History

In November 1987, a group of ladies with ages ranging from 14 years to 60 years and a great deal of enthusiasm met in a Church Hall in Sandown and Wight Satin was born. The Musical Director was Stuart Sides (currently directing the 2006 LABBS Champion Chorus) assisted by his mother Anita and 14 yr old sister Beth. Thanks to a feature in the local newspaper and a mention on local radio, more ladies became involved, and a year later decided to attend the annual Convention of the Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers (LABBS) in Harrogate.

WOW!!! It took our breath away. What a friendly group of ladies. Would we ever be able to do that. We decided to try - applied and were accepted as a LABBS club in June 1989 and entered our first competition in April 1990 at Aston in Birmingham. We had to leave before the results were announced but phoned in from the first service station to discover we had won our way through to the finals in Harrogate later in the year. We just had to sing to celebrate and received a great round of applause from other travellers. Later in the year, in Harrogate, we were proud to accept the Novice Chorus Trophy. Since then we have competed at venues all over England from Exeter to Harrogate.

A quartet was formed from within the chorus made up of two mothers, Anita and Miriam, and two daughters, Beth and Chris. They called themselves Family Ties. How proud we all were of them when they went on to win Silver Medals in 1991 and 1992. We raised the roof at Portsmouth Guildhall in October 1993 when they became winners of the coveted Gold Medal for Quartets. Two trips to the USA saw them singing on stage in Disney World, Orlando and the International Jamboree in Miami.

Other competing quartets have been "Steppin' Out", "Harlequin" and "Root Ginger", the latter still active and currently singing at venues around the island.

Work commitments took Stuart to the Mainland and he left us in the capable hands of his sister Beth. Later, Beth would also cross the Solent to work, leaving her Mum, Anita, in charge. Chris, another member of Family Ties took over next, followed by her husband Alan - yet another Gold Medal winner with BABS. Haven't we been lucky to have such a talented group of people working for us?

Our current Musical Director is Nick Frampton who has been with us since February 2006. Nick is an experienced Director and a Presentation Judge for both LABBS and BABS.

Over the years we have sung at a wide selection of venues on the Island. It is great to share our superb hobby with so many people. We even sang in the same room as Prince Philip one Cowes Week back in the early days. The LABBS motto is "Ring the World with Harmony" and what fun and friendship we get from doing just that. During the last six months we have welcomed many new members and look forward to great things in 2007.