A THOUSAND VOICES A history of the London Welsh Male Voice Choir’s innovative decision to hold massed Male Voice Choir Festivals at The Royal Albert Hall One Thousand Welsh Voices. What a great name and what a great concept. For my fifth Lockdown project I look at one of the defining events that has shaped the choir and how a bunch of amateur musicians armed only with vision, ambition and two hundred pounds in used bank notes, managed to put on a world-renowned musical event at the Royal Albert Hall. By contacting some of the people who were present for the decision to hold the first Thousand Voices Festival, I have managed to put together a fairly detailed account of the pitfalls and rewards of such a venture and the events that led up to it. I have also included a very short history of the London Welsh Community as it has also played its part in the story. It has been interesting, controversial and informative and it has sometimes driven me to drink. My thanks to the many contributors who donated their memories. I have mentioned them at the end of this document. f there was one event that epitomised the London Welsh Male Voice Choir during the late 60s, 70s and 80s Ithen it has to be the Festival of Male Voices, held at The Royal Albert Hall. Known universally as The Thousand Voices, this Festival was innovative, successful and gained the London Welsh Male Voice Choir the global recognition that it enjoys to this day. Tickets for the Festival became as scarce as tickets for international rugby matches at Cardiff Arms Park, and, as a regular at London Welsh games at Old Deer Park, I was often asked “Is this a Thousand Voices year? Can you get until 1961, when the choir re-formed after the Second World me a ticket?” as if it was something magical, which it was. War, that we can recognise the format that we know today. What started off as an idea to raise funds and increase Both World Wars had caused the cessation of choir duties membership after the unfortunate ’split’ in the choir of and the depression that followed in1926 meant that there 1967, it became the focus of Welsh Male Voice singing, was little enthusiasm or activity in the choir, although we not just in London but from the whole of Great Britain do have reports of some successes and notable concerts up and, in later years, a broader international involvement. until the start of World War Two in 1939. Read on to find what made this Festival so remarkable and how an idea turned into a global event with participating choirs from every continent playing their part in its success. TO BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING A brief history of the London Welsh Male Voice Choir. A full history can be found by visiting http://www.londonwelshmvc.org/about/history London Welsh Youth Choir A history of The London Welsh Centre can be found by visiting http://www.londonwelsh.org/about-us/history-of- In the post war years, there was a very active and successful the-centre/ mixed London Welsh Youth Choir, conducted by Kenneth Thomas, and it is suggested that some of the mature male lthough there are records of a London Welsh Male members of that choir went on to sing in the David James Voice Choir going as far back as the 1880s, and Singers and, when they had ‘outgrown’ the youth choir, indeed our official history points to Merlin Morgan’s eventually formed the London Welsh Male Voice Choir. The A females of the youth choir went on to form the successful successful choir formed in September 1902 as being the date we currently hold as our official ‘birthday’, it was not Dylan Singers for the same reason. 1 The London Welsh Youth Choir was incredibly successful during this period and was often asked to appear at film premières, such as Walt Disney’s Finlandia, the World War II film The Cockleshell Heroes and even represented the UK at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. Cinemas Studio 1 and Studio 2 based on Oxford Street were the venue for some of the film premières and also held Welsh Services every Sunday morning at 10.45am in their Clwb y Cymru, based at the same address and which also offered refreshments and meeting rooms. The Hammersmith Welsh Male Voice Choir in1970. An advert for a 25 minute session by The Hammersmith Welsh appeared in The Radio Times, Wales on Tuesday June 13th 1939 when they sang eight pieces including ‘The Old Woman’ which has recently found its way back into the choir repertoire. Their conductor Morgan Jones was awarded the MBE for services to music. The Hammersmith Welsh went on to appear with The London Welsh Male Voice Choir in the Royal Albert Hall Festivals in 1970 and 1974 after which they appear to have disbanded. Clwb y Cymru also had it’s own Drama Group which performed The London Welsh community in these post war years was at various venues throughout the very dynamic. St David’s Day Celebrations included the capitol and was the forerunner much regaled St David’s National Festival held at the of the London Welsh Drama Royal Albert Hall, the St David’s Celebration Ball at the Society which was based in the Festival Hall, the St David’s Day Dinner held at the Savoy Gray’s Inn Road Centre. Hotel and, every other year when England hosted Wales at Twickenham, we had the London Welsh Smoker on the eve Welsh chapels were also plentiful of the game, which usually took place at the Seymour Hall and well attended throughout and went back to the 1920s. London and, as you can see from the advertisement, held Preaching Festivals around St David’s Day. The Hammersmith Welsh Male Voice Choir was very active in the metropolis during the 40s and 50s, having been formed in 1938 to compete in the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales which was held in These various advertisements for Cardiff in the same year, London Welsh events are taken winning the competition from the 1960 edition of labelled “Glee confined Y Ddinas (The City), forerunner to Welsh Choirs outside of the London Welsh Magazine Wales, 30-40 Voices”. as we know it today. Nearly all publicity from the London Welsh Association Prior to Y Ddinas the magazine during that period names the Hammersmith Welsh as the was called Y Ddolen (The Link). major Welsh male voice choir in London. 2 The advert below left for the Celebration Ball proclaims that the London heat of the Sunny Rhyl Miss Wales contest will be held during the evening of the 1960 St David’s Celebration Ball with the winner receiving £10 and a week’s holiday in Rhyl. British seaside holidays were very popular after the war but Rhyl appears to have been seen as a cheap holiday destination and as a result the town’s holiday accommodation suffered. Look at this fascinating social history video called Rhyl in 1960 to get a feel of the place List of artistes from the programme from the Smoker in 1958. and it also contains the final of the Miss Wales contest (pictured). In the 50s the artistes were very much operatic based https://youtu.be/3KxRfjrSVyA while by the 70s, attitudes had changed and acts included comedians and even strippers! There was also a Miss London Welsh competition in 1957 and the title was awarded to Janet Evans, who used her role Author’s note: At one of the choir’s appearances at the to meet visitors at the airport or travel as an ambassador Smoker in the early seventies, I had the unfortunate issue of to various functions. Her photograph appears at the back standing on the stripper’s dress as we were lining up to go on of this document with the victorious London Welsh Youth stage, ripping some of it from her and heralding a torrent of Choir at the 1957 National Eisteddfod. abuse from the young lady as she was due to go on before us! Happy Days! The London Welsh community held an incredibly successful Gymanfa Ganu at the Royal Albert Hall in 1963 and 1965 The Anglo-Welsh Ball which was held on the night of the conducted by Terry James. An LP was produced for each England v Wales game at the Grosvenor Hotel and which occasion with the title “A Nation Sings”. In addition, there included both the English and Welsh teams that had played was a vibrant Drama group at the London Welsh Centre. that afternoon as guests was also hugely successful. Again, tickets for this event were scarcer than tickets for the game! The St David’s Celebration Ball started at 11.00pm and continued until 5.00am after which we have reports that some guests made their way to Heathrow Airport to have breakfast, presumably still in ballgowns and evening dress. How they got there is yet to be discovered, but as breathalysers were not introduced until The Road Traffic Act of 1967, I have a fair idea of the mode of transport!! The Album cover for the 1963 Gymanfa Ganu recording. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNgC16vdkBA The Cymmrodorion, a London Welsh Literary Society was also very active during these times. Formed in 1751, although its origins are much earlier, it organised a St David’s Day dinner to help raise funds for the welfare of the 3 hundreds of Welsh people THE SWINGING 60’S who were pouring into London at that time.