HE became world famous as the man who foiled Paul McCartney's attempt to join Liverpool cathedral choir.
But Ronald Woan has his own unique claim to fame as the only person to have been associated with the music of a Gothic cathedral for three quarters of its entire history.
For 75 years, 37 of them as choir director, the former school teacher has enjoyed an unbroken relationship with cathedral life.
"I grew up, from my own days as a boy chorister, as the cathedral itself also grew," says Ron,, now 85 and whose fond memories include presiding at the completion ceremony in October, 1978.
Now, during the cathedral's centenary year, he returns to conduct a service being staged in his honour.
Singing in a new additional girls' choir will be Ron's 14-year-old grand-daughter, Rebecca Copping.
Former choristers from throughout the UK and Europe and as far away as Texas are returning to take part. They are among more than 1,000 singers to have been trained by Ronald Woan.
Paul McCartney will not be there, having failed his choir audition in 1952.
Says Ron: "It wasn't because he couldn't read music, as is often wrongly reported. It's just that we had more than 90 boys to choose from that day for only a limited number of places.
"If I had taken him on, Paul would probably have ended up teaching music in a comprehensive school and not be worth the millions he is today
"So I think I did him a favour and I should have a cut of the profits!"
The special service, on Saturday October 23, will also include a new anthem, dedicated to Ron, by the composer John Madden, himself a chorister during the 1960s.
Ronald Woan, born in Bootle and educated at Liverpool Institute, took over as the cathedral's director of music in 1948. At the same time, he began weekday work as a music teacher in Crosby schools.
"My own idea had been to find a nice country parish and school somewhere," he recalls.
Instead, at the personal invitation of the first dean, Frederick Dwelly, he took over at Britain's largest cathedral, where he had become a chorister in 1931, aged 11.
By 16, Ron had also founded his own choral society based in Scotland Road.
"Imagine that. All sorts of people turned up to make it work."
But his cathedral work, which included hundreds of TV and radio broadcasts as well as recordings, was marked by pioneering choices.
They included championing the then new music of Benjamin Britten and giving one of the first performances of Michael Tippett's great oratorio, A Child Of Our Time.
The celebrated tenor, the late Peter Pears, was so impressed, he once asked to take part for nothing in a cathedral performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion.
As for the heights of ambition, Ronald Woan can offer his own perspective: "As a lad, I was invited to take in the view from the top of the tower in company with the cathedral architect, Giles Gilbert Scott.
"But there were no lifts in those days. We got there by climbing ladders and passing through the open girders in the belfry. I must have been mad."
* Ex-choristers wishing to attend a special reception and meal for Ronald Woan on October 23 should contact 0151-708-8471 after 4pm for more details.
