Category: About Us

For anyone that doesn’t know me I am Terry Ashmore from the Baritone section and I joined the Choir in 2011.

I was born and schooled in Tibshelf, Derbyshire and had 2 elder brothers and a sister. My father was a collier and worked as a Main Gate Ripper at Glapwell pit, and later at Butcher Wood and Silverhill pits. He was a lean machine my dad, but he had wrists thicker than most people’s ankles! I guess it was the constant manual labour that did it! My mother worked for Barringer’s in Mansfield making Dudley military water bottles, but left to start a family after she married my Dad, I think she had her hands full with us to be fair.
As kids we were packed off to Sunday School every week and I suppose that was my first experience of singing as a group. I never really followed this up, but it never used to bother me when I was one of the few who could be heard singing out in school assembly.
I had a lovely, if sometimes chaotic childhood, and remember having a really poor attendance at school. In fact, I think that my favourite subject was Cross Country as I really enjoyed running, especially running away from school! I spent most of my time either biking all over Derbyshire or building tree dens and rope swings in the nearby Pilsley woods. I genuinely feel sorry for the youngsters today, as they have never experienced those simple pleasures, and a time when the roads were relatively safe to cycle on. However, in my final 2 years at school I did work hard and managed to achieve some decent grades to set me off on my working life. I was also proud, in my final year, to be Tibshelf School 1 mile champion!
After school I found employment with The Metal Box Company in Sutton in Ashfield as an apprentice engineer and attending West Notts College as part of my training. When qualified I moved through the different departments gaining skills and experience in manufacturing and tool room skills. I have also worked in Belgium, Spain, and France on projects for Metal Box. I currently work as a Maintenance Manager at the same facility.
I have a wide range of musical tastes and can listen to almost anything although I am not too keen on Rap. I used to love listening to the Top 40 in my teens and learning all of the lyrics to the hits, I particularly liked the Kinks and the Rolling Stones and used to do a decent Jagger impression at one time! I have done the usual Karaoke spots, but not on a regular basis, and was once asked to audition for lead singer in a band at college, but I was not keen as some of the members were a bit “ far-out” and so declined. I sometimes wonder what journey that may have taken me on, but I guess I will never know now.
Family life then came around and brought with it 2 girls and 3 boys, and two Grandchildren. Carlene and I will be celebrating our 25th Anniversary later this year,
In that time, they have all had to put up with my constant singing over the years, in the shower, bath, kitchen, lounge, well anywhere really. I just feel happy when I sing, even enjoying and feeling the emotion of sad songs.

I was first made aware of the Mansfield and District Male Voice Choir when I was at a family occasion at St Philips Church in Mansfield. Al Roberts was in the pew behind me and he asked me if I had ever thought of joining a choir, to which I replied “ I can’t sing,” he invited me along to rehearsal saying “give it six weeks” and the rest, as they say, is history.
I personally think that 6 weeks is enough for you to judge if you are going to be able to sing in a choir or not. The discipline of sticking to your own part is critical to the success of the choir as a whole but you will soon know if you have the makings of a choir member. I must confess that learning the repertoire for the first year was difficult as I could not read music at all, but after a while and by asking others, I got to appreciate the timings and the meanings of the music as the composition demanded. I had often admired the close harmonies of the Motown groups but never really homed into the individual parts, and the realisation that each part had its own unique contribution to the whole was a bit of a revelation to me. Learning songs in Welsh, French, and German was made easier with the help of other members and the new technologies such as Muse Score now enables members to practise at home with a correct version of their part without the distractions from the other sections.
Within a year of joining the Choir I had the pleasure to sing at 10 Downing Street, had tea with the Chancellors family, and performed at the Manchester Arena with the Welsh association of Male Voice Choirs! I suppose my most memorable occasion apart from my first concert appearance with the Choir, was singing at The Royal Albert Hall in London with the Welsh Association, to perform in that iconic venue is a memory made with others that I will treasure. The whole weekend was fantastic and the camaraderie of the Choirs was humbling, and how the whole thing came together, from all of the separate rehearsals by Choirs from across the country, still amazes me!
I felt that I had well and truly progressed when I was asked to join the Gentlemen, who are all Choir members who enjoy singing different genres within and outside of choir concerts.
Recently it has been a difficult time for all of us with many leaving the Choir for different reasons and we have also mourned some dear friends who have passed from our ranks. The recent months have also taken a toll on people’s wellbeing, and I can think of no better way than singing as a group, however much depleted, to lift the soul. As it is often heard, it is the quality and not the quantity that counts, and hopefully the Choir can move into the Post covid future with growing and repeated confidence and success.
To sum up, I sing because it makes me happy to be with a group of people who enjoy making other people happy by their performances!

Eric has been the choir treasurer; since he has a background in accounting and marketing, since 2014. You will see that he has a wide range of interests and is always looking forward to the next new thing to add to his skills. He occasionally supports our choir at the piano under the watchful eye of our accompanist Margaret Ball. Eric sings 1st Tenor and here is his story.

I was born 56 years ago at King’s Mill Hospital in Sutton in Ashfield and grew up in a musical family. My father and older brother played piano and my mother sang. Until the late 1970s dad played music from the 1940s to the 1970s in local pubs and clubs, with my mother occasionally singing along. He proudly held a certificate awarded in the 1950s for being voted Nottinghamshire’s best pub pianist. His style was a cross between stride piano and ragtime. Stride pianists took the basic left-hand “oompah” rhythm of ragtime, but played it with more swing and complexity, while the right hand played the melody and improvisations upon it. In those days pubs and clubs had a piano (no keyboard to carry around) and of course, dad used to get bought quite a few drinks which were lined up on the top of the piano. We went home by taxi.

My brother learnt the piano predominantly as a classical pianist, achieving grade 8 followed by a music degree at Sheffield University. So, I was influenced by a combination of both my dad’s style and my brother’s classical music. Family discussions as to who was the best pianist usually resulted in dad being declared the best, my brother next and myself as a keen, but third place. Recently I have started learning more about jazz and boogie woogie playing but still cannot match dad’s skill.
I enjoy a wide range of music from Queen and, due to my father’s piano playing, music from the forties onwards; particularly the old crooner type of song, big band numbers, jazz, ragtime and boogie woogie.

Music from stage shows and musicals are among my favourites as I grew up performing in dramatic societies. My first public appearance, at the age of 6, was in a school production of the musical Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo. Between the ages of 12 and 36 I have been involved in over 300 theatre productions be they plays, musicals, pantomimes, variety shows including 3 different productions of The Sound of Music, 2 productions of Fiddler on The Roof and many others including Barnum and Brigadoon. In some shows I assisted with lighting / sound and in others, stage work, follow spot work, prompting, acting and even writing the production and directing. I loved it.

Julie and I were married in 1999 and we have two lovely children. Timothy sings in the choir and is currently at University in Nottingham studying Astro Physics and Natalie studies Dance at Derby University. Both have contracted the theatrical gene and are active in local music and theatre productions.

I joined the choir in 2012. Our family was on a walking weekend with a small group from our church, and Gordon Blanc and I began chatting. We discussed our interests and he invited me to give the choir a try the following Tuesday. It was like going home; I saw so many people that I knew and I settled in immediately. I keep going, partly because I enjoy performing in a different medium to theatre but also because there aren’t many activities in society that bring people together in the same way that a choir does. The bonds that form between the members of a choir very often last a lifetime and I have been moved by how deep the bonds are between the members and how genuine the spirit of camaraderie. My first two performances with the choir are my most memorable. In September 2012, I made my debut when the choir gave a concert at gospel church in Nottingham and then in November 2012, we performed with the Syd Lawrence Orchestra at the Derby Assembly Rooms.

Male voice choirs, to some, can have a rather staid, old fashioned image but this has not been my experience in our choir and in many other choirs with whom we have shared a stage. Today, choirs entertain their audiences. It is important to have a varied repertoire of classic male voice standards and modern songs which attract a wide audience and a balanced membership of older and younger choristers. We have been fortunate in the Mansfield and District to have several young people in the choir, including our son, Timothy, who joined the choir at the age of thirteen and is now fast approaching his 21st birthday. We are always pleased when our audiences experience a range of emotions; laughter, sadness, reflection, intrigue and excitement keep folks on the edge of their seats and eager for more.

I have a lifelong interest in the creative arts, hence drama and music but I also enjoy writing. Running the drama groups required me to write a lot of the material for our sketches and plays (there are about 70) but over the last 10 years or so I have taken to writing novels of which there are now seven. I intend to self-publish these in the next 18 months. Julie and I also enjoy drawing. Although I play piano, I do have two violins at home, which I will get out occasionally and attempt to play. I used to play drums for a short period in the music group at the church that we attend as a family. I would also really like to learn to play the alto saxophone, which I intend to start putting into practice in the next 12 months. As you can see, I don’t like being idle.

To encourage new members I would say, grab every opportunity with both hands and enjoy the experience. Upon joining the choir, some people remain members for many years, while others only stay for a shorter period due family or work commitments. However long a person stays the choir, membership will have a lasting positive effect on them; the experience will stay with them for a lifetime.

Although we are in partial lockdown, some of our hard working Supporters’ Group met for lunch today at The Hostess Restaurant in Mansfield Woodhouse. It was a joyful occasion and was thoroughly enjoyed by those attending; just the opportunity to go out and mix again was valued by everyone. Note was made of those former members who could no longer attend due to illness or had passed away.

We are sure that their meeting is a good sign that the choir can get back together after 21st June (subject to Government restrictions) and it is this sense of community and belonging we are all looking forward to – and to be able to sing together again, of course!

The photograph shows the ladies replete after their meal.