Tribute to Alan, a legend of the local stage

It has. But Alan's decision to stop singing has come as a body blow to music lovers.

The singer who lives at Markland Hill has given years of pleasure to audiences locally and further afield.

His final appearance was at the Victoria Hall in September when he was with other representatives of Opera 74 during a performance to raise funds for the Bolton Amateur Community Theatre.

He told no-one then that it was the last time he would sing in public.

"I have always felt about singers that while we like people to tell us we are good and give outstanding performances, deep down inside we all know whether we sing well or not," Alan said.

"I would say out of every 10 performances if you do two where you can say you have done your best, you are very lucky.

"I've always said to people that if I got to the stage where I started to go downhill, they had to tell me and I would finish."

"I didn't need any telling. I knew the time was right for me to stop. I didn't want people saying: 'He used to be good'."

They won't. At every performance where I've been when Alan has sung, I have heard members of the audience commenting about how well he performed. At the September concert I heard it again.

Alan started singing in St Philip's Church choir when he was nine years old.

He played in a number of musicals with St Philip's, Bolton, starting with one line in Sunny and finishing with a part in The Vagabond King.

Towards the end of 1955 he auditioned with Edith Norcross but she did not have a vacancy then.

Soon after she did, but Alan received his calling up papers and served with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, serving in Korea and Aidan.

Alan, an engineer, played the bagpipes in the pipe band, having played with the Bolton Caledonian Band.

Back in civilian life, he played with a number of amateur operatic societies including Horwich, Bury Athenium, Sweetloves, Bolton, Bradshaw, Prestwich, Waterloo and Crosby, Salford, All Saints, Eccles, Bolton Catholics and, of course, St Philip's again.

In 1970, Alan started to sing professionally with Kath Lewis, a well-known local soprano.

For 10 years from 1971 he sang on the "dinner circuit" and has sung at Wembley Conference Centre. Among others, he has sung with Semprini and Edmund Hockridge.

Alan joined Opera 74 in 1981 and started taking lessons with Margaret Lindsay.

It was around this time that Alan felt he came to a turning point in his musical life.

With encouragement from Margaret Lindsay and Michael Greenhalgh he said he changed from a singer with a "big voice" to a "rather more classical performer".

In 1987 he began to take private lessons with Patrick McGuigan of the Royal Northern College of Music.

"It was a revelation to me going to Paddy," he said. "Operatic arias suddenly came to life. He seemed to know the workings of the male voice. But all my teachers played a very important role in my musical development."

Asked by Margaret Lindsay to do the Messiah with Cumbria Opera, Alan played various roles with that company, his last production with them being Macbeth in 1998.

The list of productions Alan has appeared makes impressive reading.

Among the other companies he has appeared with are Manchester Opera, Wimslow Opera, Preston Opera and Gawsworth Opera.

He struggled to name his favourite role, but said the most impressive production he has appeared with is a production of Nabucco in 1992 by Preston Opera at the Guild Hall, Preston.

And he has always enjoyed singing in La Traviata

As well as his singing, Alan learned how to make and adapt wigs.

Alan has been married to Roma since 1953 and the couple have two sons, a daughter and seven grandchildren. Until he retired in 1990 Alan worked for Hick Hargreaves.

As yet Alan is feeling no pangs of regret about not singing.

"There's a great feeling of relief," he said. "To sing at the level I had got used to singing at requires a tremendous amount of dedication and time. Now, if I want to, I can just watch television in the evening instead of practising."