pop up over a wall.

The first fourteen were the easiest. Regular chocolate bar and water stations, encouragement from the marshals as they gave me a tick. At sixteen I ran out of gas and the last ten were a blur. Walking up the hills, in fear of my life down, wobbling up and down on the saddle, legs and arms aching, bum sore. I was speechless at the finish, except when some pencil neck tried to blame me for losing a checkpoint tick.

The winner was over fifty and did it in two hours, eight minutes. If he’d’ve gone round again, he’d’ve lapped me.

There were two fliers under the windscreen wipers inviting us to take part in races the following month. I tore them up. A bass came across, ‘Can I put you down for next year?’

‘Ooo, let me think . . . ‘ Even the most irrepressible of do-gooders would have known to give it a rest and quietly walk away.

The bike shop returned my £50. One of them engaged me in friendly banter, ‘My mate did it last year, came seventh and in fixed gear. Takes some doing that.’ I bet it did.

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Steve Flynn – baritone, cyclist, computer expert

August 21, 2018 – 9:19 am

Diary of how I came to join the choir

January 2007 – It’s not every day you retire. After 39 years I’m just waking up to the fact that my daily bike commute to Leeds

Road is over. What now? I’ve worked in IT since the age of 19 so maybe provide a service to anyone in difficulties with home PC’s

or who wants to know a bit more about software, particularly Microsoft Office. Broadband is a minefield for some so there’s work

there too. Have you seen how much PC World charge for these services? Must be an opportunity to undercut those guys. So let’s

see.

March 2007 – Remember when you were in work and that smug retiree told you how busy he was? You didn’t believe it. Well it’s

true. There’s lots of things to do, often unpaid and time consuming but nontheless rewarding. Social life expands into daylight

hours. Is this the transition into ‘The Third Age’?

May 2007 – Met Graham in Holmfirth. Still banging on at me to come along to New Mill Choir. Some of the guys play bowls on a

Tuesday afternoon. Come along. Sounds a nice change to bashing bike pedals. Although I can see through his cunning plan, I have

to admit to an interest. But it’s raining.

June 2007 – Still raining.

July 2007 – More rain.

September 2007 – Met Graham in Holmfirth again. The seed he planted in May must have germinated somewhere. I provisionally

agree to go along to a choir concert at St Paul’s in October. My resistance is weakening.

October 2007 – The concert is good fun and enjoyable, but can I sing like these guys? Three pints in the Star and it’s agreed I’m a

baritone and I’m going to the next rehearsal at New Mill club.

Three days later – Hustle and bustle, smiling faces, lots of introductions and before I know it I have a thick book of music and

I’m invited to join in and sing. As 50 male voices rise to a crescendo, the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I must be part of this.

The music is hard at first but I quickly get the hang of the simpler stuff. Afterwards there’s a sociable gathering in the bar with

supper and a well-earned drink. This isn’t bad!

November 2007 – That first night sets the pattern for the following weeks. Raymond, my neighbour, puts aside his apprehension

and comes too. We sign up to go to the workshop in Scarborough.

Scarborough 2008 – Excellent way for any choir ‘newbie’ to broaden his experience. Energy levels are high and the concentrated

workshop sessions give me more confidence. Bags of opportunity to meet and chat with the people I sing with, even though I

wondered whether the invitation to go for a run at 7:00 am was a wind up. Most impressive is the Tadcaster concert. The choir

produce an emotional performance despite a full weekend of singing and, for some, long and deep drinking. I can only assume the

Spirit of Elvis is upon them – those at the ‘show’ on Saturday evening will know what I mean.

Spring Concert, St Paul’s – First sing in public. I’m pretty nervous. Take the words of some songs to Town v Tranmere. A quick

run through at half time and again in Sainsbury’s café after the match. I sang in the massed choir event at the Town Hall but that

was relatively anonymous and we had the words. This time it’s from memory and I know it can suddenly go blank. Even though

I’ve appeared in amateur shows and performed simulated sex on stage at the LBT (yes, really!) the nerves drag at the stomach. We

begin with ‘The Heavens Proclaim’, a chance to open my lungs, have a good rant and settle down. I make a contribution to many

of the other pieces. In certain songs, I really should keep my mouth closed, but instead try to follow Elizabeth’s guidance and at

least do something. Note to self – make more effort to get these things learnt! The concert finishes and, with trepidation, I seek the

verdict of my partner and ex-choir accompanist, Sue. She judges it a success.

So it’s back to the Star to round off the evening with a beer or more. Which is where this started really.

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What do New Mill MVC members think about the choir?

July 31, 2018 – 2:01 pm

I came late to singing by accident, looking for pastimes in a new community having had a late career move south. In common with a lot of choir members I find a lot of pleasure in working with an entirely new subject and I’m sure we all find it quite therapeutic. [Grew up in S Africa and W Indies. Scotland to complete his education and get a career].

Bob Carrick 2006

I have always loved music and enjoyed the rich sound of a male voice choir. For me, music is relaxing and healing and singing has a wonderful way of lifting the spirits. Thanks to Ed Turner, who brought me to a rehearsal. Despite little musical experience, the choir’s comradeship, picking up with old friends and making new ones, made me feel at home. Learning new skills has been a stretch, but very rewarding.

Robert Coombs 2011

Since schooldays I’ve enjoyed singing and performing. Harmonising with others is a great stress buster. I love the diversity of the choir membership and the warm, unforced, non-judgemental welcome that new members receive.
Graham Evans 2005

I joined the choir in 1994. Despite dad playing euphonium in a brass band and my Junior School head overdosing us on Paul Robeson and Andy Stewart, I suffer from that relatively common choir malady known as dissonance. I’m also a member of the elite deaf section, so I don’t have a lot musical going for me. Could it be that I appreciate our spine-tingling harmonies simply through friendship and camaraderie? Well maybe not since I sit between Clive and Andy.

Geoff Gill 2005

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Three choirs and a band triumph at Sheffield Cathedral

June 10, 2018 – 10:34 am

by Dave Walker, 10th June 2018 $Great audience and stunning venue for Mark Rotchell\'s memorial concert$

informal moments as the choirs prepare for the rehearsal

Traditional fare last night at Sheffield Cathedral, performed with control and passion in memory of Mark Rotchell, Chairman of Worrall MVC. The pick for many was Highland Cathedral by Loxley, its percussion section and three guest pipers. Pic of Alan and the choirs courtesy of Anne Lane.

Happy memories of our previous appearance here as guests of Worrall. And what about the time we sang with Brighouse and Rastrict at Cutler\’s Hall? Tony Capstick compered, up until he was gently guided into his dressing room for being, frankly, blathered.

The cathedral has been refurbished with new floor and pews. Magnificent acoustics. Inspiring occasion – best wishes to Mark\’s family.

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Swinglo hosts Tom Ashworth again

May 30, 2018 – 4:41 pm

My cement mixer stopped working the other day. Normally, this wouldn’t register as a calamity but seeing as how I was in the middle of pointing along, high wall, there was a distinct possibility of having to mix the mortar by hand – with my back! – if I wanted to finish the job sometime before winter.

Cost of a new one was out of the question; somehow, without me noticing, the price of cement mixers had ballooned out of all proportion and now equated to something like the National Debt. I’m sure I never paid anything like that ten years ago. Anyway, according to Geoff who holds a professorship in fixing things, the solution to the problem was to repair the old one and I phoned up the company that had manufactured my trusty machine. In the intervening years this company, subject to numerous take-overs, had blossomed into a multi-national, multi-million, all plastic and glass, megalith and the conversation went something like this.

Good morning, how can we help?

Hello, I’ve got a cement mixer. It’s ten years old and the electric motor has stopped working. It just hums when you switch it on but if you hit it with a stick it starts to spin.

I’ll put you through to Sales, sir, they’ll sort you out.

Good morning, Sales.

Hello, I’ve got a cement mixer. It’s ten years old and the electric motor has stopped working. It just hums when you switch it on but if you hit it with a stick it starts to spin.

You need Parts, sir, I’ll put you through.

Hello, Parts.

Hello, I’ve got a cement mixer. It’s ten years old and the electric motor has stopped working. It just hums when you switch it on but if you hit it with a stick it starts to spin.

Sounds like you need Spares, sir, I’ll transfer you.

Good morning, Spares department.

Hello, I’ve got a cement mixer. It’s ten years old and the electric motor has stopped working. It just hums when you switch it on but if you hit it with a stick it starts to spin.

Technical, sir, you need the Technical Department.

And he put me through to Technical.

As soon as ‘Technical’ answered in a strong Midland’s accent I had a picture of him in my mind. He was a man of a particular age, wearing a brown warehouse coat, possibly a flat cap, chewing the end of a pencil, leaning on a counter and staring at an unfathomable piece of machinery.

Hello, I’ve got a cement mixer…

I’ll bet it’s a CS300 series. Is it yellow?

Well it was originally.

How old is it?

Ten years.

Does it hum when you switch it on?

Yes.

Have you tried hitting it with a stick?

Yes.

Capacitor. It’s your capacitor, part number CS5900148.

And don’t let them overcharge you. They try to charge over the odds on these capacitors.

And there you have it. At the deepest heart of these shining beacons of 21st century industry is a man in a brown coat.

God bless him.

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Swinglo sings with massed male voice choir at Huddersfield Town Hall

May 28, 2018 – 9:21 am

$Concert in aid of Alzheimer\'s disease organised by Norman Mellor at Huddersfield Town Hall$

Thankfully our supporters loved the concert. I was drenched with sweat at the end and felt like a sardine. Colne Valley were in Loyds TSB suits – goodness knows how they felt.

Black Dyke are amazing technically. The James Bond sequence was great and their final piece truly brilliant though I couldn\’t hear the title as their MD was facing the audience. The percussion section was enchanting.

Our two conductors were good (Tom Meredith, Steven Roberts) as were the pianists.

Sadly we also couldn\’t hear Sarah Ogden, but from behind she looked great.

Our changing room was up amongst the rafters.

Concert organised by Norman Mellor who was as imposing and larger than life as ever.

The massed choir repertoire was old-fashioned male voice which made a refreshing change from some of New Mill\’s more modern stuff.

Tom Ashworth, fresh from his blog success with Shallilo, has sneaked into a couple of the pics – very relaxed with his hands in his pockets. Roger from Honley is prominent, as our tenors in the far corner. Thanks to Ann with an \’e\’ Lane for the full frontal view.

I forgot my white shirt and had to forgo some of the rehearsal whilst I went to Next for a replacement. It was, after all, a concert for Alzheimer\’s disease research.

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Dave Walker\’s pics on swinglo-viewfromthebackrow

April 29, 2018 – 9:49 am

A very small choir visit to Lockwood Park, home of Huddersfield RUFC.

Tom and Dave Walker didn\’t make it to the pic.

Also featuring the exceedingly smart U14s and a bemused David Talboys.

We won the game, but apparently it didn\’t make any difference to anything.

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New Mill MVC are guests of \’Sing Your Rocks Off\’ at King\’s Hall, Ilkley

April 17, 2018 – 10:20 am

$New Mill MVC joined ilkley\'s latest choir, \'Sing Your Rocks Off\'$

Going north, we are more used to travelling to Wensleydale and Swaledale, but Wharfedale is good too. Bound for Ilkley, a lovely small town, home of the King\’s Hall, which was opened in 1908 as town hall, library and theatre. The Winter Garden was added in 1914.
Ged Faricy used to be a tenor with New Mill MVC, a soloist no less. He now lives in Ilkley and has started a men’s choir known as ‘Sing Your Rocks Off’. He and his choir kindly invited us to sing with them at the King’s Hall last Saturday night. A charity fund-raiser for Spinal Research. And enjoyable it was.
In my view New Mill was competent and workmanlike under the guidance of Elizabeth and Sue.
Roger Davies was great.
‘Sing Your Rocks Off’ was a revelation. Some of their singing was raw, some smooth and accomplished, and there were the inevitable sketchy moments. Entertaining, amusing and moving nevertheless. Especially moving when the unaccompanied voices soared and whispered in turn, catching the mood of the pieces. I don’t know what their longer term aim is, but they could become much more than a bunch of blokes having a sing, as long as they don’t lose that raw edge.
Thanks to Rob Shelton, who sponsored the concert and who suffers from spinal injury. He is an active trustee of the Spinal Research charity,

Clic on the links to hear how they perform

New Mill MVC and \’Sing Your Rocks Off\’ audiovisual 1

New Mill MVC and \’Sing Your Rocks Off\’ audiovisual 2

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New Mill MVC celebrate at rehearsal

April 17, 2018 – 9:54 am

Happy anniversary to Ed, baritone and much loved former MD, Elizabeth

New Mill MVC celebrate the Happy Couple\’s wedding anniversary, Ed, baritone and Elizabeth, much loved former MD.

Oops – the first one was deleted by accident

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Ged Faricy\’s new choir – upcoming concert in Ilkley

April 6, 2018 – 8:45 am

$New Mill \'old boy\' asks his pals to guest at Ilkley concert$

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Birthday baritone with a New Mill cake

April 3, 2018 – 8:42 am

Baritone Doug Shuttleworth celebrates an unknown birthday with a superb new Mill MVC cake

New Mill birthday cake and coy with his age

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Bass Tom Ashworth has a couple of stories

March 25, 2018 – 10:05 am

Tom is an accomplished WW1 author and speaker. He also keeps us amused with personal stories. And he can sing. It\’s a pleasure to invite him to contribute to the website.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Seen on the back of a Chimney Sweep’s white van recently:

Are you aged six years or under?

Have you ever considered an apprenticeship in the exciting world of chimney-sweeping?

Free gruel and a chance to meet Dick van Dyke!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

My mother died just before Christmas, 94 years old, bright as a button but her body had let her down.

A few weeks before she died she had a dreadful fall in the care home where she was living. She had toppled forward striking her head onto the edge of a metal radiator, completely splitting her forehead almost down to the bone and, before the staff could reach her, had crawled under her bed, somehow cutting her back on a protrusion and badly bruising her elbows and arms. She was rushed to hospital and by the time I got there her forehead was being glued back together and the nursing staff had started to clean the blood which covered her almost completely. They never fully managed to get the blood from her white hair and she remained red, and then brunette, for the next few days. After a morning doing a series of health checks on her the medic declared that apart from being 94, the existing bowel cancer and the split – now glued – forehead, there was basically nothing wrong with her and, thankfully, she could be discharged. The ambulance got her back to the home and she returned to her own bed where I helped put her teeth back in and then I asked: ‘Can I get you anything now before I go back to Yorkshire?’. And she said: ‘Yes, I’d like a cheese and onion pasty’. Accordingly, one of the carers was despatched directly to Greggs in the High Street and my mother ate every morsel.

I can’t help but feel that if I had had the same accident, I would have been in hospital for a week, off work for a month and probably receiving counselling for the rest of the year.

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Concerts featuring classical music need to change says Royal Philharmonic Orchestra boss

March 22, 2018 – 5:09 pm

Did you see the recent survey on classical music? Camilla Turner writes in The Telegraph.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra boss wants to change its name to orchestral music. Classical is an old-fashioned word which puts off youngsters. There\’s a perception it is only for older people. Younger people paradoxically, in a recent survey, wanted to learn more about orchestral music, but primarily from film, West End productions and pop.

As a lifelong grump, can I also moan about elitism in opera, classical instrumental and choral music? That and the price of concerts may just be putting a few people off.

So change the name and diversify the repertoire – why not play video game music? And stop being so stuffy.

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Holmfirth Choral turned out last Saturday despite the weather. More on stage than in the auditorium. The soloist couldn\’t get so Chris Pulleyn the pianist sang it all. What a guy? Selwyn, my informant, enjoyed himself. Chris played and sang for us at the Mrs Sunderland opera day.

Okay so I pinched the photo – I think there are more important people associated with Facebook who are pinching stuff and avoiding tax.

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From the Association of Yorkshire Choirs

March 20, 2018 – 3:48 pm

(please bring £10

deposit as part of £30 contribution)

Or contact the organisers:

Jane Hobson – MD to Skelmanthorpe Male Voice Choir & Penistone Ladies Choir jane.hobson@gmx.co.uk

Daniel Timmins – deputy MD to Bolsterstone MVC & Thurgoland Community Choir d_timmins@talk21.com

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Choral music and Roderick Williams OBE (2)

March 19, 2018 – 4:29 pm

Choral Music in Britain 2

Roderick Williams refers to this podcast as singing for solidarity. Singing with others for joy, to summon communities and to change the world. Roger Scruton tells us that singing with others for a common purpose is a national and european tradition, whether it be in a choir, at a football match or as part of a church service. He goes on to say that our place, from nationhood to where we are personally, is commonly expressed in singing. Identity, where we belong, music and singing all go together.

Singing together can produce something greater than the sum of its parts

Professor Stephen Clift talks of singing as a basic part of human nature, common to all of our cultures and all historic periods. It is non-elitist and when in a group takes it to a level of harmony with others that we do not achieve in everyday life.
Oskar Cox Jensen, historian and writer, expanding on the nationhood theme, describes how God Save the King originated as Jacobite support for the pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie. It disappeared for 70 years and re-emerged as a folksong, popular in the music halls and eventually sung regularly at the end of theatre performances. An adopted National Anthem. It was associated with gang violence in Edinburgh in 1792 when Walter Scott fell out with Irish students and it has a number of different versions, not always complimentary to the monarchy, comparable to football team anthems. Hence music and singing together as expressions of dissent and revolution. Supporters of W. B. Albion agreed that intimidating the opposition was the purpose behind some of their singing.
Anna Redding, during the Women\’s Peace Camp days of Greenham Common, recalls how singing together round the campfire helped them through some of their primitive living conditions and, when they really got going, it was like a collective ecstasy.
The Birmingham Clarion Singers, according to Annie Banham and Jane Scott, began in 1940 when a doctor returned from the Spanish Civil War. Songs of fighting and learning the lessons of the past – the chartists of the 1830s. It is about working class singing – popular protest, a desire for representation.
Workplaces encourage choirs and singing. Alexandria Winn is proud to be part of a Lawyer firm choir in Birmingham. Different floors and departments, not normally known to each other, come together and make a singing community.

$It doesn\'t always have to be formal.$

In the previous blog we learned about the personal gain of enjoying and being inspired by singing and by the relationships we nurture as a result of the shared interest or passion. Singing is also good for your health and gives you a sense of achievement – clic on link for Chris Rowbury\’s post Reasons for Singing. Today contains examples of why people come together and sing – protest, sense of community, loyalty to place and football team or simply that sense of sharing in something which is much greater than the sum of its parts.
It\’s not for everyone says Stephen Clift – we cannot generalise. Nearly everyone then.

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Lent – can you give up music?

March 15, 2018 – 3:00 pm

My pal Greg has given up alcohol for Lent and is still managing. I have stopped being grumpy, or that was the intention. Trevor Cox tried to give up music – listen to his podcast.

What might be the ups and downs of not having music in our lives?
A strong benefit is not being influenced by background music in pubs, restaurants and clothing shops. Professor Charles Spence describes how, for example, so-called background music (French, German) in a restaurant influences our food and wine choices. Similarly, fast and slow tempo music can speed us up when they are busy or slow us down when they are slack. Apparently we have no recollection of this as we leave.
There may be costs such as not appreciating or even getting the point of TV and film drama. Composer Debbie Wiseman tells us we can often get the drift of things purely with the music. And not the Hollywood variety – better music that creates mood and emotion – space to take in what is not being shown on the screen. If you have the habit of watching these programmes with others, then that social time would also suffer.
Another cost is the lack of brain arousal. Switched on at a low level. According to Dr. Victoria Williamson it would be quicker to list what brain structures don\’t light up when listening to music. Even basic reward centres that deal with our survival as a species – like the need for food, water and sex. These centres lie between memory and emotion, so it\’s all quite a light bulb. We may need to seek substitutes – drugs, sex and rock\’n roll (no, I really mean chocolate).
There are medical connotations, not directly related to the absence of music, more a consequence of other factors. Anhedonia is a mental symptom when we are unable to enjoy what would normally turn us on. If, over a long time, we stop listening to our favourite music along with other things we normally take pleasure in, our friends and relatives might need to think about depression.

Amusia is the technical term for tone deafness. It effects 4% of the population from birth and can be a side effect of brain injury in later life. Again there is no pleasure in music. Tone deaf people cannot make sense of music and cannot recognise a familiar tune says Lauren Stewart. Sadly they can avoid normal everyday interactions involving music and can be social hermits.

To summarise Trevor Cox\’s exploration of not having music in our lives, we lose the personal gain of enjoying and being inspired by something and also the relationships we nurture as a result of the shared interest or passion. This surely resonates with New Mill MVC, who gain from both simultaneously.

The question remains \’what is music?\’ Tom Service from the BBC talks about music as sound which we interpret as meaningful. Otherwise it is simply a sound. Take a baby crying – there is pitch, tempo and timbre with a large number of interpretations. There can\’t be many sounds that don\’t arouse personal meaning. According to composer Edgard Varese however we need to organise the quality and quantity of sounds before we would call it music.

If music is simply a meaningful sound, it would be rather hard to give it up for Lent. It\’s all around us. Easier if it were organised sound.

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Choral Music and Roderick Williams OBE

March 8, 2018 – 5:01 pm

Choral music in Great Britain 1

Roderick Williams OBE, with guests, talks about choral music. On the one hand he says there are over 40000 choirs ranging from pop to classical – on the other he wonders if singing in Britain will survive. There has never been a better time for new writing by composers for specific choirs as commissions. There are two very popular current choral recordings: (1) Tallis – Spem in Allium – (clic here for Utube) which features on the soundtrack of 50 Shades of Grey and (2) Mealor – Ubi Caritas – (clic here for Utube) from the Catherine and William wedding (Mealor wrote Wherever You Are for Military Wives).

Yet, Rod says, singing is on the decline. In a 1927 recording of Abide With Me from the Soccer Cup final, 92000 fans knew the words and music and just sang. A good proportion of the crowd today would not know the words. TV, Radio, Records, CDs and all the other ways of listening to music have expanded at the expense of personal singing. Weddings and funerals have less hymns and attendance at church generally is falling. If a singer is needed, he/she/them is brought in – just like New Mill.

In pre-industrial Britain, people sang at work – spinners, weavers, waggoners, farm labourers, sailors and so on. The musical rhythms fitted the work tasks and helped get the work done. This spilt into leisure, down the pub and in the music hall. When factory discipline came in, singing was banned and those that tried were fined. Some establishments even had no talking. Anyway the machines were very noisy, sidestepped by the lip-readers of the Dundee Jute Mills.

Class and snootiness have also had a role. Since the nineteenth century, voices of the ordinary people have been looked down upon by the gentry and those who would like to be gentry. Crude, unlettered and vulgar are some of the words used. An attitude that transferred to education. Personal singing down the pub and in the music hall was raw and edgy and frowned upon.

Rod introduces two organisations that simply sing – Natural Voice Network and the London Bulgarian Choir. They encourage people, whether they think they can sing or not, to connect with others and share the joy of making musical sounds together. The London choir, with many English speakers, cannot understand the words, so it\’s all about making great sound. Like us or me singing in latin – maybe not the great sound bit. Ged is conducting us in Ilkley for just this sort of piece.

$Singing \'Blue Mountains of Virginia\' together$

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Association of Yorkshire Choirs

March 6, 2018 – 11:17 am

Two concerts for your diary courtesy of Association of Yorkshire Choirs

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One of New Mill\’s finest now in Ilkley – Ged Faricy and his new choir

January 9, 2018 – 4:55 pm

$Ged Faricy\'s new choir in Ilkley$

It\’s a bit of a stride to Ilkley from The Holme Valley, but if you can make the trip you\’ll see and hear some great entertainment.

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October concerts for New Mill Male Voice Choir

September 21, 2017 – 3:41 pm

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Audition

July 27, 2017 – 12:58 pm

Third in Dyce\’s early experiences with New Mill Male Voice choir

Audition

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Check out this guy – Thomas Quasthoff

July 24, 2017 – 1:44 pm

Telegraph review – \”I never thought someone like me could be successful\”

Lieder came first and then jazz singer

Georgia on My Mind – utube

and tutor – utube

and unsurprisingly with great photographs – My Way

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What swinglo is trying to achieve

July 20, 2017 – 9:51 am

In addition to a personal view from the back row of the baritones, hopefully we are aiming for:

Increase in awareness of the choir, its values and objectives
Spread the news about the benefits of singing
Support the choir\’s recruitment effort
Support the official website
Give information about concerts and events

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Dyce\’s First Rehearsal

July 20, 2017 – 9:09 am

Second in an audio diary from 1994 when I first joined the choir.

First rehearsal utube

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Silent Night

July 12, 2017 – 10:13 am

soul music

tube

Clic on these links for more on Silent Night. Soul music is a radio 4 podcast that explores pieces of music that stir the emotions.

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Swing Low Sweet Chariot 2

July 12, 2017 – 10:12 am

soul music

utube

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Age

July 12, 2017 – 9:54 am

Any of you oldies got an opinion on being Forever Young was a great way to link music, senior singer/songwriters and trying to stay fit into our sixties, seventies and older – Exercise and ageing.

There are millions and millions of words written on this, so I\’m not going to make a significant contribution. Great then that I can quote an authority on the subject, Matt Roberts, writing in The Times, February 18th, 2017, entitled \’How to exercise after 40\’. Can I make a short list?
(1) We need to lift weights because it is quite normal to lose muscle as we age, hence the percent of body fat increases. This keeps up our strength. A bonus is the improvement in bone strength (ladies note).
(2) Get the pulse, breathing and sweating going twice a week to maintain stamina through healthy heart and lungs. The extra here is mental wellbeing.
(3) Pilates. The core, especially abdominals and hips. According to my coach, Ann Little, pilates is the way to tone muscle from the inside out. The spine is a particular beneficiary.
(4) Stretching. Trying to keep suppleness going.
(5) There are other recommendations such as interval training, yoga, lunges and squats, but I have no personal experience of their benefits.

There has to be a number of questions here. How safe is this? Can I start for the first time in my sixties? I have diabetes, angina, parkinsonism and so on; is this for me? Exactly how heavy, how fast, how long, and how often? I\’ve read it somewhere that a good stiff 20 minute walk, five times a week would do it (and golf doesn\’t count).
Well, Matt has some great news. Two or more days off a week and take care over 30 minutes per session. It is sensible/essential to get the okay from your doctor if you worry about your health. She is more likely than not to say \”go for it\”, starting slow with help maybe from your local gym\’s professional trainer. This raises the question of cost – maybe a good investment when your risk of heart and stroke disease falls and you feel better about yourself. Do I follow this advice – yes – I am one of the lucky ones who enjoys exercise for its own sake. See video on Facebook (for some reason it will not load on blogger).
The web is not consistent and some of it is contradictory, so no change there then. The best NHS site for guidelines could be this.

Motivation – getting going and then keeping going. Are there any Tricks about setting goals and freshening them up regularly. Weight loss, a specific challenge (e.g. charity fund-raiser), joining a group and so on. Give yourself a break if you don\’t meet your targets. There are still people who are very athletic and competitive over 70 – let them.

We have a men\’s section in the ladies dominated pilates class down in Holmfirth. It\’s a liberation movement. There\’s arthritis, angina, diabetes, and grumpiness. Then there\’s coffee in Scufflers.

So we\’ve got coffee and exercise. Where are the senior singer/songwriters?

Here\’s one – Knofler

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For those who missed the piano-playing window cleaner first time round

May 17, 2017 – 4:16 pm

We have our Scarborough windows done intermittently when we visit. The cleaner owns several keyboards, one of which he keeps in the back of the van just in case someone is interested. Please clic on the links.

piano in the back of the van

piano on the bonnet

And in case you are interested Male voices in the Holme Valley

This post is specifically for email.

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Can male voice choirs survive?

May 17, 2017 – 1:45 pm

Can the male voice choir survive? – read this telegraph article – it stresses the physical and mental health benefits of singing and social interaction, especially when choir members are working toward a common objective, such as a distinctive sound.

See also reasons for singing previously on this blog

This book came out in 2012 and has a chapter on UK male voice choirs, by Peter Davies. Here are some summaries from a survey of over 450 choirs.

(1) Four part harmony, usually not close, two and a half octaves centring on G below middle C. Piano or organ accompaniment and no choreography.

(2) 60% of choirs have a membership exceeding 40. Majority have an age range 56-85.

(3) Recruitment following natural events is biggest concern.

(4) Financed through membership and concert fees. Few have sponsorships or grants. Average fee for concerts £150. 3% charge over £400.

(5) Conservative music choices. Slow repertoire turnover, largely due to inability to read music. Welsh hymns, spirituals, post-war pop songs and songs from the shows.

(6) 25% have entered a contest within the last 12 months. Two thirds positive, one third neutral or negative. Main problem is grumpiness at not winning. Simply taking part or getting constructive suggestions for improvement are not valued.

(7) 50% perform once a month. Average audience 140.

Overall impression is gradual decline, despite recognised benefits. Some choirs amalgamate.

Choral work is not particularly attractive to younger generations given everything on offer, and so natural events are not corrected for.

School choirs associated with arts, music centres and mentoring male voice choirs are on the increase.

More opportunities to train as singing and choral coaches are also increasing.

And the point? Singing in a male voice choir is great and a under threat, but given careful marketing (stressing the benefits) and resources, it can survive and thrive.

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John Clay organises a Ceilidh at New Mill Club

May 17, 2017 – 8:36 am

Saturday July 8th
7.30 ish
New Mill Club
Price – not a lot, to be announced
Tickets available from John – give him a ring on 686642

Starring a visit from the famous yellow \’Fish and Chip\’ bus.
If you have never fallen over whilst stripping the willow, you haven\’t lived.
Buy now and avoid disappointment.

Laurel and Hardy tribute, but Clive strangely resembles a happy caller in ceilidh band.

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Another good concert, but just look at those cream teas at 11 o\’clock in the morning

May 15, 2017 – 4:42 pm

St Andrew\’s Church, Scarborough.

Another first class choir performance and the Manhattan girls were good too.

The following morning, look who I discovered at the Clock Cafe?

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Male voices in the Holme Valley

May 9, 2017 – 9:53 am

Try out this new venture – an audio file about stuff of local musical interest. The first attempt finished before the audio was complete. This is version 2.

It is not the final quality we would like, but you have to start somewhere. Hopefully we can improve and do some more.

\’Since the nineteenth century West Yorkshire has been full of music. Huddersfield particularly so. The Choral Society, formed in 1836, is often used, deservedly, as the example of the town\’s musical excellence. In addition …\’

Click on the link to hear the article in full – Male voices in the Holme Valley

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Three choirs at Wakefield Cathedral

April 30, 2017 – 9:04 am

Whether they sang alone or together, the three choirs gave their all.

The well-organised and supportive helpers, the venue and our professionals let the singers blossom in one of the best concerts I\’ve sung in.

A privilege.

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Don\’t miss it – this Saturday – 3 choirs for the price of one

April 25, 2017 – 7:01 am

Joint items – How Great Thou Art and Tell Me it\’s not True (theme from Blood Brothers)

Easy parking

Great venue

Have you got your ticket?

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Video from a bit of a do

April 4, 2017 – 9:15 am

Take your life in your hands and click on the following link. Compiled by older brother Steve. We love it.

70s d0

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Another triumph at The Town Hall

April 3, 2017 – 11:45 am

Alan went well, Emma serene,
Choir superb, cat with the cream.
Oh Joy, how they loved us,
From Dixie to Carrickfergus.
That audience so sweet,
Their enjoyment complete.
Jeff introduced us all – legato,
For Trilogy he joined the tenors, in\’t front row.
Evans \’the opera\’ as they say in Wales,
Big red dragon size, he tops the scales.
He\’s funny too, despite his rear view.
Wynne a word not often heard down the WRU.
\’I don\’t sell insurance,\’ he cried.
I think he could if he tried.

Alan went well, Emma serene.
The superb choir went to the rugby club.

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Migrating to WordPress

March 21, 2017 – 1:52 pm

How difficult is this?

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Wynne Evans and New Mill Choir

March 10, 2017 – 9:32 am

Tickets £15-18 Please click here to order your tickets online

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Wynne Evans and New Mill Male Voice Choir

February 24, 2017 – 9:33 am

just click here

for online booking

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Not just the bloke from the \’Go-Compare\’ advert

February 11, 2017 – 11:13 am

Don’t delay, take action, buy tickets from any Tourist Information outlet, The Town Hall or
online (just click here).

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The Singing Speaker, Jeff Woods. Originally from Salford, he’s lived in Wales and now it’s Lincolnshire. He’s been around a bit, singing and speaking (singingspeaker.com).
His choice of best voice – Sinatra, Callas and Robeson. Other choices of successful singers included Alfie Bo, Monro, Formby, Ella, Nat King Cole and Gigli. Full of interesting factoids. Monro was a bus driver for a while. Cole was a great pianist. Formby’s dad was a top music hall act. Ella started as a dancer.

for fuller version clic

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Biggles

September 15, 2016 – 2:58 pm

Come fly with me, let\’s fly, let\’s fly away
If you can use some exotic booze
There\’s a bar in far Bombay
Come fly with me, let\’s fly, let\’s fly away

A magnificent man, except when he\’s grumpy

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Author Archives: DA Walker

(1) May 7th – St John’s, Upperthong

(2) Platinum Jubilee Family Picnic Concert

29 May 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

(3) Netherton Summer Concert

11 June 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

(4) New Mill on tour – London 2022 – Southwark Cathedral and Greenwich

30 July 11:30 am – 4:00 pm

(5) October 8th – Sir Willard White joins the choir at Town Hall, Huddersfield

The event of the season

Saturday 18th December

7pm start

Christ Church, New Mill. HD9 7ER

Price £10 pp

A simple request:

Contrasts with an impossible dream:

Flanders

January 2007

March 2007

May 2007

June 2007

July 2007.

September 2007

October 2007.

November 2007

Scarborough 2008

Spring Concert, St Paul’s

First concert since lockdown.

Rehearsals have gone well – should be a cracking concert

Swing into Spring with New Mill MVC

London – Yorkshire Day 2020! Weekend away

KEY INFORMATION from Stageagent

The Temperance Seven on 12th October

The Temperance Seven on 12th October

Gala Charity Concert with Holmepride Community in Action

Holy Trinity Church, HD9 1HA – Sat. May 25, 2019 7:15 pm

Spring Voices

New Mill MVC & Denby Dale Ladies\’ Choir

St John the Evangelist Church, Upper Denby. – Sat. March 16, 2019 7:15 pm

Saturday July 8th7.30 ishNew Mill ClubPrice – not a lot, to be announcedTickets available from John – give him a ring on 686642

Starring a visit from the famous yellow \’Fish and Chip\’ bus.If you have never fallen over whilst stripping the willow, you haven\’t lived.Buy now and avoid disappointment.

Laurel and Hardy tribute, but Clive strangely resembles a happy caller in ceilidh band.

Laurel and Hardy tribute, but Clive strangely resembles a happy caller in ceilidh band.

Have you got your ticket?

Saturday July 8th
7.30 ish
New Mill Club
Price – not a lot, to be announced
Tickets available from John – give him a ring on 686642

Starring a visit from the famous yellow \’Fish and Chip\’ bus.
If you have never fallen over whilst stripping the willow, you haven\’t lived.
Buy now and avoid disappointment.