The boy treble with the angelic voice who grew to become a national treasure, Aled Jones will be joining us for a special evening of stories and songs from over 40 years in the business on Fri 30 May.
Full Circle is the title of both Aled’s book, released last spring, and his tour, which will celebrate his life. Fans can enjoy that unmistakeable voice, as well as amusingly told stories from the man who’s synonymous with Classic FM, BBC Radio 2, and BBC TV’s Songs of Praise.
Aled’s achieved that rarest of feats – he’s somehow managed to sustain a level of success across four decades. He burst on to the scene and enjoyed remarkable success as a boy singer, finding a permanent place in all our Christmases with his smash hit, Walking In The Air. Selling over seven million albums, Aled was the original, classical crossover star and has since forged a new career becoming a star of the West End, in Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Joseph, while teaming up with Lorraine, as co-host on ITV’s Daybreak.
“I’ve always felt lucky, having the career I have, but as I get older, I feel that I am so honoured to be living this life. I love what I do for a living. I have been so fortunate to be a part of people’s lives for so many years. In fact, I feel almost teary when I think about it.”
Aled has enjoyed a relationship with the Royal Family that has endured over many years. He shared the same hairdresser as Princess Diana and was invited to sing for Charles and Di while still a boy.
“The highlight was the private performance for Prince Charles and Princess Diana in their home in Kensington Palace. The Palace rang my dad at work and my dad put the phone down thinking it was someone from his work playing a practical joke.”
“Prince Charles apparently loved my voice and wanted to hear me sing before my voice broke. How would Thursday evening be? My dad said: ‘Yes, that will be fine.’ So off I went from North Wales, with my mum, and my pianist, and I arrived at Kensington Palace. And Diana came bounding in after that. She’d got wet hair because she’d been swimming. I knew her quite well anyway, by that point, so we had a hug. I sang for an hour, whatever songs they wanted.”
And then there was the performance at the celebrity wedding of the year, when Bob Geldof married Paula Yates and rock royalty descended.
“The wedding was utterly beautiful. After the service I was sitting by the organ and Simon Le Bon, who was best man, came up to me, and said: ‘I loved your singing, but more than anything, I love your socks.’
“Let me tell you about my socks. At my school, at the time, there was a fad for wearing luminous socks, one orange and one green, and I wore those for the wedding. What was I thinking! Simon led me upstairs to the house where about 20 of the guests had gathered for the official photo. I was told to go and stand behind a big chair. And so was born one of the most iconic wedding photos ever. I had no idea at the time that the man sitting in front of me, whose shoulder I had my hand on was the one and only David Bowie! I couldn’t take it all in!”
Aled has won an Ivor Novello, an Emmy, and an MBE – not that he can remember where any of those are. He sang for Leonard Bernstein, a man he likens to Mozart, became great friends with Judy Dench and one of his best moments was working with Julie Andrews.
“There’s a video of Julie Andrews and me singing Edelweiss and at the end, we put our heads together and she gives me a kiss. That was probably the most overwhelming thing I’ve ever done. It was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
And now Aled has come Full Circle. He’s looking back on a remarkable career with a one-man show, that will feature never-before-heard music and tales from throughout the decades.
Catch Aled Jones: Full Circle at ours on Fri 30 May and hear, for the first time, his story told in his own words!
Syndicated Interview by Emily Bridgewater.
