A sound reaction
IT’S a tale that will surprise many.
One was a hardliving bass player in a band as infamous for their instrumenttrashing stage antics as they were for their music, the others chapel-going pensioners whose singing first helped raise troop morale during World War Two.
But that still didn’t stop The Who’s John Entwistle – who died 16 years ago this month of a heart attack in a Las Vegas hotel room following a cocaine-fuelled night with a stripper – from producing an album by Newport Male Voice Choir.
Called Love Me Tender, and released in August 1977, the record saw the bassist – dubbed The Ox for standing stock-still during gigs – transport the 74-member ensemble all the way to The Who’s Ramport studios in Battersea for the unlikely sessions.
“John’s dad Bert was in the choir and lived with his wife Maud in the Bassaleg area of Newport where he helped out at the local Methodist church,” says Ray Collins, label boss of the city’s Country Mile Records, who first discovered the album a few years ago after rummaging around a nearby charity shop.
“It’s just the most extraordinary combination, but it’s actually very well done.”
Ray adds that the disc is mainly made up of cover versions of various well known pop standards, such as Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Long And Winding Road by The Beatles and Elvis Presely’s Love Me Tender.
“That last one was the title track and it was also released as a single around the same time that The King passed away.
“A total fluke by all accounts but I’m pretty sure the timing helped their take on the song go into the Top 50.
“God knows how John got them all up to Battersea though – by coach, I’m guessing.
“The funniest thing is Ramport is the same studio in which (notorious punk rocker) Johnny Thunders recorded his ’77 song L.A.M.F. shortly afterwards.
“Not sure if the members of the choir would have been very approving of that,” he laughs.
Meanwhile, IT specialist Graham Johns recalls his own chorister father, Ray, raving about the group’s brush with a rock superstar back in the day.
“Dad was a first tenor and had been in the choir some 60 years by the time he passed away last year” says the 58-year-old.
“He had no clue who The Who were, however – wrong generation, see?
“But he’d often tell me that Entwistle was a total gent to them and bought all the beers on the day.”
Which is about how long it took to record the entire album: “Up there and back in 24 hours, quite impressive really,” adds Graham.
“Dad never thought to take any photos to commemorate the experience though. Well, you wouldn’t have, would you?
“No mobile phone selfies back then.” Founded in 1943 by a band of 25 members, the choir has travelled all over the world and, in 1990, sang at the World Choir 10,000 Voices at the National Stadium in Cardiff, alongside Dame Shirley Bassey and Sir Tom Jones.