Dudley Remembrance Concert saved after volunteer appeal

An annual remembrance concert in the Black Country has been saved after new volunteers came forward.

Published
The Gentlemen Songsters Male Voice Choir lead the annual Remembrance concert at Dudley Town Hall

Fears had been raised that the annual event in Dudley, which raises thousands of pounds for the Royal British Legion, would not go ahead this year due to a lack of volunteers to help organise the concert.

The event is headlined by the 60-strong Gentlemen Songsters Male Voice Choir each year but the group was struggling to also organise the entire event themselves.

After the concert’s future was thrown into doubt an urgent appeal was launched by former Dudley mayors Steve Waltho and Dave Tyler for more volunteers.

Following the appeal up to 15 new helpers came forward, with a number of them having military links.

Dudley College also offered its main hall free of charge to stage the concert.

Councillor Waltho, who is also an ambassador for the Gentlemen Songsters Male Voice Choir, said: “As a proud member of the Songsters I fully understood their position. We give much pleasure and raise a lot of charity money via our performances.

“We have ex-servicemen in our ranks and have huge respect for the event and to be fair have kept it going for some years but we said that 2018 would be the last time since as volunteers we could no longer give an ever increasing amount of time to its actual organisation.

“The town hall hire and other costs were also becoming a burden as we had to charge entrance fees to cover them.

"Dave Tyler and I tried one last desperate media appeal for help and were very pleasantly surprised by the response.

"Some 15 people expressed an interest to help then to top it all Dudley College was approached and was delighted to come on board.”

The concert is now set to take place on Thursday, November 7, at Dudley College and will be free entry. Further details will be released at a later date.

Anyone else in the borough who would like to volunteer to help organise the event can call Councillor Waltho on 07703 308463 or email cllr.steve.waltho@dudleymbc.org.uk.