[From the Ontario District's newsletter, The Trillium, issue 61-02, April - June, 2007 , Waldo Redekop, editor.]

Quartet to quit performing

By Ed Crisp

The popular barbershop quartet Afternoon Delight has decided to hang up the pitchpipe effective with this announcement. The senior quartet has been entertaining audiences mainly in retirement homes and nursing homes in southern Ontario for the past five years. They had previously agreed amongst themselves to quit public performance should old age or infirmity start to affect their level of performance.

The quartet had its origins in a larger group of retired singers (as many as sixteen) also called Afternoon Delight, that had entertained in the London area for eight years previously. When the larger group decided to disband, four individuals associated with the group decided to continue the enterprise as a quartet. They are: Lead Len Reeks, Tenor Ken McPhaden, Baritone Alec Burns and Bass Ed Crisp. 

The quartet started singing using the repertoire inherited from the original group. But Ken had been the non-singing music director of that group and consequently had to learn all the tenor parts from scratch.

Afternoon Delight quartet soon started to acquire its own repertoire. The smaller unit (sometimes dubbed “Square Root of Afternoon Delight”) learned new material at a fast rate and performances were much easier to arrange with the reduced logistics involved. The quartet became more comfortable with one another and started to tackle more challenging material, such as “Rigoletto Quartet,” a parody of the operatic tour-de-force whose music was remarkably true to the original penned by “Joe Green” (Guisepe Verdi).

Each member of the quartet had responsibilities beyond his own singing part. Alec was the Business Manager and Ed the emcee/storyteller. Len co-ordinated the sing along, a popular feature of any Afternoon Delight program for which Ken played the piano with great versatility.

Although no further public performance is contemplated, the quartet anticipates occasions when they might get together to sing for their own enjoyment. Meanwhile, Ken will continue to sing as a stalwart member of the tenor section of the London Men of Accord, the chorus of the London Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Ed will continue to sing as he creates learning tapes for groups like Afternoon Delight across the world.     k