TO sing a song properly Great Harwood Male Voice Choir used to rehearse it for 10 hours.

JB was behind it all, or rather in front, for he was the conductor.

In 1951 everyone who knew anything about choral singing in this part of Lancashire knew JB.

He was John Bentley, the man and musician who brought the choir into the limelight.

After the Second World War, there were two choirs in Great Harwood — St Hubert’s RC and the Parish Church Choir and they both sang well.

But how much better might they sing, thought Mr Bentley, were they blended into one as Great Harwood MVC.

And he was right. For after they amalgamated in 1945, they won first prize in Blackburn’s Music Festival in 1946, ‘47, ‘48, ‘49 and ‘50.

There wasn’t a contest in 1951, when this photograph was taken, as the choir rehearsed in King Street Methodist Church! Added to their trophy cabinets, were first prizes from Lytham in 1950 and ‘51 as well as Freckleton in 1950, while the choir also gained second and third places at Burnley, Colne and Southport.

The choir was made up of engineers, carpenters, cotton operatives, bank clerks, policemen and labourers, from all over East Lancashire, and they also raised much money for charities, as well as competing and performing.

Indeed, in 1951, the biggest problem, according to secretary John Lawless, was accepting all the invitations they receive to sing.

Mr Bentley first started conducting in the 1920s and also performed on the cello, organ and piano. In his spare time he was interested in astronomy.

When the Northern Daily Telegraph took this photograph at the end of 1951, the choir had just given an audition for the BBC, and the singers were hopeful they would soon be heard by the country, over the air!