Post by richnorri on Dec 23, 2006 8:18:14 GMT
Hello everybody! 
Here is an article from yesterday's Scotsman Evening News:-
[/b]
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
ACTRESS, trainee pilot, sportswoman and jazz singer - they may all come from different backgrounds but the four schoolgirls who make up All Angels have a shared passion for singing.
Melanie Nakhla, Laura Wright, Charlotte Ritchie and Inveresk girl Daisy Chute, are all public school choirgirls studying for their A-levels. However, before they met earlier this summer, their backgrounds and interests couldn't have been more different.
Ritchie, 17, played a Hogwarts pupil in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire; 17-year-old Nakhla is training for her pilot's licence and Laura, 16, is a sportswoman and the reigning BBC Radio 2 Chorister of the Year.
Only one of them had taken a step into music-making - Chute, 17, who released a solo jazz album when she was just 15.
Entitled Simply Jazz, the CD was the result of a workshop she attended with American jazz vocalist Mark Murphy who, impressed with her "young Barbra Streisand voice", suggested she make a record, which she did - in the family dining room.
"He was quite excited about my voice and when he asked if I'd recorded anything, I said no, should I have? We recorded in the dining room. We've got quite a nice piano and the acoustics are pretty good. It was quite strange though, we hired a recording engineer who had worked with Genesis and a professional trio. It was very exciting. It took a day in the dining room and then I had to go to the engineer's flat in Leith to do more vocals. That was quite rock star-ish."
That was not Chute's first taste of performing, however. When she was nine years old Chute played the young Cosette for three months in the hit musical Les Miserables at the Edinburgh Playhouse.
"As soon as I could walk and talk I was singing or making up my own songs," says Chute, who also appeared as Judy Garland on ITV's Young Stars In Their Eyes and was the youngest ever act to perform on jazz veteran Humphrey Lyttelton's Radio 2 show.
But it was her own determination to seize a chance to promote herself that led to her new role in All Angels. Having performed in the Royal Albert Hall School Proms, she approached music TV presenter and composer Howard Goodall who recommended her to Universal Music, just as they were seeking a fourth member for the classical girl group. "It's been really good," Chute says. "Everything is going so well. We all get on surprisingly well, we're all quite friendly and outgoing. We all have a laugh."
The foursome - who look strikingly similar on the album cover - were chosen from a shortlist of 140 by music producer Steve Abbott and Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, after a nationwide search for girls who sing like seraphim.
"Laura's the sensible one - she's the one who will get people up in the mornings, and Melanie thinks she's the grown-up," says Chute who is only too aware that their Christmas single, a cover of Robbie Williams' Angels, is a marketing dream.
"The record company always had a soft spot for Angels, so they decided to put it out as a Christmas single. We weren't sure about how it would sound, but it sounds wicked."
There's no doubting that all their lives have changed since Universal offered them a five-album record deal - they broke the UK record for the fastest-selling debut album by a classical act.
With her star in the ascendant, Chute is certainly one angel to watch out for in 2007.
• All Angels' single, Angels, and self-titled album are now on sale
Chute file
Loretto schoolgirl Daisy Chute was born on August 7, 1989
All Angels sold 33,000 copies of their eponymous first LP in just a week
All Angels have been labelled the female G4 or Il Divo
This article: living.scotsman.com/music.cfm?id=1903572006
Last updated: 22-Dec-06 16:44 GMT[/size][/quote]
Richard
Here is an article from yesterday's Scotsman Evening News:-
Introducing... Angel Daisy joins the heavenly choir
LIAM RUDDEN
LIAM RUDDEN
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
ACTRESS, trainee pilot, sportswoman and jazz singer - they may all come from different backgrounds but the four schoolgirls who make up All Angels have a shared passion for singing.
Melanie Nakhla, Laura Wright, Charlotte Ritchie and Inveresk girl Daisy Chute, are all public school choirgirls studying for their A-levels. However, before they met earlier this summer, their backgrounds and interests couldn't have been more different.
Ritchie, 17, played a Hogwarts pupil in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire; 17-year-old Nakhla is training for her pilot's licence and Laura, 16, is a sportswoman and the reigning BBC Radio 2 Chorister of the Year.
Only one of them had taken a step into music-making - Chute, 17, who released a solo jazz album when she was just 15.
Entitled Simply Jazz, the CD was the result of a workshop she attended with American jazz vocalist Mark Murphy who, impressed with her "young Barbra Streisand voice", suggested she make a record, which she did - in the family dining room.
"He was quite excited about my voice and when he asked if I'd recorded anything, I said no, should I have? We recorded in the dining room. We've got quite a nice piano and the acoustics are pretty good. It was quite strange though, we hired a recording engineer who had worked with Genesis and a professional trio. It was very exciting. It took a day in the dining room and then I had to go to the engineer's flat in Leith to do more vocals. That was quite rock star-ish."
That was not Chute's first taste of performing, however. When she was nine years old Chute played the young Cosette for three months in the hit musical Les Miserables at the Edinburgh Playhouse.
"As soon as I could walk and talk I was singing or making up my own songs," says Chute, who also appeared as Judy Garland on ITV's Young Stars In Their Eyes and was the youngest ever act to perform on jazz veteran Humphrey Lyttelton's Radio 2 show.
But it was her own determination to seize a chance to promote herself that led to her new role in All Angels. Having performed in the Royal Albert Hall School Proms, she approached music TV presenter and composer Howard Goodall who recommended her to Universal Music, just as they were seeking a fourth member for the classical girl group. "It's been really good," Chute says. "Everything is going so well. We all get on surprisingly well, we're all quite friendly and outgoing. We all have a laugh."
The foursome - who look strikingly similar on the album cover - were chosen from a shortlist of 140 by music producer Steve Abbott and Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, after a nationwide search for girls who sing like seraphim.
"Laura's the sensible one - she's the one who will get people up in the mornings, and Melanie thinks she's the grown-up," says Chute who is only too aware that their Christmas single, a cover of Robbie Williams' Angels, is a marketing dream.
"The record company always had a soft spot for Angels, so they decided to put it out as a Christmas single. We weren't sure about how it would sound, but it sounds wicked."
There's no doubting that all their lives have changed since Universal offered them a five-album record deal - they broke the UK record for the fastest-selling debut album by a classical act.
With her star in the ascendant, Chute is certainly one angel to watch out for in 2007.
• All Angels' single, Angels, and self-titled album are now on sale
Chute file
Loretto schoolgirl Daisy Chute was born on August 7, 1989
All Angels sold 33,000 copies of their eponymous first LP in just a week
All Angels have been labelled the female G4 or Il Divo
This article: living.scotsman.com/music.cfm?id=1903572006
Last updated: 22-Dec-06 16:44 GMT[/size][/quote]
Richard
