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Caerphilly Male Voice Choir will be performing before King and country as part of the coronation celebrations.

Sixteen members of the choir, which has a history dating back nearly 120 years, will perform at the coronation concert at Windsor Castle on Sunday May 7.

“We’re representing Wales and representing the male voice choirs of Wales. It’s an honour as well as a big responsibility,” said John Morgan, the choir’s chairman and one of the 16 performing at Windsor Castle.

“Our responsibility is not just for Wales, but for the people who have been in this choir before over the last 120 years.”

The choir was chosen from around 1,000 other choirs across the UK who had auditioned to take part.

“There’s a feeling of immense pride in the choir being chosen above all the other choirs,” said Mr Morgan. “Normally the larger male voice choirs always get the first shout of everything but for us to be chosen is just incredible.

“There’s a real feeling of excitement in the team and it’s going to open a lot of doors for us.”

The choir attributes a large part of its success to its music director Nerys Porch.

Mrs Porch first joined the choir on a temporary basis when its previous music director was unable to continue.

“When I started, I was only going to do it for a month,” said Mrs Porch, “but I loved it straight away.”

“They’ve got a comradery amongst them, a lot of banter going on, which I had to get used to for a while. I’ve conducted a ladies choir before, but this is something else. It’s almost like a family now.”

Mrs Porch will be singing with the choir at Windsor instead of directing them as the group will be mentored by a celebrity coaching line-up including Gareth Malone, Amanda Holden, Motsi Mabuse, and Rose Ayling-Ellis.

The choir has members of all ages – its eldest being 96-years-old and the youngest being 17-years-old.

Its oldest member, Gareth Mobley, has been a part of the Choir for 75 years and served as pilot in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

But while Mr Mobley won’t be performing at the coronation concert, the youngest member, Ryan Thompson, will be – and it’ll be his first trip out of Wales with the choir.

“Being able to sing for such a big event will put Caerphilly right on the map, almost like what Tommy Cooper did many years ago,” said Ryan.

“For a choir that was struggling back last year to even survive, it’s amazing because this means we can carry on our charity work and doing events for people.”

Ahead of their coronation performance, Mr Morgan said: “To the people of Wales, we’ll do our best and give it our best shot.

“You’re in our hearts, we are there for Wales and we’ll be thinking of Wales.”