Category: News

The Journey is the Reward ( Taoist saying).

Nobody said that the road to the Royal Albert Hall and the Festival of Welsh Male Voice Choirs would be easy. No getting away from it, the challenge ahead for this choir in preparing for the event next May is one of the biggest in its history.

Learning new songs with sophisticated arrangements, especially when many of them are in Welsh is not easy. So far (and we started on this journey back before the summer break last year) it has been hard work and, at times, very frustrating. And still a long way to go!

But hard work can be fun and an evening with the maestro himself Alwyn Humphreys, was always going to be special. Alwyn is a Musical Director’s Musical Director. There was Meryl scribbling away in the corner of the room and making sure she didn’t miss anything. There was Ian Watts (MD of Carlton MVC) screaming from the far reaches of Facebook, “Lucky gits!”

And our own Deputy MD Ian Grice was able to express the sentiments of many, “It was an amazing rehearsal last night with Alwyn covering the progress of songs for the Albert Hall 2018 concert. Well done to all choristers for maximum effort and listening to instruction and direction for the songs. It was a masterclass!”

A masterclass indeed for all choristers. It was “enjoyment” and “proper entertainment” in the words of some.

Alwyn is a very funny guy.  Addressing the baritones he reminded them that it would be quite easy to replace the whole lot of them, if necessary, by bringing in random blokes in of the street. The baritones had reality rubbed in further by Alwyn’s next comments about the first tenors (“like gold”) and second tenors (“platinum!”).

The maestro didn’t replace the baritones, though, but very gently and firmly led them down the road to a greater awareness of singing together, using their ears more and producing a better sound. Baritone Joe Higgins appreciated Alwyn’s approach. “I’ve not had as much fun in a long time. Equal parts singing lesson, choir practice and comedy gig. What a guy!”

The greatest lesson for me from Alwyn’s visit was the confidence he gave us that we can indeed rise to the occasion. Although he didn’t say it in as many words, he gave us the belief that we can push out the boundaries and get better. And that we can have some fun in the process.

These songs will, I’m sure, become part of the repertoire which will help us, hopefully, to attract new audiences and increase the enjoyment for our faithful followers in performing some new material.

So thanks to Alwyn- we look forward to seeing you again in October. And thanks to everyone who have embarked on this journey especially Meryl, Margaret and Ian, our fantastic music team, because without them we wouldn’t have got this far.

Onwards and upwards and let’s enjoy it!

Les Ambler is a second tenor with our Choir with music in his blood. It would be impossible to give a full account of his musical career in these short little portraits. In his twenties Les earned his living as a touring musician and it would probably take several blogs to tell that particular story!

Les grew up in the town and left Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Mansfield in 1953 starting his working life at Raleigh, Nottingham in their home sales department.

“I soon realized that I was more suited to the entertainment industry”, said Les, “and formed my own skiffle group in the mid-1950s. We soon became very popular locally, performing at the local Granada cinema. We did our slot between pictures on Sunday nights”.

Just a word of explanation. Back then films were called “pictures” and there would generally be a “double bill” with two films showing of an evening with scope for more entertainment between the films. Good value for money, I’d say!  The Granada cinema in Mansfield town centre was demolished in the 1970s but stood where Primark is now. It was a very popular venue for touring groups back in the day. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones amongst many others played there.

Les left the group who carried on and were later joined by Shane Fenton and became “Shane Fenton and the Fentones”. Shane Fenton, of course, was re-incarnated in the 1970s as Alvin Stardust.

“I then joined local Nottingham hero Reg Guest and played all around the country. We notched up more than 50 broadcasts on the BBC  plus a TV appearance on the Jimmy Young TV show” said Les, “but at the age of 29 I realized that I was  getting a bit too old for the Pop idol stakes and left the group”

Les  went into the insurance business and stayed for 20 years including a spell in Kettering and Northampton for five years. “But I never forgot my music and played there in a local dance band”

After moving back to Mansfield in the late eighties it wasn’t long before Les re-joined his colleague, Reg Guest. They became a duo until Reg retired in the late 90s after 50 years as a professional musician.

But you can’t keep a good man down and after his retirement from insurance Les was persuaded by Walter Pitchford to join Mansfield & District Male Voice Choir. “I have always enjoyed mixing with some great friends and colleagues in the Choir”, said Les

The former Pop idol is also still very active, playing his bass guitar and  entertaining the public with the Beeston Big Band.

“They will have to shoot me to get me to retire,” quipped Les

In 2016 we at Mansfield & District Male Voice Choir had the honour of being invited to join 20+ other male voice choirs to sing at the Festival of Welsh Male Voice Choirs, taking place at The Royal Albert Hall on Saturday May 19th 2018. Deputy Musical Director, Ian Grice writes 

The Association is mainly made up of Welsh choirs from both North and South Wales  but also including associate members such as ourselves and our colleagues from Snowdown Colliery MVC in Kent and the Oxford Welsh MVC.

We are now well into our busy rehearsal schedule with a visit on May 2nd from the  “ on the day”  Musical Director  Dr Alwyn Humphreys .

Some of us in the choir have experienced   Alwyn’s  magic when he conducts. We sang under his baton  in 2009 in London and 2012 in Manchester at similar events.

Dr Humphreys was the musical director of the  Morriston  Orpheus choir for 25 years and made them the amazing choir they are today. Alwyn’s  wife, Joy Amman  Davies is the current Director of Morriston (so still in the family , so to speak). Alwyn is now Conductor Emiritus to the choir, but also takes on guest appearances with many male voice choirs worldwide ,as well as being director of the Chamber Orchestra of Wales . Another of Alwyn’s jobs is being a TV presenter on S4C (Welsh language public service channel). He is the main host of the  Sunday evening programme Dechrau Canu,Dechrau Canmol, which is a very popular  Songs of Praise type programme. I never miss it – marvellous for picking up the Welsh hymns.

This is certainly an occasion you can set your eyes on for a targeted event to learn songs. We have old songs to revisit and new songs to look forward to as well as 8 songs in Welsh ,which with the help of phonetics and a first language member in Al Roberts we get off towards a fantastic sound.

We can only encourage members to get stuck in to learning and keeping up the enthusiasm. To you our visitors to our site ,you don’t have to miss out as tickets will be on sale through many travel tour companies at the end of 2017. Keep an eye out for this-  we will keep everyone posted!