Kings Stanley Baptist Church Male Voice Choir

It was at KSBC that I spent my teenage years.  It was a typical village church, about 3 miles from where I lived.

The church had a tradition of singing.  The was the Male Voice Choir and the Ladies’ Choir who both went out to other churches in the area, and the Mixed Choir who sang at services.

The Male Voice Choir used to join with the many other such choirs for big events, such as the annual Festival of Male Voice Choirs in Bristol, about 30 miles away.  That drew choirs from South and Mid Wales as well as those from Gloucestershire and Somerset.

One year there was a competition between the choirs, which lead to a dilemma for the choir master.  He always let anyone who wanted to join to come in, whether they had a good voice or not.

One of the ‘test pieces’ the choir had to sing had some very quiet sections.  Now, one of the faithful choir members was tone deaf.  In addition, he had no idea how to change the volume of his singing.  This meant that in the quiet sections his drone was very noticeable.  Many members of the choir tried to persuade the choir master to tell this member that they would do better without him, but the choir master was adamant: the drone stayed.

Come the day of the competition, the men got together to drive to Bristol.  All were there, except the drone.  His brother brought his apologies – he had a sore throat and a high temperature so could not come.

The choir brought the cup home.  God works in mysterious ways!

(The photo is from about 1963 or 4 I think.  My father is back right, and the owner of the photo is Kevan Wildy, front left.)