Normally we look forward to the blokes gathering together for a few manly moments amongst the humdrum mundanity of daily life, singing in harmony and passing comment on the chuffing awful weather.
Last Saturday a bunch of the blokes managed to overcome certain organizational short-comings and logistical challenges posed by such things as the main road between Malmesbury and Chippenham being closed because of an accident and having to trust satnavs in obscure parts of the countryside, and made it along to pay our respects to our recently departed member, Ken Brookes.
Here you can see most of the blokes gathered together before the ceremony that had most of us wiping our eyes with emotion. Apparently one or two of the others present thought the blokes looked rather intimidating gathered on the side of the hill at the Burial location, somewhat like the brotherhood that the Blokes are. Scary looking but a bunch of softies really.
With immense sensitivity and dignity Chris S lead the following blokes
Chris A, Peter B, Neil B, Nick B, Brian D, Mark F, Lars F, John G, Mike G, Stuart H, Martin H, Bill H, Darren S, David T, Ade W, and "not so new boys" Andy E and Jeff S
Who sang the following songs
Down in the River to pray
Tsmidao
and a very emotional (Alone in my) Shed which can be seen at the YouTube stream of Ken's son, Sam.
It is with immense sadness that we mark the parting of Ken Brookes, one of our more recent members, to the Great Choir beyond our world.
Most of us first encountered Ken at BlokeFest last year and he fell in love with the group, our singing and the way we approached what we do.
Despite living in Trowbridge, a good hour away wiggling through the lanes from Middle North Wiltshire to us in the Far North he was a regular ever since and joined us on stage for most of our gigs since last summer.
He was a lovely bloke, quite soft spoken, with a sonorous Bass voice and pretty passable goatee beard - so he fitted right in.
Whilst we were collectively and individually shocked to hear the news and very much saddened, we were also very honoured to have been asked by his family to sing a couple of simple songs at his burial and we would like to think that the Blokes did him proud with our tear-tinged renditions of "Down in the River to Pray" and "Tsmidao".
Many of us also ventured back to his home afterwards and were confronted by the most impressive of sheds, leading to a lot of "Shed envy" and we attempted to honour him in our own special way with a very emotional version of "(Alone in my) Shed".
We pass on our deepest sympathies to Kate and the rest of his family.
The ceremony and some of the rituals, in particular the "Ho! Circle" will live with us for a long time, as will the memory of Ken.
P.S. If you would like to see a video of a stunning performance by BlokeFest attendees, have a look at one of the videos Ken took.
