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ALL ANGELS BIOGRAPHY In the autumn of 2006, the four teenage members of All Angels were a phenomenon-in-waiting, about to deliver their debut album to an unsuspecting world. A year later, they can justly claim to be the World’s First Female Classical Supergroup. They performed at the Classical Brits, where their debut album was nominated for Album Of The Year, and were watched by 10 million viewers when they sang in front of the Queen at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall. They’ve shared stages with Russell Watson and Katherine Jenkins, and have unleashed their collective lung-power in support of the England rugby team at several crucial international matches. Their first album was the UK’s fastest-selling debut for a classical act, and won them a platinum disc. Now they’re eager to find out if their follow-up can do even better.
"We really want to push ourselves,” says Laura Wright, the Angels’ high-harmony singer and the youngest member at 17. “The balance between classical and contemporary music on the new album is quite similar, but we feel we’re more knitted as a group, we all have different things we’re better at in terms of our singing, and we’ve concentrated on making it sound as good as it can be. A bit of adrenalin always makes you work harder too."
"When we released All Angels we didn’t expect it to do as well as it did, going in at 9 on the pop charts and 2 on the classical charts,” recalls Daisy Chute, who sings the bottom harmonies in the Angels’ vocal blend (she was very pleased to hear Paul McCartney praising her low notes when they met the legendary ex-Beatle at the Classical Brits). Daisy describes the quartet’s albums as having “great arrangements” but adds that “this time, we wanted it to show how we've improved and blended as a group with more challenging harmonies."
A visit to the recording sessions at London's Metropolis studios reveals a group who may be “normal teenagers” (as Melanie Nakhla puts it) who like scouring Portobello Road market for clothes or downloading pop songs to their iPods, but who can knuckle down to the discipline of recording four-part harmonies like seasoned professionals. After a couple of run-throughs, headphones clamped around their ears, the girls are finding a way to put their All Angels’ stamp on Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound Of Silence, their interweaving vocal lines bringing a gently mystical air to the Sixties folk-rock classic. The song joins a carefully selected mix of pieces running from Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U and a new piece written for them by Heather Nova "Singing You Through" to pieces by (among others) Faure, Handel and Mozart, all cunningly arranged to represent the Angels’ particular blend of voices.
"There are quite a few classical crossover groups around now, but I don’t think of them as competition because we have a distinct sound and there’s nobody else like us," thinks Charlotte Ritchie. “We sing Handel’s Zadok The Priest, and we’re multitracking our voices so we get the sound of a large choir."
History is littered with the debris of teenage groups who imploded after a brief brush with success, but All Angels seem wise beyond their years. The fact that they’re becoming ambassadors for the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity indicates their rapidly-increasing maturity, and their awareness that All Angels can be an empowering experience in all kinds of ways. Daisy, who has just finished her studies at the Purcell School of Music in Hertfordshire, and has a place to read music at King's College London next year, explains that “you never know when this might end, but we’ve had good people supporting us and are making sure we don’t put all our eggs in one basket. We all feel really lucky." Daisy isn't new to the music scene though, with a wealth of experience for one her age. She recorded a solo jazz album at 15 and tells me she hopes to continue into a lengthy music career in singing, composing and maybe even producing.
As for Charlotte, she's delighted to have put her A-level exams in English, History and Theatre Studies behind her. Her grandmother was an actress and she dreamed of performing onstage from an early age, joining the National Youth Music Theatre at 11. While attending Sylvia Young’s theatre school she even landed a much-coveted role in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, but the All Angels experience has fired her with fresh enthusiasm for music. “I’ve enjoyed this so much I want it to carry on,” she says. “But I don’t think I should stop my education because there's still so much to learn."
Melanie, too, has found that being an Angel is an education in itself. “It has encouraged me to explore more classical pieces. My sister won a choral scholarship to Kings College, so there’s a musical influence in my family. I’ve been able to feed off her knowledge and pick all her music off iTunes. Some of my friends listen to classical music and I hope more people will explore it, because by making a little more effort you can discover a whole new universe."
She’s hoping that with the release of their second album the Angels, who haven’t yet ventured further afield than Scotland, Ireland and Wales, can broaden their horizons with some overseas touring. Luckily, the enforced togetherness of being in a group has resulted in the quartet becoming really good friends.
"It wouldn’t be normal if everybody was blissfully happy 24/7, but I feel really close to them all now, after everything we’ve been through over the last year,” says Melanie. “They’re a lovely bunch of girls.” And even if they weren’t, Melanie has at least one other option up her sleeve. Having won 15 hours of free flying tuition in a scholarship at school, she’s busily amassing more flying time and taking brain-teasing theory tests in order to earn her pilot’s licence. “It would be a dream come true to get my licence,” she says. “Maybe I can be the pilot for our round-the-world tour."
Meanwhile spare a thought for Laura, still chained to her A-level textbooks at Framlingham school until summer 2008 while the others celebrate their escape from exams and school dinners. “We know that combining my school work with All Angels might be difficult, but the others understand and they’ll support me,” she says. “This whole experience has made me grow up, because you have to make decisions you wouldn’t otherwise expect to make for another few years."
An all-round sporting star as well as an enthusiastic member of her school’s Combined Cadet Force, Laura is looking forward to a long and super-successful singing career. “I absolutely love classical music and I love being a singer,” she insists. She particularly admires soprano Emma Kirkby, not only for her voice but for her baroque repertoire too – “it’s really challenging, and really beautiful as well.
Laura sees All Angels as a way of communicating her own musical passions to a wider, maybe even a cooler, audience. “A lot of my friends don’t listen to classical music, but that’s what we’re trying to do – introduce it to younger people and show that it’s not geeky or sad to listen to classical music. We don’t think so!"
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Hi All Angels, I went to see you at Gawsworth Hall on wednesday and it was the best concert ever!!! :) I hope Daisy is feeling better and I hope that Laura got the exam results that she wanted. I hope there will be more concerts and another album soon. You are all inspirational and really beautiful singers. Maddie xx :)
Hi.I would like to share with you my new chillout mix "Sense of Touch". Here is the link: http://www. archive. org/details/SenseOfTouch Hope you like it... greetings from Wroclaw,Poland.
You were absolutely amazing last night at the Royal & Derngate! Thanks for a fantastic show! You are all so incredibly talented, charming, poised and down to earth... you deserve every success.
