We are proud to present our new members of 2008-2012:  Peter has joined us recently after supporting us for years as a member of the St John's Ambulance Brigade, and attending many of our concerts in that capacity.
I moved to Bu»ton on Trent when
the then National Coal Board decided to centralise their Scientific Service Laboratories
on one site in Bretby. It was quite an upheaval for a family with 2 young children. One of the
things we worried about missing most was Wales's
cultural heritage, how
wrong we were. there Is a wealth of talent in this area. From an early
time we have attended GMVC concerts and have always rated the choir on a par with Valley’s Choirs,
being "Gresley Groupies” also helped to relieve our homesickness'. Little did 1
know that 20+ years on a non-singer like me woutd be privileged enough to be allowed to join
the choir as a new member.
When Gill and I moved to Burton ,we were determined to fit into the local community and took the children to the Local Theatre Group where they took part In pantos, I got roped into selling programmes, then set-crew back stage. I used to sing along off-stage and gradually became a bit more confident.(remember I am the only Welshman who can’t sing!!). As time went on I helped out with other Theatre and Local Operatic Societies and was eventually cajoled into singing on-stage in the chorus.
 Upon reaching retirement age in September 2011, Gerry dearly wanted to spend his additional spare time by joining a local choir. From his days at infants’ school he joined the school choir which was upon recommendation from the Headmaster as from a young age Gerry suffered from a stammer. During a meeting with the Headmaster he was told to ‘if you have difficulty with speaking a word then sing it ‘. This of course was far from practical but it was something he never forgot. Gerry’s stammer has never quiet cleared up but after a course of hypnotherapy there was a considerable improvement. The prolonged period of his stammer certainly had an effect on his confidence in his early years but that all changed in 1998 when he joined Freemasonry. In November 2002 having joined a local Burton Lodge and enjoyed harmonising with a small group of friends with The National Anthem, he was requested to sing The Holy City for the Christmas Lodge meeting. This was to be his first solo performance and proved rather daunting. Nevertheless after weekly practices with the accompanying pianist, Gerry performed on the night and enjoyed a level of applause which he had never experienced before. From that night onwards he was asked to sing other solos within not only that Lodge but what has now grown to five other Lodges throughout the country. From this introduction he joined the Staffordshire Provincial Masonic Choir in 2004 and has been a regular attendee to their monthly rehearsals and regular performances. In 2006 Gerry was asked to join a small group of Freemasons who had been asked to entertain at a Christmas function and in addition to other songs was asked to sing solo The Impossible Dream, which he had never sung before. With Karl Harper’s assistance he changed Gerry’s singing of that song, into a performance. He still remembers the volume of the applause on the night with great pleasure. In summary, the opportunity to sing has changed Gerry’s life, he has in recent years nearly lost his stammer and his confidence has grown to a level that not long ago he and his family could never have imagined. Singing has now become a passion and he now looks forward to playing a regular positive role within the Gresley Male Voice Choir, which he hopes will be, for many years to come.  Mick Robey, Bass Born at a very early age in Melbourne (South Derbyshire) the locals have put up with me ever since! Since leaving Melbourne Bucketbangers College of Knowledge, I joined Rolls Royce as an apprentice earning £2-8s-4d per week before graduating as a skilled machinist on top money (£21/week in 1965). I progressed into the drawing office before leaving for a Chief Draughtsman’s job at an engineering company in Kegworth. Following a serious illness in 1986 I decided to have a go at one of my ambitions - drive a bus! But not any bus as it turned out, it was a fully kitted out luxury executive affair with which I transported football teams, Rock Bands and Company Execs. I
still recollect (only just) my many vocal episodes as a boy soprano at my local
United Reform Church in Melbourne, and as my voice got deeper
I progressed into the Alto section before being finally dumped in the Bass. My
second ambition was to sing in a Male Voice Choir, having heard Moira MVC on
many occasions at our church. Just a little piece of information to finish on. My third and final ambition was to play in a Brass Band. This I have also achieved as I blow the Bb Tenor Trombone (not very well I might add) regularly in two Bands at the moment.  Hello my name is Jordan Williams and one of the new members of 2011. I first came across the Gresley Male Voice Choir at a concert that was held in Stretton. To my surprise I was asked if I would like to join so I went to the first rehearsal and found that I enjoyed it. Other members were very helpful and a pleasure to be around. I am very proud to be part of the choir and I will be for a long time to come. Well what a fantastic night to be able to perform at the Celebrity Concert 2011, and to think that 12 months ago i had just had come back from a year out in Australia. It just proves to me that you never know what life holds for you. I joined in June 2011 and I'm so happy to call myself a member of such a fantastic organisation. This year I was lucky to travel to France to perform in the most amazing places I have ever seen. I remember walking into Orleans Cathedral and just being gobsmacked that i was going to be performing there. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to sing there. I will always hold memories of the tour and what we achieved. So well done everybody we have had some fantastic concerts this year and I’m sure we will have some fantastic concerts next year  I have
always enjoyed singing but the high-point of my singing career as a solo singer
undoubtedly happened when I was a boy treble.
Congregations at Sunday School Anniversaries were thrilled by my renditions of all the usual musical pieces of the time, in fact I
remember many of them being reduced to tears. My voice broke when I was
about eleven and so the pinnacle of my solo singing was over when I was still quite young. I must have caused quite a stir with many of my
solos but the only one that I remember was James Drummond Burns'
" Hushed was the evening hymn" sang to the tune Samuel by Arthur Sullivan. Since then human
audiences have been unimpressed by my voice as a soloist, however over the
years I have had intimate relationships with the udders of
several thousand female bovines and they have thrilled to my renditions of "
Guide me, 0 thou great Jehovah" at any time after 4 am onwards.
Finding it hard to
accept that my singing was already over I joined the choir at the Burton Grammar School and was hugely influenced by the Rev. P.V. Appleton, who
was the choir-master. My life in general has been blessed by contact
with truly great people and he was certainly one of the greats. He was not only an inspirational music teacher but had an amazing voice. He
was able to sing Bass, Baritone, Tenor and Alto and went on
to be in- charge of music at Lincoln Cathedral.
Many years later my
great friend John Newton, who was in the Bass Section, remembering my years in the school choir, asked me to come along to choir practice. This was
back in 1978 and I joined the Baritone Section as I didn't think I
was good enough to join a section containing such greats as Horace, Peter Bates and the late great Stephen Brown. However the Davies in the Baritone Section soon got fed-up with
my growling and so it was that I became a Bass.
A career move to Dorset in 1982 meant that after quite a
short time I had to hand in the "sugar-bag-blue" jacket. I was soon to find out that simply handing back the uniform was
not sufficient to prevent the blood of this fabulous choir running
through my veins. Eunice and I have not missed a Celebrity Concert since moving to Dorset and also joined the audience at the Albert Hall for the
choir's second appearance at the concert of the Massed English
Choirs of a Thousand Voices. We became patrons of the choir and thus became involved without troubling anyone with my growling. Over
the years I have been a member of the Leaside Singers, the Derbyshire Constabulary
Male Voice Choir and under the
tutorship of Peter Bates have sung at the Swadlincote Messiah since 1998. I am hugely
lucky to have had many "highs" in my life and that first time taking
part in the Messiah was certainly one of
them, however it was also a day of excrutiating sadness as that very morning I
had to bury my amazing working
collie Jem.
As many of you know I live at Tutbury and nearby lives
John Angus. I have no idea how this happens but
almost every time I walk up the Tutbury High Street I bump into JA. After about
250 times of asking, and having found out
from someone in the choir, that I had left the DCMVC, he not very gently, persuaded
me to attend practice and thus return to what, in my mind, is the " Best
Choir in the World".  I started singing when I was about six in school and Sunday school. I then went on to sing
in small concerts and Eisteddfod and started to win a few. I won the
grammar school Eisteddfod as a boy soprano and and
sang at Llangollen Eisteddfod . I also sang duets with my
brother all over West Wales in concerts.  I was born in Scunthorpe in March 1984. I lived in Scunthorpe for 26 years then I met my partner (now wife) in Derbyshire on September 4 2009. I first knew about the GMV choir when I went along with my 10 year old step son (Lewis Whetton) who is in the boy's choir, and I asked about joining the male voice choir in June and I have now been made a member, which I am proud of and thoroughly enjoy. I moved over to Swadlincote in January 2010. The first time I started singing was when I sang karaoke when I was 17. When I was 22 I started playing gigs, whilst playing the guitar. I joined my 1st band at 23 which was a 60's band called 'Golden Age' and then joined a Country band, which I left to join an soft rock band. Now working as a solo artist writing songs. I first got into music when I heard The Beatles 1962 - 1965 Red Album about 7 years ago, and I just had to get a chord book to start playing these fab songs. I brought a red falcon guitar for £60 in Scunthorpe and just started to learn the guitar every day, then it got to five hours per night. Then after about 2 - 3 years, I started to write my own songs after hearing a CD of the late great Buddy Holly. I have now since then wrote over 32 songs.  Peter Cooke, Baritone I was born, and have lived in Moira all my life. I went to Moira, Donisthorpe and Ashby Ivanhoe schools. I left school at sweet sixteen! and started at Pegson's Coalville as an engineering apprentice. After this I worked at the factory and out on sites installing machinery in the UK and abroard, mainly in Spain, Africa, Sri Lanka and the USA. I retired on my 65th birthday at the end of April 2008. Shortly afterwards, Geoff (our Chairman) , who I do battle with frequently on the badminton court, persuaded me to come along to a choir rehearsal. My first reaction was "Blimey!, Youre too good for me!!". However after more cajoling I did the 12 weeks probationary period , and thanks to Eric, Ian and Brian in the baritones plus Karl , our MD, I joined in October 2008. I made my debut at the Celebrity Concert at Burton Town Hall, so there was no pressure there then!!, but I enjoyed it after the nerves had died down. I find it hard learning new music, but most rewarding when it all come stogether at concerts. Previously, I only ever sang with the Sunday School and at he "Sermons Days" and then with the adult choir at St Hilda's church in Moira, 45 years ago. The church has since been demolished !! I have other sporting interests, having played cricket with Rawdon Colliery for 40 years. I am a season ticket holder at Leicester City and watch Burton Albion occasionally.  Philip Bath, Second Tenor  Terry Jones, Second Tenor Spent all my childhood in “The Avenues” Midway,
Swadlincote, the eldest of 6 children.All my working life has been centred on the electrical
– instrumental control field, serving my apprenticeship at Drakelow Power
Station. Over the years I moved on to Allied Breweries in Burton on Trent,
Arabian American Oil Company in Saudia Arabia, Tasman Paper Company in New
Zealand and finally for my last 25yrs at Rolls Royce, Derby from where I
retired in 2008. I sang my first solo in 1955 at the age of 10yrs at Rowland Memorial Methodist Chapel, Midway and then at 14yrs of age played Scrooge in Granville Secondary School’s production of “A Christmas Carol.” I didn’t take up singing and acting again until I joined Ashby Operatic Society (now Ashbeian Musical Theatre Group) in 1997, when I played the role of Bennie, the news reporter, in “The Desert Song.” My last show at Ashby was in 2005 when I enjoyed playing the role of Moonface Martin in “Anything Goes.” I also sing in a group called Out of the Hat based at The Magic Attic, Sharpe’s Pottery, Swadlincote. I joined GMVC in 2008 after taking early-retirement from Rolls Royce. I thoroughly enjoy the challenge that singing in the choir gives, and have made many new friends, and also resurrected friendships from my childhood. I look forward to being with the choir for many years to come!  Robert Grummett, Baritone  Born in 1981 and raised in Stapenhill as an only
child most of my childhood was spent singing along to my mums LP's of Michael
Bolton and Garth Brooks. My first 'musical break' came when I was in yr9 at
Robert Sutton Catholic School when during the Christmas Concert I was
“Volunteered” to perform a solo of "Once in Royal Davids City" with Vicki
Parkhouse on Clarinet. I enjoyed it but was made fun of so that was where my
singing ended. |
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