Chorister reveals a world of adventure
A CHORISTER who has sung with choirs for decades has published a book detailing his life singing and touring across the world - from the South Wales valleys to the Sydney Opera House.
Brian Davies, grew up near Cwmbran, but has lived in Mumbles, Swansea since the early 1980s.
He has documented his time with choirs in the new book called My Choir Journey: Tales of World Travel, Celebrity and Great Music.
From the poignant experience of singing in New York’s Carnegie Hall in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attack in 2001, to the high pageantry of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee performance outside Buckingham Palace a year later, the book lifts the lid on the camaraderie and passion of choir membership.
The varied calendar of choir performing could see Brian singing in the Middle East and days later in the corners of West Wales such as Ammanford, before rubbing shoulders with music greats and showbiz celebrities such as Spike Milligan.
From singing at a Major League baseball game in Cleveland, Ohio, to performing at the famous rugby stadiums of New Zealand and at La Madeleine in Paris, the book takes the reader on a journey spanning almost 60 years.
The book also looks at the growing concern around the decline in membership of male choirs in recent years and as choirs seek to rebuild membership following the Covid-19 pandemic, this book can be seen as essential recruitment reading.
Brian, 79, began singing as a child at Bethel Chapel in the village of Garndiffaith in Torfaen, and in the mid 1960s joined the Cwmbran choir.
Brian said: “The book is a story about the joy of singing in a choir and travelling the world, more specifically about a life singing in three Welsh male choirs, one of them internationally renowned - Morriston’s Orpheus - and latterly signing in a high-quality a capella choir based in Mumbles.
“I start with my early days, singing in chapel as a boy in the Welsh valleys.
“Little did
I know that I would end up signing at the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie many other worldclass
Hall and venues.
“Much of my story describes choir tours to various parts of the world.”
In addition to globetrotting the book also details the time Morriston
Orpheus recorded with Mike Peters from the band The Alarm in 1989.
The rockers and choir joined forces for the single A New South Wales.
Brian said: “I moved to Mumbles in 1983 and joined Orpheus a year later, when we did the recording with The Alarm we were in both the pop charts as well as the classical charts at the time because Orpheus used to record an album every year.
“Other milestones in the book include Orpheus being the first choir to sing at the Millennium Stadium in 1998 - at the time it was still a building site but technically we sang there regardless.
“In 2007 we also entered the Britain’s Got Talent competition on ITV but despite Simon Cowell voting ‘yes’ to put us through to the next round, we had to pull out due to a clash of commitments.”
Later that year, after 23 years with Orpheus he joined Swansea’s Phoenix Choir in 2007 before taking a decade-long break to write a walking book, and looking back he thought his choir days were over.
He said: “I was around 65 at the time and thought I wouldn’t join another choir, but one was established in Mumbles in 2019, which sparked my interest.
“It was an a capella choir, a mixed one too, which I had never sung with before, so I joined and we’ve toured to places like Ghent in Belgium and Paris, France, so my choir days are not over yet.” Looking at the book as a whole, he said: “These tales of world travel, and incidents in a life of great choral music making should certainly help to encourage people to join a choir, that’s what I hope anyway, to bring in new membership for choirs, which have struggled in recent years.
“Singing in a choir is one of the most stimulating and rewarding things you can do.”
Profits from the book will go back into the choirs and it can be ordered by contacting publishers Cambria Books at www.cambriabooks.co.uk/. Signed copies are available direct from Brian by emailing him at brian_e_davies@hotmail.com