Graham hits the right note(s)

I've sung with my local Rock Choir for three years. It's....well, I'll leave it to one of my fellow Rockies, the marvellous Graham (65) to explain what it's like

"8 years ago, my kids had left home, my wife was doing an OU degree and I was spending a lot of time staring at the television which was driving me crackers. I read an article about Rock Choir which said that choirs were springing up all round the country and thought, ‘well, that would get me out of the house’.

It felt absolutely terrifying going for the first time, though it helped that Les, one of the other guys, was also there for the first time. I loved it absolutely straight away. That first night we learnt to sing ‘Oh Happy Day’ in our harmonising parts. By the end we were all clapping hands and swaying from side to side. It was so uplifting. I still always leave a rehearsal feeling a little taller and younger than when I went in.

It felt absolutely terrifying going for the first time

I have slightly more mixed feelings about performing. I very much like being in the back row at the far end. But just occasionally it’s all gone horribly wrong and I’ve landed up at the font. Les and I somehow ended up doing a rap for a song from Sister Act, which we performed on stage at the Shaw Theatre. I’ve never sought the limelight since!

When I first started, I was working full time, doing a pretty demanding job (I was HR manager for Children’s Services for an inner London borough) and it was something that cleared all that away. One night a week I didn’t think about any of it. But since I’ve retired, just over three years now, it's a place to go where I have a great time, surrounded by people who are enjoying themselves as much as I am.”

If you think you'd be interested in joining a Rock Choir - and I couldn't agree more with Graham about how uplifting and joyous it is - they're all over the country. There's no audition and you don't have to be able to read music.

Find out more on their website rockchoir.com