The Singing Club was founded in 2007 by Karl Daymond, a renowned opera singer and singing teacher who had moved to Chepstow. It was Karl’s intention from the start that we should be a friendly, informal singing club open to all, and he avoided calling us a ‘choir’, a tradition which we maintain.
We originally met in the living room of Karl’s small house in lower Chepstow, and later, when he moved, in his slightly larger house in Elmdale on the Gloucestershire bank of the Wye opposite Chepstow Castle. Over time Karl developed the club by adding a weekly session for members in Usk in 2008, and then in 2011 expanding to two sessions a week in Chepstow, one on Wednesday evening at his house, and the other on Thursday evening in a function room in a Chepstow pub. A further Singing Club was started in the Forest of Dean, meeting in Lydney.
To distinguish between the two Chepstow groups, the Wednesday evening session became the ‘Duke’s Yard Singing Club’, recalling the fact that Karl’s house was built on the site of former stable yard of the Duke of Beaufort. Karl named the Thursday group ‘The Chepstow Castle Singing Club’ after the pub (since closed) where they met. All these separate groups performed in public under the collective name of ‘The Singing Club’, which remains the case.
We were always an open access community singing club, with no auditions or previous experience of singing required. That still remains our policy. Karl was an inspirational leader who was able to get the best out of everyone and he involved The Singing club in a number of ambitious local projects. These included ‘Wye Oh Wye’, in 2013, a musical tour invoking the 18th century picturesque movement in the Wye Valley. This was produced in collaboration with Chepstow Museum and Karl’s friend the opera singer Pippa Dames-Longworth. You can view a short clip of images and songs from Wye Oh Wye’ here: (login to Vimeo or Google is required) https://vimeo.com/68794126
In 2014 building on the success of The Singing Club Karl founded the Chepstow Chatelaines, a women’s chamber choir. Although completely independent of The Singing Club in its activities and repertoire, its initial membership was largely drawn from Singing Club and there remains a close link between us. The Chatelaines got off to a flying start by winning a prize at the Royal Wootton Bassett Arts Festival in 2015.
In 2016 the National Eisteddfod took place in Abergavenny, the first time for many years that the National Eisteddfod had visited Monmouthshire. Karl was an enthusiastic supporter of the Welsh language and he entered The Singing Club in one of the choral competitions. We performed a Welsh-language version of the spiritual ‘Oh Happy Day’ (‘O Nefol Ddydd’) which had been specially translated by Welsh-speaking members of our club, together with the well-known song Sosban Fach which we performed in sign language while singing. Although we did not win any prize we received much acclaim, and television coverage on S4C: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/36937568
In 2017 Karl very sadly passed away. This came as a shock to all of us, and we were anxious to continue The Singing Club as a major part of his legacy. We found a worthy successor to Karl in Jayne Thomas, our current musical director, and we continue to thrive and develop under her leadership. One of the first projects we took part in with Jayne was the Wye Valley River Festival at Tintern in 2018, where our performances included singing a series of moon-themed songs to an audience in the ruined abbey underneath a giant replica of the moon.
We remain a friendly singing club that is open to all. We continue Karl’s system of being several separate singing clubs that meet and rehearse on different nights but learn the same repertoire and usually come together as one group in our public performances.
For a list of our past performances since 2014 and events in which we have participated, go to our archive page.
How we coped with lockdown
A week after the first lockdown in March 2020 The Singing Club was up and running on Zoom.
We had no idea what to expect or how long this was going to last, but the weekly meetings provided a routine and a lifeline for many. No one prefers singing on Zoom, but at least we could see and smile at each other while we sang!
Not content with just rehearsing, determined ‘the show must go on!’ we had several Zoom Concerts and end of term ‘Open Mic Sessions’. It started with a Virtual Street Party for VE Day complete with bunting and afternoon tea. Some of us love dressing up! We had a fabulous Zoom Christmas Concert (Victorian outfits) and Zoom St David’s Day Concert (Welsh costume!) The Chepstow Chatelaines made ‘virtual’ guest appearances too.
Our concerts usually raise money for charity. A Zoom Christmas Concert wasn’t going to stop that and we raised £350 for St David’s Hospice.
The Singing Club and Chatelaines both took part in the Virtual Usk Choral Festival arranged by Drew Morton in March 2021.
Zoom helped us keep singing. We sang along to our own recordings, or to recordings that Jayne had made or to Jayne playing the keyboard. We had to ‘mute’ our Zoom feeds. We sang our old favourites but also learned new songs. In June 2021 we had a few ‘in person’ sessions, following all the guidelines. It was astounding to hear the new songs together for the first time. It wasn’t a disaster! We sang our first live gig since March 2020 outside in Beaufort Square at the Chepstow Arts Festival in August 2021.
© The Singing Club 2022