'CuldRoses' join Military Wives Choir in Christmas number one bid (From This is The West Country)

Culdrose choir to try for Christmas number one

7:00am Friday 21st September 2012 in Cornwall

Thirty women from Helston could be singing their way to a Christmas number one after taking part in the next Military Wives Choir single and album.

They are often the unsung heroines supporting their brave husbands on the frontline but now the naval wives are raising their voices loud and proud in song.

The CuldRoses choir travelled to Wellington Barracks in London, where they filmed in the Guards Chapel the video for Stronger Together – the next single for the Military Wives Choir, conducted by Gareth Malone. As a very new choir, which only formed two months ago, the CuldRoses sang backing vocals to the single and were also filmed holding pictures of loved ones.

While there they also helped break a word record for the biggest ever video shoot in music history, with almost 650 women gathered. They came from around the country, as well as from Cyprus and Germany, to be part of the event.

CuldRoses choir member Jo Hoskin told the Packet this week: “On the day I don’t think we realised how big it was and the enormity of it. To think we were part of that and to break a world record, and have the most prominent conductor in history doing it for us, is completely overwhelming.

“Things like this don’t happen to normal people. You just feel so privileged to have the opportunity and to put Culdrose and Cornwall on the map.”

She added that it would be “fabulous” to be part of a Christmas number one, believing the album was “definitely” on track to be the festive best seller. The single is being released on November 5, with the album of the same name released in time for Christmas.

“The single is called Stronger Together. The theme of the day was to get everyone at a local level to feel like they’re part of one big family,” added Jo. Describing it as “a very busy day”, the women were filmed from the moment they stepped off the coach right through to the end of the day.

They were also interviewed by national newspapers and as part of morning TV programme Daybreak. One of the CuldRoses, Anna Oliver, has sisters in two of the other military wives choirs, which attracted a lot of attention.

Jo said: “It was very exciting. Although we have moved around so much, a lot of us haven’t been to London. To be a stones-throw away from Buckingham Palace and the landmarks was wonderful.”

The gathering also marked the launch of the Military Wives Choirs Foundation, which acts as a network for the wives and girlfriends of servicemen who are regularly uprooted and forced to move around the country with their partners.

The idea is that wherever they are in the country, there should always be a military wives choir nearby they can join and help them make friends. The album Stronger Together includes renditions of well known tracks Rule the World and the Long and Wind Road, as well as carol In The Bleak Midwinter and the Military Wives Choir’s own tracks Stronger Together and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee track Sing remixed.

A minimum donation of £1 per album sold at full price in the UK will be paid to The Military Wives Choirs Foundation.

The CuldRoses’ next performance will be at the Made for Life Ball at the Falmouth Hotel on Friday, September 28, followed by the Macmillan Cancer coffee morning at the Meudon Hotel near Mawnan on Saturday, October 20.