The History of Blackpool Male Voice Choir

With grateful thanks to David Hewitt

The first known record of Blackpool Male Voice Choir (BMVC) is from the Blackpool Musical Festival in October 1911, it was said by the judge, Dr McNaught, that choir members had ‘sung with fair tone but very full in the upper parts. Pace was good, but the attack showed straining, as though they were pumping their bikes.’ The following month, at a Preston Festival, the choir was placed third overall and was one of four chosen to sing at the Sunday evening concert. To have been in a position to have performed at this level suggests that Blackpool Male Voice Choir was formed some time prior to October 1911.

In June 1913, the BMVC was placed second at Lytham Music Festival, behind Blackpool Glee and Madrigal Society. The pieces the choir had performed included arrangements by Granville Bantock of Down Among the Dead Men and Burns’s My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose. In October of the same year, it came first at Blackpool Musical Festival and then accompanied the German film Czernowska at the Royal Pavilion cinema on Rigby Road. (That film was subtitled A Story of a Sin. It was, The Bioscope said, ‘a strong drama of a highly sensational nature, mounted with great taste and elaboration,’ and it offered, ‘vivid pictures of high-class provincial life’ and ‘much picturesque colour.’)

In January 1914, the BMVC performed at a special ‘Married Men’s Tea’ given by the Blackpool Baptist Tabernacle in Springfield Road. The 150 men who took tea on that occasion heard part songs; duets by Messrs W.P. Crossley and J. Armitt, and Messrs Armitt and James Berry; and solos by Messrs T.F. Jones, Berry, Crossley and Armitt and Mr Jones gave selections on the fairy bells.

Another concert took place at the King Edward Cinema on 25 October 1914 when the songs Blackpool Male Voice Choir sang included Comrades in Arms and The Soldier’s Farewell as well as Indian Lullaby and Hymn of Music. They ‘received loud applause, and encores were demanded on many occasions.’ The performance at the King Edward Cinema appears to have been one of the last – or maybe even the very last – given by the BMVC prior to the Great War. The conductor of the choir on that occasion was Mr J.S. Warburton who was also the organist and choirmaster at Adelaide Street United Methodist Church and the conductor of the Adelaide Street Vocal Union. In September 1914, he was appointed Musical Director of the Blackpool Orpheus Choral Society, whose previous MD, Clifford Higgin, had been appointed to a prestigious post in Canada and it was subsequently announced that the Union and the Society would merge with the BMVC.

This joint grouping existed until 1923 when a group of male singers (perhaps including members of the original men’s choir) decided to break away and form a group known as Blackpool Male Choristers based at Raikes Parade Methodist Church.

After over fifty years based at Raikes Parade the choir (then under the musical direction of Sid Draper) moved to Springfield Methodist Church in Bispham and several years later assumed the name of their predecessors and Blackpool Male Voice Choir was reborn. The choir rehearsed successfully at Springfield for many years before moving to their current ‘home’ at Poulton Methodist Church in 2021. Whilst the three churches have provided excellent rehearsal venues, the choir has no religious, social or political affiliation.

The choir presently has 45 members and is under the stewardship and musical direction of Hayley Tarry who became MD in 2014 after many years of direction by men, most recently Ray Buckley, Maldwyn Jenkins, Colin Noble and Phil Berry. Hayley’s musical talent and energy has elevated the choir to a high level of performance. In 2022 BMVC were finalists in the Lancashire Choir of the Year competition and continue to entertain audiences near and far with their very diverse repertoire of traditional Welsh hymns, contemporary classics, songs from musicals and a little bit of ‘rock and roll’.

The choir enjoys the patronage of Soprano Jane Irwin who has recently been appointed as Head of Vocal Performance at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The Mayor of Blackpool is our Honorary President and the choir enjoys a good relationship with Wyre Borough Council and Fleetwood Town Council.

The choir is a registered charity and each year seeks to raise funds to support worthy causes including individuals, groups and organisations. They have also taken part in many large fundraising concerts together with other choirs, raising huge donations for Cancer Research, Help for Heroes and local hospices and has included the opportunity of performing at the Royal Albert Hall on more than one occasion.