It’s not every day that a Barbershop Quartet gets a chance to sing and perform at the famous Woodford Folk Festival and, according to the festival organisers, the first quartet he has ever hired. Brian Martin, our baritone, has been to many of these festivals, but for the rest of the quartet, Graham Kingsford, Tenor, Rob Schluter, Bass and Malcolm Woods, Lead, it was a first and what an eye opener it was.

We didn’t foresee that it attracts 135,000 visitors and 2000 performers of all ages over the six days, it has numerous stage venues for putting on performances as well as smaller stalls for workshops and jam sessions. All genres of music are catered for so we felt very honoured to be representing the barbershop community and by the appreciation and applause shown by the audience we didn’t disappoint. 

We put on two shows on the Saturday and Sunday of 40 minutes whilst Brian entertained the audience on the other days teaching four part harmony to the audience with songs and tags. The Parlour was our venue, which held approximately 180 seats, wasn’t full on Saturday but on Sunday afternoon it was standing room only. It was very satisfying that so many young people connected with us after the show to voice their appreciation and ask for details of where they can find information on a chorus near to them.

Mal Woods - Lead
RIMFIRE QUARTET