- An evening with the Mayor & Mayoress
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Date Posted: Wed, 25 Sep 2024
The 12 months of service to which any Mayor of Bolton Metropolitan Borough must commit is presumably a very busy schedule of civic duties. So it was that, at our Tuesday evening rehearsal on 24th September 2024, Cottontown was delighted and extremely honoured to be able to welcome the current Mayor of Bolton, Councillor Andrew Morgan JP, Lady Mayoress Karen Holdsworth, Bromley Cross Councillor Samantha Connor, and other accompanying town councillors and officials.
Our esteemed visitors got a front seat view of how we warm up and rehearse our repertoire, and were then treated to a performance of our full setlist for the concert at Trinity Methodist Church on Saturday 28th September.
The original expectation was that the party of civic dignitaries couldn’t stay for more than an hour but, as the roller-coaster of up-tunes and more reflective songs quickly explored the full range of our visitors’ emotions, time seemed to become less of a factor for them and they were clearly keen to stay for more, with the Lady Mayoress admitting to shedding a few tears during some of the ballads.
The next Mayor’s Charity Ball (February 2025) is planned to be a bigger, more wide-ranging event than has happened before and, who knows, Cottontown is hoping that we entertained our visitors well enough to be considered for an invitation to it. We'd certainly love to be there!
- On a sunny day in June at Sedbergh Music Festival
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Date Posted: Mon, 24 Jun 2024
A fine sunny evening in the scenic village of Sedbergh was where Cottontown performed to locals as part of the Sedbergh Music Festival 2024. As was also the case last time we were here in 2022, we had an awesome time singing in St. Andrew's Church to a packed audience, followed by a pint at the local watering hole across the way. Thanks to everyone who came to watch, and here's to an exciting second week of the festival featuring headliners Jess Gillam and the BBC Singers!
For more information, see: https://sedberghmusicfestival.com/
- Did you see the Cotton Candy barbershop quartet on Coronation Street?
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Date Posted: Tue, 13 Feb 2024
When Billy arranges a singing Valentine for hubby Paul at The Bistro on Coronation Street, the fictional North West Cotton Candy Quartet turns up to sing that classic Noughties banger "Every Time We Touch" by Cascada, in wonderful four-part unaccompanied a cappella harmony.
In fact, the quartet are four singers from Cottontown, the award-winning men's chorus based in Bolton, who learnt the song specially for the gig! When the production team reached out to see if we could help, we jumped at the chance to appear on our favourite soap.
Whatever the occasion, whether you're looking for a quartet or the full chorus experience, Cottontown is available for bookings.
You can watch the full episode on ITVX.
- Cottontown honoured to sing at ladies barbershop showcase
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Date Posted: Sun, 29 Oct 2023
Cottontown was honoured to be able to perform as current BABS male chorus champions at the Saturday night show of the LABBS 2023 Convention. Whenever we've had the opportunity to take part in this event, we've always keenly looked forward to it, and we've thoroughly enjoyed it - 2023 was no exception and we offer our humble thanks to LABBS for its invitation. We love entertaining, and the LABBS audience is particularly warm and welcoming. Our show set comprised 'That Ever I Saw', 'Running Up that Hill', 'Viva La Vida' and, to top things off, our May 2023 contest winning songs of 'The Party's Over' and 'Song For The Older Guy'.
- Gold for Cottontown in Bournemouth!
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Date Posted: Mon, 5 Jun 2023
We are proud and honoured to be awarded first place in the 2023 British Association of Barbershop Singers Male Chorus Contest, in a wonderfully sunny Spring Bank Holiday weekend in Bournemouth!
Congratulations to everyone who took part at convention and helped organise such a fantastic weekend of singing. The video to our performance can be found below.
You can read more about our journey to convention in the July edition of the BABS magazine "Harmony Express" (issue 362).YouTube Video URL:
- Tune into The Sectionaires on BBC Radio One
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Date Posted: Mon, 24 Oct 2022
Cottontown's very own in-house quartet "The Sectionaires" (Andy King, Paul Tatton, James McCollom, Alex Edwards) appeared live on BBC Radio 1 on Tuesday 25th October, where they were singing some unusual lyrics in a specially arranged quiz hosted by Vicky Hawkesworth in Bolton.
You can read more about their adventure in the December edition of the BABS magazine "Harmony Express" (issue 360).
