All Angels happy with classical image

[richnorri]

Hello everybody!

This article is from the [url=http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=News&itemid=IPED10%20Jun%202007%2022%3A01%3A04%3A403]East Anglian Daily Times[/url].

Girl group happy with classical image

11 June 2007 | 07:59

CRAIG ROBINSON


All Angels

In an age when image is seemingly everything in the entertainment industry, a high-flying classical girl group say they will not bow to pressure - and want their music to do the talking.

Vocal quartet All Angels, which features the singing talents of Suffolk schoolgirl Laura Wright, have said they will not be transformed into scantily-clad pop artists just for the sake of publicity.

The group, which also includes 17-year-old Charlotte Ritchie, 18-year-old Melanie Nakhla and 17 year-old Daisy Chute, want a return to the classic style of Audrey Hepburn with the focus solely on their music.

They are fighting back against a phenomena - dubbed as “classic cleavage” - that has been used in recent years to try and boost the sales of music.

Speaking yesterday from her home in Framsden, near Stowmarket, 16-year-old Laura said: “There is a lot of pressure from the media on individuals - especially singers and artists - on what they should look like if they want to be successful.

“We just felt that people can get too involved in the image they are putting out and as a result the music is secondary.

“The pop industry is obviously very different to ours so it's difficult to make comparisons but for us it is about the music.

“We want to be taken seriously as singers - not for what we look like. In any case you can't really sing about what we sing about - God and peace - if you are not dressed in very much.”

The repackaging of classical music as a sassy, sexy industry in the mid-Nineties began with violinist Vanessa Mae and more recently has been spearheaded by Gorleston's Myleene Klass.

But All Angels - whose first album went platinum, selling more than 300,000 copies - hope their pledge to cover up will encourage other performers to do the same.

“We are not criticising others because at the end of the day it is down to the choice of the individual but we want to focus on the traditional and be recognised for our music,” Laura said.

The girls are currently in the middle of exams but are planning to head back to London to work on their second album soon.

Laura, a Framlingham College student, added: “Everything is going well. We've got a few things coming up and we're planning to start on a new album very soon.

“At the moment the others are taking their A-Levels and I've been studying for my AS-Level so we've been busy. I've got one more left but so far I think they have all gone okay. Fortunately my teachers and family have all been very supportive.”

Richard

[richnorri]

Here is a related article from The Observer.

Choirgirls refuse to strip for their art

Teenage classical singers rebel against the music industry's insistence on racy images

Anushka Asthana
Sunday June 10, 2007
The Observer

Classical music received a new image when violinist Vanessa Mae agreed to play Bach while standing in the sea in a transparent dress. But now, more than a decade later, four teenage choirgirls are calling for the return to a more demure era.

All Angels - whose first album has gone platinum, selling more than 300,000 copies - have instructed their record company that there will be no bare midriffs, no cleavage and no wet T-shirts in their publicity.

The girls, Melanie Nakhla, 18, Charlotte Ritchie, 17, Laura Wright, 16, and Daisy Chute, 17, say they want to restore the classic style of Audrey Hepburn, and are starting by covering themselves up. 'We did not want to be transformed into scantily clad pop artists who wore very little and used our bodies to sell music,' said Chute. 'We wanted to go back to a more traditional way of performing - keeping it clean and focusing on the music.'

Chute said the girls had stipulated in their contracts that they would only wear modest outfits.

They are fighting back against a phenomenon - dubbed by one critic as 'classical cleavage' - that has been used in recent years to try to boost the sales of music.

The repackaging of classical music as a sassy, sexy industry in the mid-Nineties began with Mae, and successfully turned some of its stars into multi-millionaires. The violinist may have shocked more traditional listeners, but she achieved hits in 92 countries and last year topped the young entertainers category of the Sunday Times Rich List, having amassed a £32m fortune.

The idea of turning classical stars into sex symbols has received stinging criticism in the past. One writer in the Financial Times called violinist Nicola Benedetti, who won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2004, 'a sort of classical Britney Spears', arguing that she would not be doing so well if she were not young and female.

Benedetti hit back at suggestions that she was being marketed for her looks. 'People honestly seem to forget that I actually have to stand up on the stage and play the violin,' she said. 'I couldn't do any of this if I wasn't playing at a standard that I think is worthy and up here among the other people with whom I'm performing.'

Last year Katie Targett Adams, who plays the Celtic harp, criticised the 'seedy' sexualisation of classical music and refused to wear suggestive outfits when she performed.

And when All Angels designer Jacob Kimmie was asked to make their outfits for the Classical Brits this year - where they were nominated for best album - he was told to try to think of Hepburn and keep them classy.

'There is more to being desirable than stripping off,' said their manager, Kathryn Nash, from Universal. 'Audrey Hepburn did not feel the need to bare all and I think she has been an inspiration to them. She was one of the most beautiful women in the world and it would be nice to get back to that.' Nash said the teenagers hoped to influence upcoming artists and show it was not 'all short skirts and baring flesh'.

The youngest member of the band, Wright, said she would be too embarrassed to pose in a bikini. She said that artists who did reveal all were not taken so seriously as musicians: 'People can get too involved in the image they are putting out and the music doesn't become the front runner. Sound is more important.'

She also hopes that their change of image will feed down to future classical and perhaps even pop stars. 'I hope other bands in the future will take on board that you can get somewhere without it all being about how you look.'

The group's stand has been welcomed by those concerned about negative role models for younger girls. 'For too long there has been an over-emphasis on sexuality rather than musical ability,' said Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers. 'It will be refreshing to see this move away from that focus on sex appeal.'

Meanwhile, the girls are concentraing on their A-levels. Three of them are sitting their final exams, while Laura is doing AS levels. But that does not mean they are planning to give up - this summer they will be recording their second album.

Richard

[Steve]

Hi Richard,

Here is the scan of the article as published in the EDT today.

Steve H :exit: