Even Robbie Williams is among the fans of the Croydon Male Voice Choir. PETER GILLMAN sings the praises of what calls itself the ‘most exciting men’s choir in southern England’
On song: for 50 years, the Croydon Male Voice Choir has been impressing audiences at home and abroad. And even in Wales – here they are performing at Llandaff Cathedral
The Croydon Male Voice Choir is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025.
And on Saturday, July 12, the self-styled “most exciting men’s choir in southern England” is staging a celebratory concert at St Mildreds’ Church, Addiscombe, when the choir of 2025 will be joined by all six music directors since the choir was formed in 1975.
I joined the choir in 2005. The choir has around 60 members who sing in four sections: top tenors, tenors, baritones and basses (including me).
We perform around a dozen concerts a year, mostly in and around Croydon, and have an active social life, too, with a Beer ‘n Ditties group that sings in local pubs most Fridays (which proved essential to helping get through the long months of lockdown), and a walking group which conducts five to six-mile outings every three weeks or so – starting and finishing at a pub and with a pub stop at roughly half-way.
The choir has two offshoots: a Shanty group and Octet(ish), supposedly with eight members but that can vary, depending on who is available on the day.
The origins of the choir are to be found in the David Neal Gentleman Songsters, set up in 1974.
Neal died shortly afterwards and so the choir appointed a new music director, Phil Ratcliffe. A former prison officer, Ratcliffe recruited from among his colleagues and with adverts in local newsagents. It was Ratcliffe who named the group the Croydon Male Voice Choir in 1975 and also chose its first performing garb, dinner jackets. The choir later switched to vee-necked sweaters, a bit in the style of Val Doonican, before adopting its current uniform of silver-grey jackets and maroon ties.
For a time, the choir was sponsored by the West Croydon Co-op, rehearsing at its store on London Road. When the shop closed, rehearsals were staged in a series of pubs, before CMVC settled in its current home, the Sandilands sports club in Addiscombe (which has a well-stocked bar).
Ratcliffe was replaced in 1994 by Ozzie Arnold who in 1998 led the first of a series of massed male choir concerts organised at the Fairfield Halls. In 2000, Richard Hoyle took over as music director, a position he held for 18 years. In that time, the choir doubled in size, began tours of Britain and overseas, and made its first recordings. People played music on CDs in those days…
Members of the choir sang at the Festivals of Remembrance held at the Royal Albert Hall and, in 2007, the choir sang at the memorial service held at Croydon Minster for Bernard Weatherill, the former Croydon MP and Speaker of the House, who was a keen supporter of the choir.
The fourth music director, Roger Pinsent, took over in 2018 and helped steer the choir through covid. It was Pinsent who made the arrangement of the Robbie Williams hit Angels which scored an astonishing 1.3million social media views after the Beer ‘n Ditties group was video’d singing it one Friday evening. That was helped when Williams posted it on his own Instagram account, bringing a further 3million followers.
In 2022, Matthew Quinn, a 25-year-old from Northern Ireland, took over as CMVC music director – staying for two years before moving on to become chorus director at the English National Opera, no less. He is now also principal conductor of the National Youth Choir.
Andrew Moore, the current MD, is also from Northern Ireland and was also 25 when he took over. Moore has sung solo tenor at the Royal Albert Hall and has continued the choir’s technical development, winning praise for his conducting at the choir’s joint concert with the Croydon Philharmonic Choir in May.
In my 20 years with the choir, I have sung with four of the six music directors. There are several choir members who have sung with all six – which points to one of the problems with choirs like ours: a high proportion of elderly members, such as me. Last year the choir conducted a recruiting campaign which succeeded in lowering the average age – and the appointment of two successive MDs in their 20s has certainly given us a younger look.
Our repertoire evolves, too, within a mix of anthems, folk song, popular classics, showbiz numbers and hymns. Two of our most recent additions were Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love and Van Morrison’s Moondance.
Bass singer: Peter Gillman, with his latest book
In May, the choir embarked on a 50th anniversary tour to the home of male voice choir singing, the Welsh valleys, including a concert at Llandaff Cathedral. I had to miss the tour, as I was covering Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final for Inside Croydon. These are the sacrifices we all have to make…
The repertoire at the July 12 concert will journey through the eras of the six music directors, selecting pieces relevant to each. Octet(ish) and the Shanty group will sing, too, as will baritone James Irving, whose family has long supported the choir.
The concert starts at 7.30pm and entry is £15 (pay on the door). CMVC has produced a full-colour souvenir programme, on sale at £3.
Read more: Choir hits right notes for Afghan women’s rights campaigner
- Peter Gillman is a former Sunday Times journalist and author of Murder In Cairo: Solving a Cold War Spy Mystery
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