JUST months after his singing debut, when he performed a solo at Bacup’s Royal Court Theatre, Year 8 student, Max Harwood Lomax joined a choir at Wembley.
Before an audience of 70,000, Max and fellow singers from St Anne’s Community Choir in Edgeside, performed a mash up of Queen, The Spice Girls and Take That.
They then joined the audience in singing Abide With Me and the National Anthem.
Bacup-born international opera singer Sean Ruane, whose company Chant Productions establishes community, school and workplace choirs, offered the choir the dream ticket for the Rugby League Coral Challenge Cup Final.
Max said: “When performing in Bacup, Sean mentioned that he was looking to take singers to Wembley and some of the members of St Anne’s decided to go.
“My mum Katy, who is also in the choir, had got married to Daniel Clayton last year and they had delayed going on honeymoon.
“So the week before Wembley, along with my brother Sebastian, eight, I went to stay with my Aunt Gemma so my mum could go on honeymoon, then when she returned we all took a train into London to Wembley stadium and she joined me singing on the pitch.
“After we had warmed up we walked out; it was really weird. I was a bit nervous when I saw all the people there, but only at first.
“When we started singing it was really fun; I just wanted to carry on and I could see Daniel, Gemma and her boyfriend waving to us. It was a fantastic experience.”
Max said he found himself looking all around him at the audience while he was singing and ended up wandering a bit out of line.
He said: “Sean was conducting us and he was trying to keep me in line and kept telling me to take a step back.”
The Challenge Cup was won by Warrington Wolves who beat St Helens 18-4.
In October, St Anne’s Community Choir will join the Friends of Bocholt Community Choir for a ‘Celebration of Beethoven’ concert at St Mary’s Church, Rawtenstall, which will also feature Water Band and Rossendale Ladies Choir.
The 250th celebration of Beethoven will continue with the Edgeside choir visit to Bocholt in May.
Sean has also announced a further Christmas concert at Bacup’s Royal Court Theatre on December 7 and Max will again be on stage singing with St Anne’s Community Choir.