An idea formed over a curry in the back of a taxi has seen Welsh former boy soprano Aled Jones catapault back on to the world stage and coming to Ballarat as part of an Australian tour.
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Jones was returning from a concert with his manager in the cab when he pulled out a CD that an audience member had given him. The CD contained songs he recorded as a 15-year-old which were never released because his voice broke.
“I started singing along with it in harmony, and we realised we could be on to something,” he said.
His last three albums, the One Voice trilogy, have been a unique mix of Jones singing alongside original recordings he made during the 1980s when he was the most prominent boy soprano in the world.
“To be able to sing with my younger boy voice has been such an emotional experience,” he said.
“We didn’t know that no-one had done that before, but the only person who would have been able to do something like this would be someone like Michael Jackson and he never did.”
Jones is in Australia for his Believe tour, named after his most recent album and the song he wrote on it, his first ever composition. He will perform at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat on October 5.
Despite a lifetime of singing in cathedrals, Jones had never performed in a church in Australia until his current tour, which features 12 out of 13 venues in cathedrals and churches. And despite 11 previous tours of Australia he’s never been outside of the capital cities until now.
“I was aware that a lot of people were turning up at concerts having travelled hours and hours to get there, so I thought I’d go to the people rather than all of them coming to me.
“I’m excited to see places I’ve never seen before and perform in churches and cathedrals, which I do in the UK a lot but never have in Australia.”
Accompanying him is his son Lucas, 12, who will perform a duet with his father. “Having Lucas sing on the track was never planned: he happened to remark that he wanted to sing something together before his voice breaks and I was in the studio the following week. It worked really well and this is the first time I’ve had him along with me on tour.”
“A lot of the music I will sing in Australia I’ve never done live before, so it will be a new experience for me and the audience,” he said.
Bookings: ticketek.com.au
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