MEMORIES of hitting the high notes on a glacier, serenading killer whales and meeting a Mountie during a singing tour of Canada will live with members of a junior choir for the rest of their lives.

About 50 youngsters aged between 12 and 18 have returned to East Lancashire after a two-week tour, which took in a host of memorable moments.

David Wilkinson, conductor of the Nelson Civic Junior Choir, said the trip had been 'a fantastic success.'

"They will never forget it I'm sure," he said, although he poured cold water on stories from the youngsters that the choir was asked to stop singing on the glacier because of the danger of them causing an avalanche. "I heard about that, but I think it was a story going around the children," he said.

The young singers, most of them from Pendle, took part in six 'official' concerts, but found themselves breaking into song in the most unusual places. "We had unofficial concerts all over the place," explained Mr Wilkinson. "We sang in the airport, on a glacier and at a sea centre with killer whales just inches away from the children. You could tell the Orcas were listening to us and then we stopped singing and they started their own whale song.

"We would start singing and there would suddenly be a crowd of tourists listening. One one occasion, we were accompanied by a man with an Alpine horn who played for the tourists."

The choir members stayed with Canadian families and had a taste of what school was like in North America. "A lot of them had watched the TV programme Due South and said they missed not seeing a Mountie, so at the end someone managed to come up with a Mountie in full uniform for them to meet," said Mr Wilkinson.

The choir raised nearly £20,000 to fund the trip, almost £5,000 more than was needed. "I would like to thank everyone for their marvellous support over the past two years since we first mentioned the trip," added Mr Wilkinson.

Plans are already in the pipeline to get one or two Canadian school choirs to visit East Lancashire.

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