As it is, the former chorister from Plymouth is one part of the classical boy band Blake - one of the most successful musical breakthrough acts of the past 12 months, and a quartet on the brink of international stardom.

The group was named after poet and mystic William Blake, who famously believed in unseen forces shaping our destiny. So what immortal hand turned Dom away from theology and towards music?

"After A-levels I went for an interview at Oxford and somebody told me theology was the easiest thing to read, but I didn't know much about it. When I went for an interview I quoted The Vicar of Dibley," he recalls.

Sensing perhaps that here was a student who wasn't worth saving, the dons did not invite him back. The truth was that Dom had always been an entertainer at heart.

He attended Errmington and Newton Ferrers Primary Schools, Plymouth, and later Buckfast Abbey School in South Devon.

Sipping a coffee at Michael Caines's ABode cafe bar, looking out at Exeter Cathedral, he recalls: "I remember playing around Freedom Fields as a child and I still feel this area is my home. I started singing at primary school. One of my earliest memories is messing up the solo in Once in Royal David's City."

At Buckfast he was encouraged to join the choir. "My brothers are very musical and I was following in their footsteps really," he says. "Dad was in the Navy and mum was a naval wife and neither was musical - in fact they were very surprised when they found I could sing.

"The training at Buckfast was very tough and I worked hard to get better. It taught me a sense of discipline I still have."

He won a music scholarship to Downside School in Somerset and continued to sing in the choir. Through his childhood he recorded three albums and sang at the Queen's private 80th birthday at Windsor Castle before the entire Royal Family.

He left the region in his teens, travelling to Italy, Belgium and the USA as his dad was sent overseas. But his sights had already turned away from singing and towards acting. After his Oxford rejection he won a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

"It was always acting with me," he says. "When Blake started I hadn't really been singing since the end of school, I had to get back in shape."

But he hadn't been sitting idle waiting for fate to find him. Before Blake he spent two years as a working actor employed by such luminaries of the stage as Alan Ayckbourn and Kevin Spacey. "Blake was just the opportunity I was waiting for," he says. "Then it took off and has been a phenomenon."

The story of how the group formed is a parable for modern times, bringing together the Internet, an astute marketing campaign and massive music industry backing. The four met via social networking site Facebook, but had never sung together before.

After an impromptu performance of Moon River at a party they contacted top manager Daniel Glatman, again on Facebook, who spotted their potential and secured them a contract with Universal Music.

It happened in a matter of weeks, and Universal has enjoyed immediate rewards for its investment - but more is planned for the future. The world of classical/pop crossover acts requires careful marketing if it is not to turn off the younger generation.

Fortunately all four members of Blake are eloquent, educated - and, above all, talented. Their debut album shot to the top of the classical charts and has earned them a nomination for a Classical Brit Award.

Dom, Stephen Bowman , Jules Knight and Oliver Baines are now set to record their second album and embark on an international tour with soprano Katherine Jenkins.

Oliver says that so far they have relished the fame. "If anything it feels as if the pressure is off," he says. "We have all been training for years and now we have a five-album deal. The shock is that it has happened so quickly."

Their model is classical supergroup Il Divo, the multi-national, multi-sellingsinging quartet - though Stephen says: "We hear they are not even talking to one another in the studio any more."

Dom adds: "The thing with Blake is that we are all friends away from the group, so we are happy in each other's company.

"We travel together and when we are bored quote bits of Monty Python. I gave up on the Vicar of Dibley a while back.

"Ultimately we want to put a spring in people's step - we are entertainers, after all."

Source:Western Morning News