Saturday 2nd April 2011. Spring Concert at the Coton Centre

Tamworth Male Voice Choir with their Special Guests Cor Curiad Ladies Choir

Proceeds in aid of the Tamworth Brance of RNLI

As Jim Lovell famously said on his return from the moon, ‘We have a problem’. Maybe the scale of the problem is rather less than that of the astronauts but Tamworth Male Voice Choir has a problem too. We have just performed, arguably, our best ever concert. We have, in modern parlance, ‘raised the bar’. Where do we go from here? How do we continue to improve? How do we top this performance?

Tamworth MVC has been in existence for over 30 years. This correspondent has been a member for a mere 4 of those years, but I speak not just from my own experience but from others who have been involved for many more years than me. The general feeling from members has been consistent.

So why was it so special? In my opinion there were a number of factors. We ourselves were on top form and our guests, the ladies from Côr Curiad, were exceptional too. Andy Smith, our now indispensable Musical Director, had put together an excellent programme and had rehearsed us very hard and with great expertise. Our stand-in accompanist, David Easto, was as accomplished as our own, also indispensible, Marion who could not attend on the night. There was, however, one single factor that made the night extra special - our finale, the tribute to Les Miserables. But wait – that came at the end of the evening. What of the earlier part of the performance? There was plenty more here to remember!

Our first half followed what one may describe as a traditional and familiar pattern. We opened to ‘With a voice of singing’ and followed up with ‘Arise O Sun’ and ‘With Catlike Tread’ from Pirates of Penzance. We then performed our ‘crowd pleaser’, African Trilogy, the seasonal Easter Hymn with Katie Smith excellent as solo soprano, followed by Hallelujah Chorus which just gets better and better. We then took a break whilst Côr Curiad went through their first set singing Adiemus, Mae’r Rhod Yn Troi, The Lord is My Shepherd (The Vicar of Dibley version!), Autumn Leaves and Battle of Jericho.After the interval we sang, for the first time in public but surely not the last, the emotional Bui-Doi from Miss Saigon, Anthem from Chess and Hey Jude where the audience joined in at the end. Côr Curiad then returned with a small section of their choir singing a stunning arrangement of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody before the whole choir continued with Pan Ddaw Yfory, Over the Rainbow and Gwnllian.

Last year Andy heard our erstwhile accompanist, Stephen Williams, perform Fantaisie sur La Traviata on the piano with 2 friends, sisters Susan and Julie Winch, a piece that requires 6 hands! Andy liked it so much and has waited patiently to perform it, which he did quite brilliantly with Alex Esney and Jane Jewell from Côr Curiad. The audience absolutely loved it and somehow this set up the atmosphere for the finale, our tribute to Les Miserables that has now been running in the West End for a staggering 25 years. Both choirs joined together to sing ‘At the end of the day’, Côr Curiad sang ‘Castle on a cloud’. We all sang ‘Master of the house’ with our own Jolian Waldon and Katie taking the lead roles as M et Mme Thenardier. Tamworth MVC sang ‘Bring him home’ (possibly better than ever, such was the mood), Katie sang a medley of ‘I dreamed a dream’ and ‘On my own’ with hubby accompanying and then we ran straight into ‘One day more’, this correspondent’s favourite ever musical song. The audience loved it and cried for more. Okay, I may be running away with myself slightly here, but more we gave them anyway. We finished with ‘Do you hear the people sing’ which we then reprised. There was a whole buzz about the place at the end as we all knew what a special night we had all experienced.

Congratulations to the whole choir. Thanks to Côr Curiad for their fantastic contributions to the night’s performance. We have to meet up again soon! Well done to Peter Cooper who did a great job as MC, although how he gets away with some of those jokes I’ll never know! Well done to all our solo contributors, Katie, Jolian, Paddy and Bill Well done to David (accompanist), Steve (stage management) and to Andy for persevering with us.

As I said, we have a problem. What next?

David Maugham

 Photo by courtesy of David Gorse