SINGERS of all abilities are welcome to join the Kentwood Show Choir.

The choir, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, has members aged from 18 to 65. People who join don’t need to be outstanding singers, they just need to be hard workers.

Founder and musical director Sheila Harrod said: “I don’t audition. The only audition we have is the weighing up of whether you are able to get along with everyone else.

“If you don’t sing very well but you are prepared to work hard you can still join.

“Although we have a very high standard, we have got very mixed abilities and I love that.”

Meetings are not always every week, but most choir members tend to have singing lessons on Mondays or private tuition one day a week, as well as choir practice on Sundays.

“We are quite unique because everybody has lessons. There is no worry about having to read music because I teach that. I teach everything within the lesson, including scales and arpeggios,” said Sheila.

Sheila began teaching private students at home in her father’s front room and from these humble beginnings blossomed the Kentwood Show Choir, which now has jazz queen Cleo Laine as its patron.

“I started the choir officially in 1964 and my little corgi dog had come from a kennels in Oxford called The Kentwood Kennels so I called my choir Kentwood,” she said.

The Kentwood Show Choir have notched up some prestigious concerts, including performing with Cleo Laine and John Dankworth at their Golden Jubilee Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London and singing for Prince Philip’s 80th birthday at Windsor Castle.

The choir performs throughout the year, but is best known for its Christmas Cracker and its annual spring extravaganza. There is also a junior choir.

“Our choir members get a buzz in giving enjoyment to other people.

“We have raised more than £1m, and more than £50,000 of that has been just for the Rotary Club, with another £40,000 of that total for Macmillan Cancer Support,” she said.

“My choir has a very high standard and people have to make that standard. It’s like a big family and everyone gets on with everyone else.

“Membership of the Kentwood Choir is a way of life. More than half the choir have been with me for more than 30 years. I taught them all from children and now they are adults.”

Sheila teaches classes for children on Tuesday nights.