A men’s choir in Staffordshire who learned to sing in just 10 weeks has raised over £10,000 to battle prostate cancer.
Staffordshire Men Sing was an initiative set up in September to boost the membership of a dwindling choir, while simultaneously teaching men how to sing and giving them the opportunity to perform.
The 68-man choir raised money for Prostate Cancer UK, performing on January 24 with the Daleian Singers and Cor Bach ensemble.
The concert itself was successful, with the evening performance selling out, leading to a second matinee concert being organised – which also sold out, organiser Steve Bristow said.
Mr Bristow, also a member of the Daleians, told GB News: “I just wish I could bottle the feeling of the day. It was an all-encompassing, emotional feeling. I had never seen so many guys together crying.”
He said that Jenny Holmes, the choir’s accompanist and a concert pianist, described the performance as “by far the most emotional performance she had taken part in”.
There was a personal connection to prostate cancer for some in the choir, said Mr Bristow.
“One or two people in the choir had had prostate cancer, and there were a lot of people with relatives, fathers, friends, who had died of prostate cancer. About 25 per cent had a connection to prostate cancer,” he said.
PICTURED: The Staffordshire Men Sing choir before their performance
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DALEIAN SINGERS/FACEBOOK
The Daleian Singers were established in 1957, but their numbers fell to about 30 members, due to deaths and retirements, said Mr Bristow.
He told GB News that he tried advertising for the choir, but had few applicants until he decided to organise the project with the aim of recruiting 40 men.
He said: “We did Facebook advertising, leaflet dropping, Instagram advertising, and we ended up with around 280 people, which dwindled down to 68.”
When asked what challenges the concert brought, he told GB News: “It was emphasising the fact besides the 10 rehearsals, they would have to do a lot of work at home.”
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Staffordshire Men Sing was set up in September to boost the membership of a dwindling choir – and has seen roaring success since
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STAFFORDSHIRE MEN SING/FACEBOOK
He added: “They had never performed in a venue like that. When performing the sea shanty for example, we had to put an extra second or two second break to allow the reverberation to die down.”
Mr Bristow said some of the men in the choir have already asked if they will do it again.
“I’ll say watch this space, all we can do is something bigger and better. We might have a much bigger venue,” he said.
Edward Smith, one of the men who joined the choir as a second tenor, said he had been in and out of choirs in the past, and was encouraged by friends to join the Staffordshire Men Sing program.
He said: “It would be a nice thing to commit to, it’s fired me up and I guess they haven’t kicked me out so I must be able to make the right kind of noise”.
GB News asked Mr Bristow if the members of Staffordshire Men Sing plan to join the Daleian Singers.
Mr Bristow said: “We set up a strawpoll and of the 68 that sang on the evening, 41 of them are interested to keep singing.
“Tonight is the night for the first rehearsal, and we’ll see how many show up.”