There has always been a bit of friendly rivalry between Swindon’s two male choirs, but on Saturday night, they came together in perfect harmony to delight the audience at Swindon’s MECA.

The Wessex Male Choir and the Swindon Male Voice Choir staged their first ever joint concert, with a hundred male voices raising the roof with a variety of classic male choir music and songs from the shows.

For Swindon Male Voice Choir’s principal accompanist, Kate Lock, it was a doubly memorable occasion as she received public thanks for her 26 years of dedicated service with the Choir.

Swindon Mayor, Councillor Eric Shaw, who is a patron of the Swindon Male Voice Choir, attended the concert, as did Swindon 105.5 FM Station Manager, Shirley Ludford, who is the Choir’s president. It was a special night too for the Wessex Male Choir’s principal accompanist, Jon Driver, who in addition to accompanying the Wessex, also directed the Cirencester Kingshill School Advanced Singers who impressed everyone with their singing which included an arrangement of Elton John’s ‘Electricity’ and a Fleet Foxes song, ‘White Winter Hymnal’ arranged by Ruth Walters, a Year 11 student who sings in the Choir.

They received a wonderful reception from the 350 strong audience and the other performers alike.

Aptly, Swindon Male Voice Choir under their musical director, Max Brockman-More, opened the show, and their first set, with a rendition of Keith Christopher’s ‘Let All Men Sing’.

The Wessex opened their first half set with Daniel Protheroe’s rousing Welsh hymn ‘Laudamus’ (the final verse sung in commendably good Welsh thanks to some expert coaching by their Musical Director, Rhiannon Williams-Hale) and closed the set with a spine-tingling performance of ‘Anthem’ from Chess.

Both choirs are passionate about singing so it was most appropriate that the first half of the concert concluded with a hundred voices singing Belland and Middlebrook’s ‘What Would I Do Without My Music?’.

The audience was treated to more wonderful music from all three choirs in the second half, and also enjoyed the ambience created by some creative lighting that showed off the venue’s wonderful art deco interior to good effect. The Wessex Male Choir’s choreographed pieces also provided a visual treat.

Finally, the two choirs came together once more to give a stirring and heartfelt rendition of ‘An American Trilogy’, a song made famous by none other than Elvis Presley.

Afterwards, the Wessex Male Choir’s chairman, Guy Edwards, said “This concert has been a long time coming, but I am absolutely delighted that Swindon audiences have finally heard these two wonderful choirs performing in the same concert.”

Both choirs have a busy concert schedule ahead of them for this year: SMVC’s next Swindon concert will be a charity fundraiser in the Methodist Church on Saturday 22nd April in aid of Parkinson’s UK. Meanwhile, the Wessex will be performing and competing in the Cornwall International Male Choral Festival during April, with their next Swindon concert being at STEAM on the 15th of July. - Stuart Allinson