LOCKDOWNS and Covid regulations silenced many of the region’s community choirs at the start of the pandemic. But one group of passionate local singers - the West Yorkshire-based Commoners Choir, which has several Bradford members - refused to be daunted and channelled their talents in different directions.

Choir member TONY SUTCLIFFE explains: It is just over 18 months now since about 50 or 60 of us squeezed ourselves on to a rather small stage in the downstairs confines of a West Yorkshire music venue. Packed shoulder to shoulder together, some of us spilled into the wings as others tottered precariously on the edge. Even sardines, quite honestly, might have complained at such restricted space.

But we didn’t care, such was our bubbling excitement and pride at launching our second Commoners Choir CD - Untied Kingdom - in front of a capacity audience who had snapped up the last precious tickets weeks before.

The whole venue was heaving, a jostling sea of dimly lit faces out there beyond the dazzle of the stage lights.

And we sang. Choir and audience as one. Voices raised together as anthemic choruses echoed and resonated into every corner of that room.

Just over 18 months ago. But it seems almost a lifetime away now. Even the mere act of describing such a scene is bringing visions of Chris Whitty’s sternly disapproving face to mind.

For, of course, just a few weeks after that album launch, the world as we knew it was put on indefinite hold, as lockdown brought so many strange silences to our lives. Thousands of local and community choirs throughout the country, indeed the whole world, were starved of the very musical oxygen that keeps us alive, as singing together was soon identified as a high-risk activity.

So the ‘new’ word Zoom burst into our collective vocabulary and, for many, it was a social lifeline, offering up the possibility of connection in a suddenly dislocated existence of enforced isolation.

For choirs, like ours, it offered some degree of temporary refuge, voices connected across the distances…although, in truth, it did feel a bit like just singing to yourself in your own front room!

It would have been easy to feel deflated, perhaps even downhearted, and fall into a hazy hibernation of nebulous inactivity, particularly when we had to scrap a 12-date album launch tour.

Even the enthusiasm of Shipley-based choir member Ellie Clement was slightly dimmed as she recalls now how ‘the possibility at the start of the pandemic that it might be a while before we could sing together again felt like a bit of a black cloud.’

But such is not the stuff of which we Commoners are made. For when the choir was first dreamed into existence six years ago by Boff Whalley, Otley-based composer and that guy who used to play the guitar in Chumbawamba, it came with its own manifesto.

In fact, you can still read it on our website, with its heart-etched pledges to be ‘a choir like no other’ and to be ‘explicitly political and committed’, highlighting the injustices and unfairness in the world and singing with ‘as much harmony, melody and earworms as we can muster’.

Admittedly, it doesn’t explicitly say ‘there will be no periods of idleness as a result of global pandemics’ but I think it would be fair to take that as read.

So the choir has found plenty of other outlets for its resolute and ardent enthusiasm over the intervening months.

Songs have been written (including the poignantly appropriate Singing Together Apart), YouTube videos have been released and and a new choir allotment has been carefully cultivated.

And we’ve found a new means of getting our messages about things that matter out to the world with the publication of a new zine (or magazine to those of us of a certain vintage!) called Commontary.

The second edition is already on the streets, in a number of outlets in Bradford, and features thought-provoking articles, features, interviews, even a crossword and word search, on the theme of Trespass.

Helen Lucy, who emerged from the choir to take up the mantle of volunteer editor, has been amazed by the writing talents of her fellow singers. Each edition has its own theme - a process of negotiation between choir members - and anyone who is inspired by whatever the themes is encouraged to contribute.

As Helen explains, “We can’t get out there and be in front of people at the moment but this is an alternative way of projecting ourselves and the things we believe in.”

And for Ellie it’s helped to bring back some of the camaraderie and shared purpose that hold the choir together. As she says, “There’s far too much spirit and innovation in the choir to keep us quiet for long. The zine is a glorious mix of articles and far greater than the sum of its parts.”

Meanwhile, we’re back rehearsing outdoors, with a pragmatic mix of raincoats and sun cream, and we can’t wait to sing for you all again. Hopefully fairly soon!

You can pick up a copy of Commontary at Bread And Roses, Mean Old Scene and Plant One On Me in Bradford, Tambourine and The Triangle in Shipley, The Grove, Ilkley, or at commonerschoir.com