SING LENNON & McCARTNEY
The story of the recording of the Beatles album, as recalled by Martin Hodson
It was in March 1979 that I stepped in to help Risca Male Voice Choir (as it was then) with some rehearsals and concerts after Alwyn Humphreys moved from Risca to conduct Morriston Orpheus MVC, also still using its previous name at the time.
A few rehearsals in, the magic worked and I was hooked. This was the start of a long and rewarding career with the Risca Choir.
Within a few months I was already working on new repertoire, which included some Beatles numbers that I was interested to arrange. These included Michelle, Eleanor Rigby and When I’m 64.
When I joined, the choir already had a recording date booked with Mike Evans, the Director of Black Mountain Records, and it was decided that we should at least try the session to see what would happen. What followed can best be described by Mike himself in an article he wrote for the book The First Forty Years
Through a fault in the construction of the building, an electrical ‘spike’ was being transmitted into the equipment and onto the tape (those were the days!) with metronomic regularity. It resulted in the session being brought to an ignominious halt with the recording sounding like someone banging a snare drum at regular intervals while the choir are doing their best to achieve musical perfection!
Amongst the pieces that we had decided to include in the recording were some of the Beatles arrangements I had recently made.
Mike was impressed that a male choir should attempt such material as songs by the Beatles. And inspired by this thought, he went away and came up with the idea of making a recording that would consist entirely of Beatles numbers. He planned to use, in combination with Risca choir, two already famous and excellent groups, Tredegar Town Band and The Richard Williams Singers (a small ensemble of young female voices).
An incredible series of events then followed, resulting in the recording of the album Sing Lennon & McCartney.
Each group was invited to choose songs to arrange. We then had to decide which of those were to be for all three ensembles, two of the three or, of course, to be performed individually. The joint pieces were initially arranged with just the vocal parts, and then given to the band to create accompaniments around that skeleton version. I still don’t know how this worked, but it did!
Eventually, there followed a number of rehearsals together, one of which took place in Crosskeys College Concert Hall. There was an immediate happy rapport between the groups and all rehearsals proved very promising indeed.
The actual recording was no less spectacular an event. It took place in the huge main studio at BBC Llandaff on September 27 1981. All three groups were spaced in the auditorium, but with little in the way of elaborate sound booths, just a few microphones placed where the sound engineers under Mike’s guidance, wanted them.
The recording of the 13 tracks was accomplished in one long day’s session. Amazing when you consider the potential complexity of the recording situation.
I can’t remember how long the finished product took to reach us, but when it did, there were many “Wows” around our HQ, as the resulting 12” LP was made of blue vinyl – yes, blue! Now how trendy was that for 1981 and a project involving a male choir, let alone a brass band and a ladies’ choir!
Years later, the recording was reissued as a CD, and although only 13 tracks long, it is still a delightful listening experience. The combination of all the groups performing these great songs in their excellent arrangements has stood the test of time and the tracks sound as fresh today as they did in 1981.
Since that time, Risca Male Choir and Mike Evans have had a close friendship, and all the choir’s studio recordings were made by Mike and his engineers.
We are very pleased that the CD has been re-pressed and is on sale once again. The music of Lennon & McCartney will always bring a smile to the face, or move us to strong emotions, and is guaranteed to please. Once you’ve enjoyed the three extracts you can find on the RECORDINGS page, we’re sure you’ll want to buy a copy of this unique recording!
On the original LP sleeve (now proudly displayed with the original blue vinyl record at choir HQ), Mike has added, in very tiny script, This record was achieved without the aid of a committee meeting!
