How did you get into Barbershop?
I had taken redundancy from Lloyds HBOS bank and needed a challenge. Hazel Jiggins director of music a White Rose is my mum-in-law! I had managed to avoid subject of singing with her for over 35 years but finally asked her to help me to sing. I went on a 'learn to sing' course and had a great time.
Do you sing with any other Choruses?
I have been a member with White Rose in Leeds for the past five years. Back in the 1960`s I sang with the church choir at Saint Wilfreds, Lidget Green, Bradford.
Any Favourite Barbershop songs?
I have enjoyed the convention songs learned with White Rose, so Give my Heart to you, Young and Foolish, Consider Yourself and Rest of the Word go bye and now the new pieces with SoH are great to sing.
Any particular Barbershop memories or highlights?
After singing on stage at Southport I was on such a high it felt like a brilliant achievement. Best memory to date must be singing Mona Lisa outside the gents' toilets at Tadcaster and being told by Sally I could join SoH. I could not tell anyone how good that felt without “filling up"!
What other music do you enjoy?
Mostly vocal music with singers such as Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Glen Campbell, Gordon Lightfoot, David Bowie, Brian Ferry and now I think any good jazz is great and I am a fan of Tony Bennett and sing along to music like Matt Munro and Tony Christie.
Tell us about your family.
I met Angela my wife in 1973 when we were both sixteen, and decided that I would marry her there and then! Married at twenty-one and we have two daughters Laura and Charlotte who are grown and have left home.
Favourite films, books or TV?
Any Carry On film. Police Squad etc. Also I love Amelie and Jean de Florette. Lightweight books only up to three hundred and fifty pages, I like short novels and some biographies best book for years that changed my outlook was The Yes Man. TV has got to be sport and drama , Happy Valley has been brilliant and The Tunnel.
Any other significant pastimes or hobbies?
Going to gymnasium 4/5 times a week just to help me to run around on Saturday afternoons. Having played rugby, I have been a Rugby Union referee for about 28 years and have been all over England refereeing and being a touch judge. I love cooking and cook most of our meals. We have a home in Saint Chinian France and enjoy spending time there and speaking French like a good Yorkshireman.
Tell us about your education, work, past and present.
I attended Thornton School Bradford and studied as an office based trainee/clerk with Estate Agents and Surveyors in Bradford. Qualified as an Incorporated Valuer and Auctioneer and became Fellow of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 2000. I have worked as an Estate Agent in Bradford and then for HBOS for over 20 years and now I am self employed as an Independent Sole Practitioner Chartered Surveyor in Bradford and Calderdale areas. Now semi-retired so able to find time for some other hobbies.