[ ClassicalX ] Sound of silence as choir cancels

They're not singing any more!

The platinum-selling Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir have been forced to cancel an exclusive show at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall this week after discovering they’d only sold a fraction of the tickets needed to fill the 1,500 seat auditorium.

Last night their 60-year-old chairman, former prison officer David Jones, said the group, who regularly sell-out concerts all over the world, were heartbroken at the thought they’d failed to drum up enough interest to even half-fill a venue in their home country.

“We thought maybe the choral singing bubble had burst on us at first,” he said.

“Maybe we’d been too blasé about how popular we reckoned we were, or that the recession had bitten us on the backsides over tickets sales.

“But then we realised that no-one seemed to know we were even playing in the first place.”

David added that he and the 75-strong choir were stunned to find that, despite the date next Saturday having been booked in their diary for several months, the promoter had made little effort to publicise it. “It was difficult to see what, if anything, had been done to let people know we’d be appearing.

“In the end we had to cancel the show because so few tickets had been sold it just wouldn’t have been viable to perform, and looking out at all those empty chairs would have been awfully embarrassing.”

David insisted the resurgence in the popularity of choir music had plenty of life left in it yet.

“We’ve a long tradition of choral singing in Wales, handed down from generation to generation so it’s great to see it having taken off to such a degree with hit TV shows such as Last Choir Standing being watched by millions,” he said.

“In fact, that programme came about on the back of our popularity, but I’ve nothing but admiration for the likes of Only Men Aloud and Côr Ysgol Glanaethwy, they’re both wonderful.”

The Denbighshire-based Fron have also just been nominated for another Classical Brit award – their third in as many years, for their latest CD entitled Voices of the Valley: Home, which was released in November.

“We’ve come runners-up the previous two years, so fingers crossed,” said David.

“That said, the time before last we did come second to Paul McCartney so that’s not so bad. He’s a lovely young man, he should go far,” he joked.

And there’s another album to come later this year, meaning that the self-professed “world’s oldest boyband”, whose combined age totals 4,550 years, have a lot left to sing about still.

“We just want to let all our fans at home know we’ll be back on the road soon and, to everyone in Cardiff who’s been let down, we promise we’ll make it up to you.”

Source: Wales on Sunday