Our History.
The Leicester Club was formed in 1974 by Roy Phillips and three other
singers. At
that time, a presenter on Radio 2 called Charlie Chester played a Barbershop Quartet
record in his weekly programme.
Upon hearing this Roy wrote to Charlie to request more information about this unique style of singing, and he was put in touch with Eric Evans of the Crawley Club.
Eric explained about the formation of the British Assocication of Barbershop Singers (B.A.B.S.) and at that time, there were five other Member Clubs.
This led to Roy, Ian (his son), and John O’Malley attending their first rehearsal at Bournemouth. They arranged some music from a Canadian Barbershopper, and started to meet on Sunday evenings - and so was formed The Leicester Barbershop Harmony Club.
The chorus grew, and was a joint club with a ladies chorus for many
years before
they split, owing to the fact that the two organisations BABS and Ladies Association
of Barbershop Singers (LABBS) were both single sex organisations.
The ladies kept the name ‘The Charnwoods’ which both groups has previously used.
and the men took the name ‘Heart of England’ Chorus. Unfortunately the ladies group
folded some years later.
Roy was made our first Life President for all his achievements. He also sang with a barbershop quartet called ‘The Mellowtones’, which competed very successfully in the 1970’s.
Recording Session
In February 2011 members of the Chorus were invited to Leicester College for a recording session. Read how we got on.
The Chorus will be attending the Convention Cmyru in Llandudno, North Wales on 5th May 2011. We sign in front of the judges at 2.30pm. Visit the Centre’s web site for more information.
Facebook.
The Chorus now has a
Facebook page. Add the
page to your like list to
get regular updates,
And the latest photos
and news.
The British Association
Of Barbershop Singers
(BABS) hold a Learn To Sing
Course every year. To
Find out more.
Most people meeting with The Barbershop style of singing for the first time
associate it with gentlemen’s hairdressers. In a sense this is partly correct -
Samuel Pepys in his famous diaries mentions singing barbers, and some would
say that it was prevalent in nineteenth century England.
Although the general perception is that it came about by men singing while waiting
for haircuts and shaves in the USA. This was probably the late nineteenth
century and involved many different nationalities - immigrants from all over Europe.
The modern style of Barbershop singing was formalised by a man called O.C.Cash
in America when he formed the organisation for quartet singing just before the
second world war.
It has gone from strength to strength since then, with organisations springing up all
over the world.
The late Roy Phillips, founder of
The Heart Of England Chorus.
This photo, taken in circa 1982, was just before the annual BABS Convention.
