Bucks Free Press

[drew]

Angels flying high
By Francine Wolfisz


NOT often will you see chart-topping hits by Coldplay and Prince rub shoulders with traditional works by Mozart, Elgar and Handel, but classical crossover girl group All Angels have done just that on their latest album, Into Paradise, which is released this week.

According to All Angels member Melanie Nakhla, who attended Wycombe Abbey, the eclectic choice reflects the varied musical tastes of the platinum-selling quartet.

"I do like a bit of everything," explains 18-year-old Melanie, who was born into a family of five musically-gifted children from Shrewsbury. "Actually, most of my favourites are classical, but I like a bit of contemporary too, including rock and jazz. We didn't want people thinking we were just classical, and at the same time we wanted to try and introduce people to the genre. So there's a real mix of everything."

For fans of the contemporary, the group's second album includes a reworked cover of Coldplay's The Scientist, as well as Prince's Nothing Compares 2U. Alongside this, the classical choice includes the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah and Mozart's Canzonetta Sull'Aria, which was popularised by the 1994 film, The Shawshank Redemption.

"Hopefully people can see a progression and a maturity in our voices compared to the last album," says Melanie, referring to the self-titled debut album released last year, which reached the top ten in the UK charts and was nominated for the Classical Brit Album of the Year award.

The release of Into Paradise also coincides with the selection of 26-year-old Alexandra Lawrie as the winner of the Angel Idol competition, which was run with Classic FM to find a fifth Angel. Alexandra will now have the opportunity to record a track and perform with the girls at a concert in London on Wednesday, November 28.

When Melanie starts looking back over the last year-and-a-half since the group was founded, which also includes fellow members Daisy Chute, 18, Charlotte Richie, 18, and Laura Wright, 17, she says it's hard to believe the things they have achieved.

Aside from a best-selling album, the girls have met Sir Paul McCartney, performed for the Queen, chatted with Gordon Brown, had a cameo appearance in Emmerdale and count numerous celebrities including Johnny Depp and Daniel Radcliffe among their fans. And with the exception of Laura, who is still at school, they passed their A Level exams with flying colours.

"We've achieved so much already - and all before we've even gone off to university," says Melanie proudly. "It's also incredible to think we've sung at the Royal Albert Hall three times in not even two years. We know how lucky we've been."

And for Melanie, who now lives in London, her high flying achievements, literally, do not stop there. While at Wycombe Abbey, Melanie won a scholarship for flying tuition and now frequently returns to Booker Airport to secure her pilot's licence. She even muses that she could one day pilot the girls on their round-the-world tour.

Melanie also harbours ambitions to study modern languages at university, but for now her priority is continuing the well-deserved success of All Angels.

"We can go to university whenever, but right now I'm with All Angels. We all know that this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And although it's our job, it's also something we really love."

All Angels: Into Paradise is released Monday, November 26

www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/display.var.1854934.0.0.php

[richnorri]

Thanks for posting, Drew!

Here's another article from the [url=http://www.thisisbucks.co.uk/leisure/cfuinterviews/display.var.1855698.0.purcell_school_graduate_daisy_chute_is_flying_high_with_all_angels.php]Bucks Free Press[/url] today.

Purcell School graduate Daisy Chute is flying high with All Angels
By Melanie Dakin


Choir of angels: Laura, Daisy, Charlotte and Melanie

HIGH flying girl group All Angels are set to reach new heights with a second album of classical and pop favourites due for release next Monday.

The platinum selling artists, who last year had a top ten hit with their debut album, return with a new selection of pieces in a classical style. Having met Sir Paul McCartney, performed for the Queen and been nominated for a Classical Brit, as well as passing their A levels with flying colours, the girls have had an extraordinary year.

Angel Daisy Chute recently completed her studies at The Purcell School in Bushey. Having heard about the music school through a friend, the 17-year-old from Loretto, Edinburgh, auditioned and heard she'd been accepted a couple of days later.

Daisy says: "It was great to be in a school full of like-minded musicians and because it's so near London it was good for concert opportunities. It was scary at first as it was my first time boarding but the quality of teaching was great, both academically and the music tuition. I'm quite interested in music technology and the Purcell has a really good studio."

Daisy was halfway through her first year when she found out about the All Angels auditions.

"I'd met Howard Goodall before at a concert and I'd slipped in my jazz CD with my profile. I recorded it at 15 and then he hired me to do some programmes. He also introduced me to my manager and she put me up for audition."

Before coming to Bushey, Daisy had already had a professional role under her belt. Aged nine, she was chosen to play Cosette in the British touring production of Les Miserables. She has appeared in several television and radio plays, is the youngest singer to appear on Humphrey Lyttelton's BBC Radio 2 show and has worked as a reporter on the BBC Newsround programme. She has also appeared on the Edinburgh Fringe and aged 15 she hired professional session men and spent £5,000 to make that all important solo jazz CD.

"I was given the idea from a jazz course I took in Edinburgh run by Mark Murphy and Barbara Morrison. They were running this masterclass and Mark asked me what I'd recorded. At the time I was 14 and I thought, 'What, I'm supposed to have recorded something?'. Mark said I sounded like Barbra Streisand and that pushed me on to think about recording. I spent one day at home to record the songs on the Steinway I inherited from my grandparents and another day at the sound engineer's house. It was quite expensive to arrange the copyright and the licence but I sold my CDs for £10 at school concerts and managed to break even."

Little did Daisy know she was just a couple of years away from a really big break.

"When we released All Angels we didn't expect it to do as well as it did, going in at nine on the pop charts and two on the classical charts," recalls Daisy Chute, who sings the bottom harmonies in the Angels' vocal blend (she was amazed to hear Paul McCartney praising her low notes when they met the legendary ex-Beatle at the Classical Brits). Daisy describes the quartet's first album as "kind of chilled and laid back," but adds that "this time, we wanted it to be a little more bright and uptempo, with more challenging arrangements."

All Angels second album, Into Paradise, includes covers of hits such as Coldplay's The Scientist and Prince's Nothing Compares 2U, as well as new takes on classical repertoire including Mozart's Canzonetta Sull'Aria and the ever popular Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.

The group also ran an Angel Idol competition in conjunction with Classic FM, which was won by Alexandra Lawrie, 26, from Perranporth, Cornwall. Alexandra will join the Angels for a concert on Wednesday, November 28 at St James's Church Piccadilly.

Richard

[dazza]

Hi Drew and Richard,

Many thanks for the interesting articles.

Dazza