We’re on holiday and it’s a wet Wednesday night in Swansea. Any bright ideas? Go and stare at Catherine Zeta Jones’ house? See if we can catch a glimpse of Katherine Jenkins? Gaze at the Liberty Stadium? (We’ll be doing that anyway via TV, come the start of the football season, what with Swansea now in the Premiership.)

It may not be an obvious choice, but a works canteen on the Enterprise Business Park is the place to be. Believe me!

Off we go. "Hello , I’m Roy Pugh. You’ll be the ones who rang up. Come in and meet people." And we did; lots of them: Committee members, singers and other visitors too. And they kept on coming in: all with a smile, a nod or a word of greeting for us. Imagine that: members of a world-famous choir actually thanking us for taking the trouble to come and listen to them practise. You’ll know them better , of course, as the Morriston Orpheus Choir – the most recorded male voice choir in the UK.

We could have gone other places that same evening and heard other groups: it seems Wednesday is a popular night for mid-week practices. However, given the choice one simply has to opt for the best!

This is a Rolls Royce of a choir: singing for the Queen; the Pope; in New York’s Carnegie Hall or the Sydney Opera House are all taken in their stride as they tour the world. But they’ll still help to raise funds for a local Chapel renovation; sing at a wedding; assist other organisations in raising funds for good causes and, through the Supporters’ Association, annually provide trophies and prizes for The Young Welsh Singer of the Year Competition.

The practice itself? Concentration for the choir, a fascinating experience for us – and it cost us nothing! People are accustomed to seeing such choirs with only one lady: the accompanist. In this case they have three: two accompanists (one for Wednesday nights, another for Sundays) and the Musical Director, believe it or not – and Joy Amman Davies is not the first to hold that post either.

Sometimes the whole choir would be involved, sometimes she worked them section by section. Pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation was a theme that night. "Roll your Rs in Welsh, but not in English."

Time flew by. A short break about half way through and then back into action. Over eighty voices can deliver a stunning sound – and we were stunned alright! The choir can offer a very wide-ranging programme but what were the highlights for us? Well, ‘Blaenwern’ was one, especially as our wedding anniversary was getting near; there was a tear-jerking rendition of The Lord’s Prayer, but ‘Myfanwy’ was the knock-out. Such power at times, such softness of tone at others, and the top tenors reaching notes so high you expected to see them start to float up from their seats!

This one was being practised because it had been requested for an approaching wedding. Now, most ministers of religion have a fund of stories regarding not very suitable hymns requested for weddings e.g. ‘Fight the Good Fight’,’ Eternal Father Strong to Save’ and ‘Abide With Me’. ‘Myfanwy ‘ fits comfortably into that list! Try this, from the second verse (English translation, of course – not the language of Heaven i.e. Welsh):-

Is it too much to keep your part?

I wish no more your hand, Myfanwy,

How sad can you get?!

Then it was all over. "Would you like to come to the pub with us," was the invitation; "We sang at the opening of a new Wetherspoon’s on Monday night, and they want us back there after tonight’s practice." Such down-to-earth people!

For anyone interested in these things, The Welsh Association of Male Voice Choirs is organising a massed choirs concert at the MEN. Arena, Manchester, on Saturday, 24^th March, 2012, with over thirty choirs from across Wales involved.

P.S. All credit to the drivers of South Wales: in general they were careful and considerate at traffic lights – less likely to anticipate the changes; less likely to go through on red and less likely to drive into a yellow box when their exit was not clear, thereby blocking other traffic.