Well, in the beginning I wasn’t as the title may suggest, but I thought I would start by outlining what I know of the Choir’s early years. There are almost no records of the early 1960’s but a brief history can be sketched from a few that still exist and personal memories of the people I knew at that time. The early part of the decade saw a large increase in the population of Caldicot as men and their families moved from other steeltowns to join the workforce at the new giant Richard Thomas and Baldwin’s, Spencer Works at Llanwern. A fully integrated steelworks soon to employ over 9000 people.

Many of these men were from ‘Male Voice’ country, and so in 1963 a small group got together to form a Choir. The local headmaster, Mr Ralph Hodges, who lived in Tintern, was elected Conductor, and Mr Roy Nanckievel as accompanist. The name of the Choir was agreed at the first meeting and was to be called ‘THE CALDICOT AND DISTRICT MALE VOICE CHOIR’.

There were few rules to start but the stage dress stipulated that if possible the chorister should wear a dark lounge suit and a white shirt. The only mandatory item was a black tie which had diagonal gold stripes. While we are on the subject of the striped tie, it brings to mind an incident which happened much later. When Roy Clements joined the Choir he immediately purchased his tie. Unfortunately no one informed him where to get it and so he duly turned up for his first concert only to find his ‘stripes’ went the opposite way to all the others.

Immediately the Choir were in demand for local concerts and initially this was their role, singing to local groups and OAP clubs. However, the dedication of the twenty strong group was soon evident as the Choir started taking on concerts further afield. It may surprise some more recent choristers to learn that even with this small number they regularly sang some of the ‘greats’ such as ‘Martyrs‘, and ‘The Crusaders’. The Choir remained just above the twenty mark for most of the mid 1960’s.

From Dave Gould’s Choir History – ‘Dai was There’