POSSIBLY the longest running choir in Basingstoke is the Basingstoke Ladies Choir (BLC) which was founded in 1964.

It was the brainchild of Cornishman Ken Williams, who ran his choir on a strict basis, not tolerating lateness, wayward voices, or lack of discipline. His one dream was to take the BLC back to his home county to sing with two male voice choirs, the Treverva and Holman Climax, along with the Mabe Ladies’ Choir, a dream he, unfortunately, did not fulfil although the visit was arranged, as he had to miss it due to sickness. An alternative musical director (MD) had to be found at short notice and the role was filled by George Smith who was a music teacher in Basingstoke.

In December 1982 Jonathan Hedgecock became the MD who coincidently was taught by George Smith whilst he was at school. Jonathan's arrangements proved to be an asset to the choir as they were very popular with the public. It was also a benefit to Jonathan on a personal level as he met his wife Yvonne there, who was also a member.

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George later was enticed by the Holman Climax Choir to move to Cornwall and become a peripatetic music teacher throughout Cornwall, as well as conducting the Holman Choir for many years. The friendship between the Basingstoke Ladies Choir and Holman led to many exchange concerts over the years, as well as exchanging with Treverva on a regular basis.

In the 1970s the choir appointed Colin Ridgers as MD which proved to be a good move as he took the choir on to win music festivals in Bath, Southampton, Bournemouth, and the Madrigal class in Cheltenham and to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom where they performed an arrangement of Wagners’ Rhinegold.

No choir is complete without a good accompanist and the BLC was fortunate in recruiting Jonathan Hedgecock who, for 40 years, has been a stalwart of the choir but, many years ago the choir appointed a very talented Russian lady whose dress sense was not really up to the expected standard, in that she pinned her clothes together with safety pins and had holes in her tights; but this did not change the fact that, at a performance at the Bournemouth Festival, she was the only accompanist that was praised by the adjudicator.

Following this performance, the members got rather carried away by filling the awarded cup at a local pub and got involved in an ‘open mic’ evening. This, unfortunately, led to the individual members writing letters of apology to the committee for their behaviour.

One year the choir performed in the Welsh Eisteddfod in Porthcawl where the hotel proprietors ran off with the money.

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As well as the aforementioned musical directors who lead the choir over the years mention has to be made of Richard Seargentson, Elizabeth Fryer, David Dennis, Charmaine Fearne, Stuart Hicken, Jacky Protheroe and Margaret Brackenborough who led them for15 years and took them on four overseas trips and to the BBC TV programme Last Choir Standing where they were placed in the last 15 choirs out of 1,000 entrants.

The present MD, who took over in 2017, is Robert Elliott. He was a trombonist with the Third Battalion Royal Regiment of Wales and a conductor of four male choirs as well as a national and international adjudicator.

The Basingstoke Ladies Choir has sung at many large and interesting venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Radio 3, Meridian TV, BBC Last Choir Standing, Noel Edmunds’ Gotcha programme as well as Thorpe Park, various cathedrals including Cologne, and the Mariannekirke in Germany, also with many trips to Alencon in Normandy (Basingstoke's twin French town), Stotzheim, Germany, and a trip to Dresden to sing at the famous Frauenkirke which has now been restored to its former glory after being destroyed in the Second World War. Trips to Malta, Spain and Guernsey also were undertaken but, with Guernsey, because of bad weather the choir had to make do with singing on board the boat.

In 1996 the choir visited Ontario accompanied by the Basingstoke Male Voice Choir, (the costs raised by members carrying out sponsored events), where they visited Toronto, Niagra Falls, a winery and the Marylake Shrine where they performed in snowy weather and people travelled up to 200 miles to watch them.

Covid and lockdown affected the BLC in that they lost a number of long-term members but are now rehearsing regularly once more. To mark the new beginning and to make a fresh start the choir have now changed their name to Hampshire Harmony. The first performance by this iconic choir will be on September 24 at All Saints Parish Church, Odiham, sponsored by the Royal Air Forces Association. Together with Romsey Voices (mixed voice choir) and Teresa Lunn (soprano), they will be raising funds for RAFA KIDZE Odiham to put a nursery on every front-line station, of which Odiham is one. They will also take part in the Mayor's Charity Concert on October 1 at The Anvil, Basingstoke.

At the end of this era we say ‘Goodbye and Thank You Basingstoke Ladies Choir’ and ‘Hello and Good Luck Hampshire Harmony’ as they continue creating harmonies into the future.

Follow the choir on Facebook and via their website hampshireharmony.org.