The blokes in City of Sails spin-off Block of Flats try not to take themselves too seriously.

They’ve just notched up seven years of singing together but they don’t make hard work of it with the regular weekly rehearsal schedule that the larger chorus observes.

“Well,” says bass Richard Harker, who is also the chorus ‘ director, when asked about their regime, “we practice as required for a particular event or contest. Coming up to a contest, it might be weekly but sometimes we go three months without getting together.”

The four men – the present lineup is Richard, Ross McMillan, John Denton and Bruce Warren – have all done long tours of duty with City of Sails, but enjoy the extra challenge of quartet singing, where each has to carry his part and “there’s nowhere to hide”.

“It’s all on you,” says Ross, “and there’s no question that it makes you a better chorus singer if you sing in a quartet. You are doing a lot more listening [to the other parts] in a quartet and that means you automatically listen better when you’re in a chorus.”

The group “pinched” its aptly punning name from a member of a Hamilton Chorus. “He brought it up as a joke and we thought it was better than that.”


From left: John, Bruce, Richard and Ross. “We like hanging out together.”

Quartet competitions being few and far between, the Block of Flats boys take any opportunity to do their thing. Engaged to entertain during a heritage festival in Birkenhead one year, they sang at all the shopping village’s barber shops, of which, Richard says, there are “an extraordinary number” and it went down a treat.

“People were a bit confused when we just showed up, but then we started singing and the cameras came out, of course.”

They also sang at a virtual birthday party organised by colleagues for a woman who was participating online in a conference during the Covid lockdown: “We turned up in the driveway and she opened the door and we burst into song – in the pouring rain, under a gazebo, wearing stupid party hats. That was fun.”

The quartet is the century-old traditional ensemble format for barbershoppers, but there’s a limit to the public appetite for the old repertoire such as By the Light of the Silvery Moon or Let Me Call You Sweetheart. Says Ross: “It doesn’t take too many of the classic barbershop songs to burn an audience off. People like the songs that they grew up with or know.”

Instead their eclectic set lists take in everything from the Beatles and John Denver to Sinatra, with occasional surprises like Ain’t Misbehaving or the ever-popular Pokarekare Ana thrown in.

But just as important as performing is the social contact that membership provides.

“We enjoy getting together and chatting,” says Richard. “We enjoy each other’s company and that’s the key thing about having a successful quartet. It’s not like we are driven to sing everything absolutely perfectly. We like hanging out together.”