Hills Harmony wins the Andy Arbele Trophy for the Senior Chorus in the National Barbershop Competition. 

Great headlines, We have done it again and are delighted to do so.  We can continue to promote our chorus as “The Good Ol’ Guys” and have a trophy to prove it.


We now have back to back wins, like the NRL Roosters. Let us tell you these old roosters from North West  Sydney are “cock a hoot” about retaining the Andy Arberle Trophy.  The bottom line is we are singing well, very competently and competitively and enjoying ourselves at the same time.  Our “purpose built” competition song, “When I’m 84”, a parody of The Beatles “When I’m 64” fostered big smiles, laughter, mirth and some rolled eyes from the audience. Just as we planned, happiness  all round. We would like to thank Andy and the BHA for implementing the “Senior Chorus” It has given us another reason to keep singing.

Speaking of Good O’l guys. After one of the several occasions we have been busking at local shopping centres, a passing spectator, obviously from a much younger generation, posted a comment and photo on our facebook page. “Why I love living in Australia. Geriatric flash mob”.  We are a little indecisive about our feelings toward being referred to as geriatric, but the comment was a positive one.  It is becoming harder to hide the fact we are getting older but we were recognised as a “Flash” mob and our singing made a young lady happy she was living in Australia.  Great fun.

Our concert last Saturday for the residents of Rowland Village, a local RSL retirement centre was a return gig. Feedback has been very positive.  They loved our variety, including Peter Donald’s family quartet Accelerando and his virtuoso work on the violin, the fact that they could sing along with the songs, (they were christened “age appropriate”) , move in time, connect with some pleasant memories and that our performance left them “awake and smiling”.  All were part of the very pleasant and worthwhile afternoon.

Paul Meller