Male voice choir is ready to sing again after facing the music of a pandemic

Back in September 2019, Eastwood Collieries’ Male Voice Choir (ECMVC) was basking in the success of a major concert at Nottingham’s Albert Hall to launch its 100th birthday programme.

Members were looking forward to a full year of events, including a gala dinner. But on the eve of a concert with local schools in March 2020, they had to face the music in a very different way.

Along came coronavirus and lockdowns, forcing the choir to cancel everything. Only now, three years on, is a comeback in the offing. For the choir is to make its first full appearance in public, post-Covid, on Saturday, March 18 when St Mary’s Church in Eastwood hosts a concert with The Humberston Singers, from Grimsby.

"It’s a nerve-wracking time,” admitted choir secretary Ian Webster. “But we’re very excited too. We’re looking forward to bringing back the glory days.

"It was a great shame that we had to cancel our centenary programme, but we struggled through.

"Many other choirs up and down the country fared worse and some even folded. Some of the stories I have heard are really depressing."

The three-year absence also took its toll on ECMVC, with its membership plunging from 52 to 38.

Some members died, although not through Covid, others had to resign because of ill health and two or three quit because, having not sung in public for so long, they lost their confidence.

"But we survived because of our approach to music and because we have such a fantastic team, led by musical director Liz Moulder and our supremely talented principal accompanist, Gemma Marshall,” said Ian, who lives in Brinsley and has been with the choir for 19 years.

"We have recruited six new members and we are looking at ways of repurposing ourselves so that we appeal to a younger audience and have a younger demographic.”

As a 69-year-old retiree, Ian himself raises that demographic, but he sees no reason why the choir’s revival should not coincide with attracting younger members.

"It’s all about friendship, learning and developing,” he said. “That’s why you join a choir.

"We have people who would never profess to be singers all, but we are all making a great noise together.”

A great noise is certainly what ECMVC has been making since it was formed in Eastwood by colliery officials way back in 1919.

It survived the demise of the mining industry and, proud of its heritage, it is now one of only a handful of original colliery male voice choirs in existence.

Proof of its buoyancy came between 2008 and 2013 when three concerts, staged alongside big-name brass bands, at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham, raised more than £50,000 for charity. One was a sell-out, with 2,500 seats sold.

This month’s concert at the choir’s headquarters, St Mary’s Church, will be a modest affair in comparison but, as Ian says, “we are equally at home in more modest settings”.

The show will also mark another notable milestone in ECMVC’s history because negotiating the minefield of pandemic restrictions has not been easy. In fact, the lay-off is its longest since the Second World War.

A ban on singing and gatherings of large groups indoors forced the choir to retreat to the slopes of Brinsley Headstocks to catch up. Weekly Zoom sessions were also held, although many members, in Ian’s words, “were unable to access the technology”.

Even when restrictions were relaxed, the choir had to undergo a comprehensive risk-assessment before meeting indoors for practice sessions.

"Not only were there new songs to learn,” said Ian. “But also items from our established repertoire had to be re-learned, and voices had to be gradually nursed back to normal.”

Those practice sessions began again a year ago, and ECMVC spent the rest of 2022 getting back into the swing of things with low-key appearances at events such as Eastwood’s civic service, Remembrance Sunday and the DH Lawrence Festival.

Now the choir’s first full performance is on the horizon and tickets can be bought online at www.trybooking.co.uk/CENZ or by calling Ian on 07802 758223. The price of £8 includes interval refreshments.

"The occasion will stimulate mixed emotions,” said Ian. “There will be sadness because we will be without a number of chorister friends, but also excitement and joy at doing at last what we enjoy – performing for an audience.

"Many friends and supporters say they have missed us, so we want to make this concert one to remember.

"We’ve practised hard over the last few months, learning new songs that we can’t wait for the audience to hear.”

The choir is also hoping to present a cheque to the Prostate Cancer UK charity, for which money was raised during the abbreviated centenary year.

Ian, who enjoyed a varied career as a school teacher and working for BT and local councils, admits it is “almost a full-time job” at the heart of the choir’s operations. Among his duties is overseeing its online presence on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

He is also a former chairman, a role that has now been taken on by Ian Baxter, head teacher at Underwood Primary School.

Singing from the same sheet as the secretary, Ian had a suitable message to usher in the choir’s new era.

He said: “ECMVC is a choir where the members continue to be the heart and soul of all that we do, led by a music team that is second to none.

"Although I am always fully aware and so proud of our choir’s rich history, I am committed, during my time as chairman, to helping to create an exciting future that builds on this substantial legacy.

"Be assured, the wonderful voices of ECMVC will continue to be heard entertaining and resonating with audiences locally, regionally and beyond for many years to come.”