After a few weeks off from practices the Solent Male Voice Choir started the New Year by welcoming four new members to the Choir. This brings the Choir up to a core of thirty members.

Maybe it is the new repertoire that their musical director Huw Thomas is introducing that has attracted the new members.  Who could imagine that David Bowie’s “Life On Mars” or the Beatles’ “Penny Lane” would be so popular with the members of a Male Voice Choir?  It must be Huw’s crafted arrangements.

Of course the traditional male voice choir repertoire is not being forgotten and, as the first event for SMVC is singing at a St David’s Day Dinner in March, some Welsh standards are being dusted off.  Most, like “Cwm Rhonda”  and “Sunset Poem” are sung in English to their Welsh tunes but the Choir do manage to sing “Gwahhodiad” and “Myfanwy” in Welsh.  And the Tom Jones hit “Delilah” will, no doubt, be a crowd pleaser at the St David’s Day Dinner.

Plans are being made for future concerts as well as a weekend tour of Wales later in the year.  Details of all the Solent Male Voice Choir’s future events can be found on their website at www.solentmalevoicechoir.org . New members are always welcome to join in the fun on any Tuesday evening at The Pallant Centre, in Havant.