Interview: Only Men Aloud
Only Men Aloud are a Welsh choir who made their name by winning the BBC television programme Last Choir Standing.
We were lucky enough to get an interview with Wyn Davies, member of OMA.
Wyn has been with the choir for the full 11 years now and tells us about all things OMA.
How would you describe Only Men Aloud to young people in Wales?
Well we are a classical choir outright, but with the energy of a pop group. 11 years ago now, Tim [rhys] Evans started this choir to inject new life into classical music, for example one of our new tracks involves a medley from Coldplay’s, ‘Viva la Vida’ and Take That’s, ‘Rule The World’.
What did it feel like winning Last Choir Standing?
Well it was all a bit surreal if I’m honest. When we were competing, we were constantly rehearsing and it just felt like we were in a bubble. But then when the competition ended, seeing the response from the public was amazing. The highlight for me was when we performed at the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff, tickets sold out in about half an hour and to get a response like that, it was just unbelievable. I remember the curtain opening on that first night and just being blown away by the crowd, the response took us all back and it was quite emotional.
How has winning Last Choir Standing helped your career?
It’s had an enormous positive effect. We can sell out UK tours now, we have the opportunity to go abroad, but most importantly it’s helped us develop as an organization. We got the chance to do things such as Only Boys Aloud too where young boys from 14-19 get the opportunity to do what we’re doing basically. A really important thing for us was to use our success to benefit the community
Only Boys Aloud was a great success, will there be any more projects such as this one in the future?
Only Boys Aloud continues today. We’ve always got new members joining, in fact they feature on one of our tracks for the new Christmas album. We’ve also been able to go into primary schools now for a new project called Only Kids Aloud, the response was outstanding, the enthusiasm from the kids we visited was great and it’s nice to see music can do that. There aren’t enough music activities for kids to get involved in and it’s a great release.
What was it like working with the likes of Bonnie Tyler and Katy Treharne?
We’ve been lucky enough to work with some fantastic artists: Katherine Jenkins, Tom Jones, I could go on and on. Bonnie Tyler was a scream though. I remember when she invited us to her house in The Mumbles and the first thing she said to us when she opened the door was, "Would you like a glass of wine?" Working with the likes of Anthony Hopkins and Tom Jones at The Ryder Cup was really special too. It really put Wales on the map, and to see them perform, even them warming up was great to see, there a great lesson to any young artists.
The new album is out on the 28 November, what can fans expect from it?
Well it’s coming up to Christmas so it will be a festive sort of feel, there will be classic Christmas tracks on there such as Silent Night but also some modern ones such as the medley I told you about with the Coldplay and Take That song. It should be great, I challenge you to find a more different album.
So a Christmas number one?
Well you never know do you, I think if we can get Chris Moyles on our side then you never know, but we’ll be happy if we can get another classical Christmas No. 1 under our belts like last year.
So what does Only Men Aloud have in store for the future, more TV appearances for example?
You never know when you’re in this business. We’ll just concentrate on Christmas now, with the tour and the new album and then after hopefully we can get back in the studio and get some more recording done and then maybe some more tour dates.
It was great speaking to Wyn, he and Only Men Aloud will be coming to Wales very shortly if you want to go and see them. The guys will be playing in the north of the country on Saturday 10 December at Venue Cymru, Llandudno, and in the south a week later on Saturday 17 December at the Motorpoint Arena Cardiff.
