Magnificent 2017

It's been another Magnificent year, as we pause to look back and reflect on the past few months and look forward to our Tenth Year and some great plans to celebrate that amazing landmark.

From top left moving clockwise, spiraling into the centre...:  A great show at Bradford Roots in Jan, more or less "naked", just us singing with no props!  The Spooky Men's Chorale hit town on a rest day from their monster tour.  The Blokes line the bar at our gig in the pub in February.  Mugs to celebrate Effing John's tenure as Big Chief coming to a close with a heartfelt speech at the Pow Wow.  Blokes on Radio Wiltshire (twice!).  Singing in the Shed again was great fun.  A Teddy Bear supporter at ChoirJam gig in Keynesham, and Bloke and The Ashton Keynes Hare outside The White Hart, not something you will see in every village...

Then there was our Second Tour to Cornwall as we returned to the Padstow area for a couple of days via a visit to the Fleet Air Arm Museum, a return gig with Glorious Chorus in Totnes, a trip to darkest Dartmoor and Minions, then trogging home via Glastonbury Tor.  In between we had superb hospitality from the ladies of Gulls and the Treglown family, and turned into a "Tribute (Ale) Group" with seemingly never ending supplies being consumed with great pleasure.

Next up for many blokes was a trip from North North Wiltshire to North North Westest Wales as BlokeFest upped sticks for a visit Anglesey and a BlokeFest Cymru, admirably hosted by James Sills and the Bebington Bittermen.  And what a colourful event it was, complete with "Lost Hombre" Bar, tractor pulling and amazing sunshine.

Another highlight of the year was the rather wonderful Ashton Keynes Music and Arts Festival and the Village Voices evening where we had a terrific show, spurred on by the great singing from the Village Choir, School Choir and Siren Sisters, that all came together in an unforgettably special finale joint song when all the choirs joined together in "Surround Sound".

And we had yet more magical man moments on this year's "Grand Day Out" which took a coach party up to Dudley Canal for a fascinating morning exploring and singing through the tunnels and caverns then followed up with an extraordinary experience of singing on the concourse of Birmingham's New Street Station before toddling off for a pint or two and a slap up curry.

Finally, we must thank all the Blokes, the Significant Others of Blokes, Mr Chris Samuel our Belovéd ChoirMeister, all the Inner Circle and everyone who has supported us through another year for making it such a blast.  And we would like to pay special homage to our Magnificent ArtMeister and CartoonMeister for all their efforts via a little gallery of their works this year, another memorable one for fun, bonhomie and some half decent singing!  

See you in 2018 for our TENTH YEAR of MAGNIFICENTS!  Check the Dates page for lots more to come.