Featured Singer: Dennis Fuller

Dennis was born and bred in Maidstone into a music loving family. He lived initially in Mangravet and then Shepway until he was 18. Music was an important part of his life, first in St Martin’s as a chorister  and then in the choir at Maidstone Grammar. While at MGS he was part of a ‘pop’ group , along with Tim Colston, performing locally and even winning a prize in a talent contest in London performing  numbers by the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Simon and  Garfunkel etc. – those were the days!

Dennis was the first person in his family to go to a grammar school, and at 18 he made a critical decision not to go to University but to get a job. It is a decision he has never regretted. He started work at Sainsbury’s as a retail management trainee and only left when he retired. It is a career that Dennis relishes, loving the challenges and camaraderie of retail store management – and he knows what he is talking about. He has managed stores in Golders Green, South Harrow, Maidstone, Ashford  and Sittingbourne. He was head of Customer Relations for 7 years before moving on to head up retail change projects. That led on to managing the interface between retail stores and new IT systems, including working with Accenture for 5 years. When Sainsbury’s brought the IT systems management back in house , he became responsible for the implementation of all IT and associated hardware projects. He retired over 4 years ago and now enjoys a larger involvement with a very wide family network of 4 generations including his father, 3 daughters, 3 grandchildren, brother, sister and umpteen other relatives in and around the Maidstone area.

Dennis first married in 1973 and had two daughters. He lived in High Wycombe, and Redbourn before moving back to Maidstone in 1983.  His first marriage ended in 1986, and he met Viv in 1987. They were married in Disney World in 1990 in the Grand Floridian Hotel which was experimenting with wedding ceremonies.  They have a daughter Caroline.

Dennis feels very strongly that you only deserve to get out what you put in. Freeloading is not part of his way of life. As he approached his fiftieth birthday he looked around for a way to pay back to the community the benefits he had enjoyed, and use the talents he had developed as a manager. He determined to become a JP as he felt that the approach to structured decision-making he had learnt would be relevant. Today he has 14 years service as a JP, is a  Chair Taker when sitting in court, both in Adult Criminal and on the  Family Panel. It is a very worthwhile service that, through exposure to inequality and the impact of those inequalities on society, makes Dennis very conscious of and concerned about the growing gap between the have and have-nots.

When Dennis reflects on the past, he is grateful for the musical inspiration he received from two teachers- Mr Llewelyn from his junior school and Geoff Weaver from the Grammar School. He wistfully remembers a few “what might have been” moments – an invitation to audition for St Martin’s in The Field Choir when singing at the back of the church as part of the congregation at a Christmas Service, and an invitation to do solo work following an impromptu performance of “Sorrento” in a German Beer Keller – both rejected, because of work commitments in the first instance and an unwillingness to gamble on the second. Dennis regrets that he missed out on singing between the ages of 18  to nearly 40 when his career took him from store to store, but he got back into the Maidstone music scene in 1989.

Initially singing with a small ensemble led by Phyllis Mellor, Dennis joined MCU following his involvement with the Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year event in Folkestone. Shortly after he joined The Maidstone Singers when Jeffrey founded the group, initially performing at Pizza Express. Dennis believes you can’t be miserable and sing, so it is no surprise that he loves to sing with a smile, and whenever possible get everyone around him singing.