ON TRACK: ONLY MEN ALOUD ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS

Celebrated male vocal ensemble Only Men Aloud roll into The Stables at Wavendon on Wednesday (June 3). The date - part of their On The Road tour - is the first visit to Milton Keynes since the band won BBCs Last Choir Standing, in 2008. Since then they've racked up huge album sales, enjoyed nine sell-out tours and performed at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.  A new album - the band's fifth - is set for a summer release too. First Tenor David Fortey answers goes On Track with Total MK.   The song that first awakened your musical senses?

-Thinking back I don't think it was so much a specific song but more of a certain style. When I was growing up, my dad would always play his old 50s and 60s records and I grew up listening to all the greats like Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. These artists and in particular the songs that they wrote certainly had a huge impact on me growing up, and even now I look back to the wonderful music they wrote and find myself taking a huge amount of influence from them.

Physical or digital - how do you take your music?

-I think as a performer and in particular a performer with OMA we always pride ourselves on our live shows and enjoy the intimacy, humour, and overall buzz that live music making gives you. Having said that I can just as easily spend hours on Spotify discovering new music or just listening to some of my old favourites! 

The first time you thought 'Music - this is the job for me'

-I still consider myself very lucky to have a career in music, not just as a performer but certainly over the last few years as a mentor and teacher to the next generation of singers and musicians. Like so many others when I left university I was finding my feet and held many jobs from stacking shelves to working in call centres, but deep down I was always plugging away and trying to involve myself in as much music making as possible waiting for the right opportunities to come along. Thankfully in 2008 one such opportunity arose and even though it's a massive cliche, being involved and eventually winning BBC's Last Choir Standing competition with OMA gave me the lucky break I needed and I'm pleased to say that since then for me, and OMA as a whole, we haven't looked back since!

Your best on stage memory?

- Back in 2009 we made our debut with OMA at the Cardiff International Arena whilst touring our second album. The place was packed to the rafters and in typical OMA fashion we had the full backing of a very vocal, five thousand strong home crowd! One of the songs on that particular album was a new arrangement with Bonnie Tyler of her classic hit 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'. The audience didn't know it, but that evening Bonnie was waiting in the wings and halfway through the concert joined us on stage to one of the loudest ovations I have ever heard. Everyone in the crowd went wild and Total Eclipse of the Heart with Bonnie Tyler and Only Men Aloud was born! We were lucky enough to perform with Bonnie on numerous other occasions after that night and later that year our second album, Band of Brothers, won album of the year at the Classical Brit Awards!

And the worst gig you've ever done?

- Not just one, but in our time we have performed at many a corporate event where hardly anyone listens, most have drunk too much wine, or in general the organisers put you on at 11pm after hours of boring speeches so then everyone just gets up and goes to the toilet or the bar! They are challenging gigs but it's all part of being a jobbing musician.

What made you take up singing?

- Well to be honest singing is probably something that found me. Whilst at school I was learning to play guitar and was regularly playing in lots of rock bands and groups. But my music teachers at the time asked me to join the school choir because I was studying for my A-level music and they thought I should be involved in as much music making as possible. I had sung a little bit before then but didn't really consider myself much of a singer until my school teachers picked up on an ability I didn't realise I had. Before to long I was having singing lessons in school then just two years later was auditioning and being accepted into music college.

Which one song by another artist do you wish you had written?

- One of our favourite OMA covers at the moment is an arrangement of Mr Blue Sky that formed a big part in our recent christmas tour and TV series. It's a great up tempo, high energy song which would have been great if it had been an OMA original!

And one - by yourself  - which holds special significance?

- It's not an OMA original but one piece which holds probably the greatest significance to us as a group is 'Don't Rain On My Parade'. It's the piece which thrust us into the limelight back in 2008 whilst performing on Last Choir Standing and a piece which has been a regular feature and audience highlight ever since.

If you could step into the shoes of another musician, living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?

- One great influence for me and someone that I really admired as a performer, song writer, and all round musician was John Lennon. If It were possible, it would be fascinating to take a step back and spend one day in his shoes at the height of Beatle mania. Maybe have a drink in the Cavern whilst I'm at it.

And any genre of music that you simply can't stand?

- In general, anything that has more bass than anything else and leaves you wondering where the tune is.  That makes me sound very old but if I'm listening to music then I do like songs with a good tune.

Finally, plug your Stables show for us!

-Well the great thing about an OMA show is that there really is something for everyone. Whether you like show tunes, classical, traditional, pop music or anything in-between, we can guarantee that an evening with OMA will be filled with energy, excitement, humour, and most importantly wonderful music. If you haven't got your tickets yet then we would love to see you all at our debut performance at The Stables.   Book your tickets - visit www.stables.org or call 01908 280800.