HONLEY Male Voice Choir is in seventh heaven.

For its Christmas concert guests for the seventh successive year are Cory Band who will appear in Huddersfield yet again as world champions.

That’s great news for the Honley men and for their supporters who, it is hoped, will pack Huddersfield Town Hall next Saturday to hear the choir and this remarkable band.

The Welsh band’s successes this year have ensured that they are number one in the world brass band rankings for the fifth year running – an incredible record.

The Cory statistics make impressive reading – they were British National Champions in 1974, 1982, 1983, 1984, 2000; British Open Champions in 2000, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2011; European Champions in 1980, 2008, 2009, 2010.

This year, Cory finished third in the European Championship but then went on to win the British Open at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham in September before coming third in the British National Championship at the Royal Albert Hall.

The band’s principal cornet Tom Hutchinson won the Stanley Wainwright Best Soloist prize at the Open and he will be one of Cory’s featured soloists at the concert along with one of the world’s top euphonium players, David Childs, son of the band’s Musical Director Dr Robert Childs.

Since Dr Child’s appointment in 2000 the band has achieved remarkable success and their numerous live concert performances have received worldwide acclaim.

Some audience members might be surprised to see the Honley choir being conducted by Alan Jenkins and accompanied by John Oldfield. Both bid farewell to Honley almost three years ago after many years service.

Earlier this year, musical director Keith Roberts and accompanist Sue Ogden both left the choir and the appointment of their successors is expected later this month.

In the meantime, Alan Jenkins and John Oldfield returned to lead the 75th anniversary gala concert at Huddersfield Town Hall in September featuring world famous opera star Lesley Garrett.

After that concert, Alan and John agreed to stay on to prepare the choir for tonight’s concert and other events until the end of the year.

During his time at Honley Alan has led the choir to success in a large number of theme concerts with movement, comedy and drama.

And at next Saturday’s concert there will be a taste of all of that.

In the concert’s second half, there will be a theatrical style production of the much loved carol, Silent Night.

Alan has devised a scene which depicts the events of Christmas Eve, 1914 in the Ypres region when British and German troops left their trenches and joined together in singing Christmas carols in No Man’s Land.

The events of that night are told in a letter written in the early hours of Christmas Day by a soldier, read by an actor dressed in a First World War army uniform, to his sister back home.

That actor will be Alan’s 16-year-old grandson Sebastian Clegg, who is currently studying for his A levels and is the younger brother of Ashley Clegg, principal percussionist in Black Dyke.

The choir will dedicate the performance to troops serving overseas with a heartfelt wish that they enjoy a peaceful Christmas.

Some of the choir’s soloists will be performing at the concert and as a tribute to leading composer, arranger, conductor and adjudicator Goff Richards, who died in June, the final item will be a joint performance by the choir and band of his arrangement of A Merry Little Christmas which comprises five popular Christmas songs, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Winter Wonderland, Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!, White Christmas and Jingle Bells.

The concert is compered by Peter Armitage and starts at 7.15pm. Tickets are £7 to £16 from Kirklees booking offices in Huddersfield, Holmfirth and Dewsbury.