MUCH Wenlock Male Voice Choir joins the mighty Barrow Male Voice Choir for a choral extravaganza at Grange-over-Sands Victoria Hall on Saturday, June 6 (7.30pm).

These two versatile choirs will perform a wide range of music for all tastes and promises to be a memorable evening’s entertainment.

The Barrow choir was founded in 1931, when Messrs J R Green, Tom Johnson and Herbert H Thomas, who were members of Barrow Working Men's Club and Institute, approached other members with an interest in singing, soon forming the nucleus of a male voice choir. The new singing group was originally named Barrow Working Men's Club and Institute Male Voice Choir and only adopted its present name in 1997. Herbert, a local schoolmaster and later a schools music organiser, was its first regular conductor. Well-respected Ulverston composer and conductor Anthony Milledge has held the baton since 2005.

Local solicitor Martyn Tongue was choir accompanist for more than 40 years up to the 1996 annual concert, when he was succeeded by Rita Matthews and Sue Quarmby; these days Sue shares the tuneful task with Margaret Harrison.

In 1946 the choir was invited to broadcast on BBC radio in conjunction with Vickers-Armstrong Shipyard Band in Sounding Brass and Voices and in 1951 'the boys' appeared along with several well-known national choirs and brass bands at the Royal Albert Hall London, in the inaugural presentation and broadcast of The Rainbow, a tone poem by Christopher Hassle set to music by composer Dr Thomas Wood, who lived at Settle Street in Barrow as a child.

In the late 1970s the choir took part in the BBC TV programme A Grand Sing and in 1980 won the male voice class.

Among the choir's many memorable performances was the Festival of Sound and Brass at London's Royal Albert Hall (2006 and 2009) and in October 2010 a concert at Barrow's Forum 28 in conjunction with the touring Wagga City Rugby Male Choir of Australia, which included the former Barrow and Great Britain Rugby League star Phil Jackson.

Shropshire-based Much Wenlock MVC was born in 1968 when a small group of singers met at a local public house in Much Wenlock and declared their intention to meet regularly to sing for pleasure.

The choir has attracted members from a wide area of Shropshire and enjoyed continuing success under the leadership of its founder musical director, Mrs Ceridwen Constantine, who combined a background of Welsh choral singing with formal music training at Manchester's Northern School of Music. She retired in 2010, becoming honorary president with musicologist Paul Kelly selected as the new director. The choir's accompanist is David Fisher.

Tickets for the concert are available from the Victoria Hall or members of BMVC.