Eat your hearts out, Only Men Aloud. You’re not the only ones who have fans clamouring to be photographed with you, as this picture proves. It was taken in the piazza in Swansea, during the choir’s short tour of South Wales at the end of May 2010.
Swansea is perhaps not the best place to stroll around in the colours of Cardiff City, particularly as this was the day of The Bluebirds’ Championship play-off final defeat by Blackpool. Many a Swansea Jack was in celebratory mood that afternoon, happy to exchange banter with a group of men dressed in the blue of their arch rivals. But it didn’t stop a small crowd gathering in the spring sunshine to hear BMVC perform a couple of numbers to warm up for their main concert later in the evening.
We’d been assured by our Welsh members before we set off that, if it wasn’t raining when we arrived in Swansea, then it soon would be. In fact, nothing could have been further from the truth. Crowds flocked the beach (and, yes, Swansea has one to rival Bournemouth’s), while BMVC choristers and their partners wandered up and down the promenade, fanning themselves against the heat.
So Swansea turned out to be well worth a visit. And Cardiff, too, as we discovered when we stopped off on the way home for a boat trip round Tiger Bay. By then, though, with our uniforms safely packed away in suitcases, we managed to escape the attentions of picture seekers and autograph hunters.
To read a report of the 2010 Mainly Men trip to Larne, click here.
To read a report of the choir's 2009 trip to Larne, click here.