CityLife

Only Men Aloud!

THERE is something about listening to a choir that transports you back to a childhood spent watching Songs of Praise on a Sunday with your grandparents.

But for anyone whose last experience of large groups of harmonising vocals was just that, rest assured, Only Men Aloud, winners of the BBC’s Last Choir Standing choir competition, are pretty far removed from that fusty image and there are very few hymns featured in their set.

They’re all male (in case you hadn’t guessed already…), relatively small in number (just 20 members), young (the current line up ranges from, steady ladies… just 19 to 42) and their repertoire is a wide one - from Welsh anthems, through popular musical numbers to various chart toppers of the last 40 years.  

Tom Jones medley  

Live that repertoire was thoroughly explored. From the popular music canon came Robbie Williams oft-covered Angels and, compulsory surely for a Welsh male voice choir, the boys gyrated their way through a Tom Jones medley.  

Big musical numbers covered included songs from Hello Dolly and Guys and Dolls and in addition to traditional Welsh song there was a homage to England with a lively rendition of What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor.  

Though it was mention of her long -running part in Emmerdale that caused a ripple in the audience, special guest Amy Nuttall used her sizable experience in musical theatre to belt out a few show tunes too.  

Only Men Aloud may have only just come to prominence attracting audiences of this size but the group have been around since 2000 when they were formed by Tim Rhys-Evans.  

Gold-selling debut  

It’s a shame that it takes TV exposure to popularise an innovative and talented troupe but not one to look a gift horse in the chops they’re on their first UK tour following their victory plus a there’s a second album out later this year to follow their gold-selling debut.  

Though they’re riding high at the minute, it’s unlikely that the boys’ popularity will prove short-lived.

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