Humble beginnings.
In 1976 two separate groups based in the West Midlands area, both aspiring to sing in barbershop harmony and inspired by a previously shown BBC TV program of the American Barbershop Convention/Contest, became aware of their joint existence and contact was made. We discovered that in 1974, the British Association of Barbershop Singers (BABS) had been founded and that their 1976 Convention Show would take place in September at Birmingham Town Hall. Rod Butcher of Menzies High School teacher’s group and Dennis Hodgetts of the “K&J” quartet were present in the audience; the resultant enthusiasm engendered by the superb entertainment cemented the resolve to form an embryo club from both factions. With Chris Harker, music teacher, as our guest director, the school music room provided an excellent rehearsal venue. Gradually the group began to flourish and in 1977 the West Midlands Barbershop Harmony Club was founded, with Geoff Robinson as its first Chairman.
Early successes and pre covid.
On February 11th 1978, a group of 7 or 8 from the club, with wives and friends, travelled by minibus to Stroud in Gloucester to see a show given by the BABS Champions, Great Western Chorus from Bristol. During the afterglow, the Anvil Chorus representatives sang “Have A Happy Day”, and impressed Bristol CD and BABS music chairman, Mike Charles, sufficiently to pass the audition to gain admission to BABS. This was confirmed at the A.G.M. in Cambridge in April 1978. In that same year WMBHC attended their first convention at Caister as mic-warmers, In 1988 at the BABS annual convention in Harrogate, Anvil Chorus, under the direction of Rod Butcher, came third with an unknown score (High 60s?) - still our best position to date, although pre-covid scores under the direction of Rod Butcher and other directors have been better: getting 69.4% in 2018 (11th) and 69.7% in 2019 (10th) – showing how much the Barbershop standard has improved over the years!
Post covid
Sadly the covid pandemic had devastating effects worldwide and few, if any, areas of society escaped its ravishes. During its three year period West Midlands Barbershop Harmony Club rehearsals were cut to periods of no rehearsal, and periods of limited open air rehearsals causing massive disruption to the continuity and cont[nued success of the club. The club, which prior to covid, had a membership of around 35 members, was reduced to somewhere just under 20 with the obvious resulting reduction in performance. Indeed our first BABS convention post covid was in 2024 where, under the direction of our new chorus director, Victor Wong, we achieved 19th position with an overall score of 66.1%. The following year (2025) saw a marked improvement where we jumped 8 places to 11th with an overall score of 68.8%!
The image below shows the 1988 convention chorus that acheived our best position to date. Watch and listen to them HERE:
1988 Convention Chorus
Back row:
1.Geoff Robinson, 2.Jake Shaw, 3.Les Whiles, 4.Tim Nelson, 5.Dennis Hodgetts, 6.Ray Sands, 7.John Riseborough, 8.Ben Sides, 9.Chris Harker, 10Rick Scott, 11Paul While.
Middle Row:
1.Tony Robinson, 2.Jim Swallow, 3.Colin Parsons, 4.Rod Butcher, 5.Michael sides – Director, 6.David While, 7.Stan Cox, 8.Duncan Marsh, 9.Joe Riseborough, 10.Mick Buckley.
Front row::
1.Simon Hilton, 2.John Ellis, 3.Phil Hilton, 4.Glenn Chaney, 5.Peter Barlow, 6.Andrew Taylor, 7.Bob Duncan, 8.Craig Towns, 9.Don Brotherton, 10.Frank Mason.
