PRESS RELEASE

4th April 2006

THE CITY of Bath has many Choirs, so when Grenville Jones announced that he was about to start the City of Bath Male Choir last December, many thought him slightly barmy.

Four months on, Baths newest Choir has weekly rehearsals with numbers at around the mid forties and new singers going along each week.

Grenville is the conductor of Bath’s Silver Ring Choir, a twice a week rehearsal mixed group with a reputation for quality music making going back over 50 years. He took over as conductor 8 years ago. The Silver Ring in his words was “lying pretty dormant”, when he arrived at his first rehearsal.

“Numbers of the Silver Ring were then around 40 and spirits were low, since that time we doubled to now having almost 90 singers, which was one of the targets I set myself back then in 1997”, says Grenville.

The Silver Ring has Yvonne Cullum as a member of the alto section, that’s mum to jazz star Jamie, who is a big fan of the Silver Ring. Jamie performed on stage with the choir in Christmas 2004 to a 1500 sell out audience and the Silver Ring Choir’s Christmas concerts in Bath with Clare Teal and Katherine Jenkins last December have followed the same successful packed house format. Last year Jamie released a CD with the Silver Ring singing the backing tracks.

“Jamie sent me the CD with his voice singing the parts and I put it to paper. It was great fun recording the tracks with a sound team from Universal who really loved working with the Choir. The CD Jamie sent me will probably be worth something one day!”

Back to the City of Bath Male Choir, Grenville’s latest adventure. Why start another singing group in a city jam-packed with Choirs?

“The idea had been in my head for quite a while, really through my friendship with the Treorchy boys. I took the Silver Ring to Singapore and New Zealand last November, which was a brilliant concert tour. Two of the concerts were with Male Voice Choirs and I think that was probably the starting point for taking positive action.”

Grenville is a busy man, he owns a successful PR and Publishing business including a series of golf magazines under the Regional Golf banner and he also has a desk at a local District Council where he is their consultant press officer. Through ABCD he has formed a friendship with Ralph Allwood and accepted an invitation from Ralph last year to become a Rodolfus trustee. But how do you get people to join a Choir?

Grenville Jones is an experienced PR man and professional communicator of over 20 years standing and so his Silver Ring success should give more than a passing clue.

“ The local evening newspaper printed the first article about the Male Choir in the opening week of January. Here’s a tip, if you have a tale to tell do it at Christmas or Easter, that’s when newspapers are short of staff and looking for stories”, wise words from a man who used to run local newspapers and knows all the tricks.

“ Then I targeted shops with notice boards, schools offices with bright fun fliers and posters. The message was a friendly one – if you are between 16 and 65 and love to sing, come along and try a new Male Voice Choir in Bath.

“There were 21 at the first meeting, a cold night in January, it wasn’t really a rehearsal just a get together then I got everyone to sing and we sang through a few numbers and we really haven’t looked back since that time. Phil Every has joined as accompanist, Phil is a very experienced pianist who lives not too far away from me and once used to play for the late Sue Chilcott when she was growing up in the village of Timsbury near Bath.

“ The next step for the choir was a good item on the local BBC radio station and one Saturday in February a few of us met at a pub in Bath and then set out to distribute fliers to the thousands of men piling into the wreck to watch Bath play rugby. I have also met up with the Bath Rugby Chief Exec who wants the City Of Bath Male Choir on the pitch singing before home games. That will be great exposure for the choir but we are not ready for public performances just yet!

The colour scheme on our website and eventually in the uniform we wear will reflect the dark blue and black of bath rugby, they are a quality trademark so we’ll ride along with that.

Grenville has had some stick about his 16-65 policy – ageism?

“Well yes, I suppose I had nice phone calls from men who said, I am a tenor in so-and-so choir, I would love to join but I am 68, can I come along? Sorry no, was my polite answer.

“I want to have a choir that has a younger sound, that may be unkind to some people but at the end of the day its my choir, I started it, so I set the standards. The singers who are coming to rehearsals come from across the area and one thing I immediately recognized was that it is far, far easier to get men to try a male choir than a mixed voice choir, I will leave ABCD readers to work out for themselves or make suggestions as to why that may be. My own view is that wives are happier allowing their husbands to disappear for the evening to be in the company of other men!

“Most of the members of the City of Bath Male Choir have never sung in an organized group before but there are some really good voices amongst them, and the sound they are making is already starting to take shape. I am not auditioning men at this stage, I just want to get people involved and encourage people to sing and enjoy the music making experience.”

One of the first things Grenville did was to set up a website www.bathmalechoir.org, it’s bright, it’s fun and it’s friendly.

“The men who I want to join my choir are web-wise, out of the 45 members already signed up 40 are accessible by email.”

So what about the music from this new male group?

“Modern, no amen’s. Allen Simmons has sent me music and I have been in touch with other friends around the world to see what they sing as encores, I want an encore programme of music! Our first concert will be in Bath’s Guildhall on November 4th and I have already got £500 in sponsorship. It will be a sell out without question. I like to think that the choir that night will be around the 70 mark and another recruitment drive will be starting in April with intention of getting the 45 at that time up to 70 with another possible recruitment drive in the Autumn.

One particular aspect of his new choir has delighted Grenville; two of his sons Laurie 26 and Daniel 32 have both joined.

“They have been bought up in a strong musical family. My ex-wife is a very good singer and I have always been around music. Laurie and Dan are really keen about the choir and love every minute of it. I know that my Silver Ring members get very bored when I bang on about the importance of getting young people singing, but those of us in ABCD that that really is the key factor. And I think that’s what I really love about my association with Rodolfus.

“Laurie, my youngest has a great top tenor voice, he is just the sort of young guy with his blonde spikes you would see on XFactor. Singing is back, young people want to do it and through the Male Voice Choir and the Silver Ring I offer an open door to find out about the singing experience.”

“Watch this space!”

Picture attached shows Grenville inside the Sydney Opera house. He spent a week in Australia following the Silver Ring Choir’s successful tour of Singapore and New Zealand last November – a concert in the Opera House with the City of Bath Male Choir one day, who knows!