Instead of attending singing practice at church, the St Mary's Church youth choir jumped on six
hulking Harley Davidson motorbikes to take a spin around the city, leaving onlookers amazed as the
youngsters' church robes flapped flamboyantly in the wind behind them.
The bizarre scenes saw hellraising bikers and seen-it-all grannies gawp and stare in equal amazement
as the three mile ride took the fearless kids through Brum with the kind of soundtrack rarely ever
heard in a church.
"It was heaven on wheels," chuckled Harley-owning choirmaster, Mick Perrier, who organised the
unlikely rideout to give his choir members a better understanding of what it really means to be a
biker.
"The kids absolutely loved being on the bikes and the looks on people's faces when they saw them on
the bikes was absolutely priceless. Jaws were dropping on every street."
In fact the choirmaster believes introducing the youngsters to the open road was actually getting the
Moseley based church choir back to its roots, given the singing group's long and unusual history of
being made up of oil-stained motorcyclists.
"It might sound very strange to folks nowadays but when I joined this choir some decades ago there
were seven bikers in our ranks and we rode some very tough roads to get to concerts back then,"
laughed Perrier.
"In fact we'd love to get back to having at least five fearless riders in our number and we want the
youngsters to see there is a lot more to being in a choir than just singing, so watch this space."
The choir's young songbirds are determined to live up to their growing reputation as Britain's
quirkiest church choir and, after getting a taste for action with their ride out on the roaring
Harleys, are now planning to embark on a series of ever more daring adventures.
Plans for coming months include a concrete bobsled race, a rollercoaster marathon, record breaking
cooking contest and, by the end of next year a new record by having members of the group sing
simultaneously while they are variously atop the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales.
"We're all about having maximum fun while singing and don't believe the laughs should stop when the
hymn books go down, so we're doing as many exciting things as we possibly can," said Perrier, "and
we're open to new members who share the same fearless spirit with us."
Prospective new members of the choir are being invited to learn more by visiting the choir's website
but are being given a friendly warning that they should have a taste for quirky activities in order to
hit the high notes.