Post by drew on Sept 28, 2006 8:30:14 GMT
Record label risks €1.5m on 'angelic' schoolgirls
CYNICAL, or just angelic? One of the world's biggest record labels is to spend more than €1.5m marketing its latest manufactured ensemble, four British public schoolgirls who have been given the name All Angels because, so it is said, they sing like seraphim.
With sales and recording contracts for the serious end of classical music close to collapse, the new line-up - like Opera Babes, The Choirboys and Il Divo before them - will be targeted at the populist classical crossover market.
There is, though, little manufactured about the girls themselves.
The teenagers, who won through auditions, are already such high achievers that plenty of other careers beckon if the new musical enterprise proves short-lived. Melanie Nakhla, 17, is training as a pilot and plays tennis and netball at county level. Charlotte Ritchie, 17, is a veteran of the National Youth Music Theatre. Laura Wright, 16, is the reigning BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year, represents her county in hockey, athletics and javelin, reached the national schools tennis finals and is a lance corporal in her school's Combined Cadet Force.
Daisy Chute, 17, already has a professional role under her belt. Steve Abbott, their producer/manager who expects their first album to sell hundreds of thousands of copies, said: "What is a manufactured group? I don't think you have to justify this sort of music. (© Daily Telegraph, London) The first album is to be released in November and its mix of classical and pop standards will be familiar fare for the crossover audience. The decline of serious music teaching in schools means that crossover releases are often the only way people get to hear classical music, says Abbott. The four Angels will be heavily promoted on radio and television. But they have different views of their futures.
NIGEL REYNOLDS
© Copyright Unison.ie
www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=44&si=1694797&issue_id=14689
CYNICAL, or just angelic? One of the world's biggest record labels is to spend more than €1.5m marketing its latest manufactured ensemble, four British public schoolgirls who have been given the name All Angels because, so it is said, they sing like seraphim.
With sales and recording contracts for the serious end of classical music close to collapse, the new line-up - like Opera Babes, The Choirboys and Il Divo before them - will be targeted at the populist classical crossover market.
There is, though, little manufactured about the girls themselves.
The teenagers, who won through auditions, are already such high achievers that plenty of other careers beckon if the new musical enterprise proves short-lived. Melanie Nakhla, 17, is training as a pilot and plays tennis and netball at county level. Charlotte Ritchie, 17, is a veteran of the National Youth Music Theatre. Laura Wright, 16, is the reigning BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year, represents her county in hockey, athletics and javelin, reached the national schools tennis finals and is a lance corporal in her school's Combined Cadet Force.
Daisy Chute, 17, already has a professional role under her belt. Steve Abbott, their producer/manager who expects their first album to sell hundreds of thousands of copies, said: "What is a manufactured group? I don't think you have to justify this sort of music. (© Daily Telegraph, London) The first album is to be released in November and its mix of classical and pop standards will be familiar fare for the crossover audience. The decline of serious music teaching in schools means that crossover releases are often the only way people get to hear classical music, says Abbott. The four Angels will be heavily promoted on radio and television. But they have different views of their futures.
NIGEL REYNOLDS
© Copyright Unison.ie
www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=44&si=1694797&issue_id=14689