Biography

Blake are four incredibly talented young men who are bringing a fresh, innovative sound to bridge the gap between classical and pop music.

Despite the gift of their classically trained voices, the group stumbled upon the unique sound of their harmonies when they began to sing impromptu at a house party. They had already met via the social networking site Facebook, but had never sung together before: their powerful performance stunned guests. Even the quartet realised that, together, their voices have a rare and distinctly compelling sound.

The foursome rehearsed together just once after the fateful party before they decided to waste no time approaching top manager Daniel Glatman, again, finding him via Facebook. Daniel, manager of Blue and the Fron Male Voice Choir, saw the potential and secured them a record deal with Universal Music.

Within months of meeting and forming, the group have already recorded their first, self-titled album, cleverly using striking harmonies around completely re-arranged classical, opera and pop tunes to take popular songs, old and new, to another level.

Not only that, but Blake are also recording a new version of rugby favourite Swing Low, as well as featuring on World In Union, the official theme song of this year’s Rugby World Cup.

''It’s extremely rare to get four voices which enhance each other to produce such a distinctive sound,’ explains Stephen Bowman, one of the quartet.

‘We all knew or knew of each other from a mixture of school, choirs or theatrical productions since our childhoods, and had subsequently made contact with each other on Facebook. We then all went to be at a party in London, having met.

''When a guy started playing the piano, it came naturally to us to start to harmonise when he began to play Moon River. We sang just one song together but the sound just clicked instantly, it was remarkable.’

When the group tracked Daniel Glatman down via Facebook, they sang Moon River to him, and he said straightaway: ‘You guys are simply fantastic.’ He offered to manage them straight away.

‘Days later we were performing in front of top Universal Music executives who offered us a record deal there and then.’ says Stephen. ‘There were a number of labels interested, but Universal just felt right.

Blake’s first album, released on November 5th, is a polished fusion of classical music and pop, incorporating beautiful versions of the Beach Boys’ God Only Knows, the Gladiator theme music and classical songs, all recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

STEPHEN BOWMAN, 26 (Date of Birth: 22.08.80)

Musical prodigy Stephen, beat 4,000 others to a place on a coveted music degree at London’s Guildhall School of Music. ‘I was a bit of musical freak because I was just 17 years old and you normally have to be aged 24 to get a place there,’ says Stephen, who is a classically- trained baritone. ‘My voice broke at the age of 10 and developed at a very early age so I was extremely lucky.’

Stephen, who is originally from Bath, is both dogged and determined. Having left the Guildhall, he has performed solo and in ensembles, covering a huge range of music genres from English Song, aria, as well as big band and jazz.

A keen song-writer, Stephen has written and recorded music from his professional studio at home and admits: ‘I’ve never given up. I’ve even worked as an IT salesman to fund my passion for music. I’m always pushing for things to work.’

It comes as no surprise that Stephen was the one who acted immediately after the party brought the quartet together. ‘I’ve sung with other ensembles but they’ve never had that magic which we created in one song that night,’ he explains. ’It takes a huge amount of work to get a natural blend of voices.

‘My first thought was to just do some corporate gigs for bread and butter money. But after we got together to rehearse we knew we had to take it further because we‘ve got something new and daring to bring to the music world.’

JULES KNIGHT, 25 (Date of Birth: 22.09.81)

Singing is in Jules’s blood. The youngest of four siblings, all gifted choristers, Jules was mimicking melodies before he could even talk.

‘I was always singing as a baby. I was sensitive to sounds and different tones,’ explains Jules, who comes from Sussex and became a chorister at Winchester Cathedral at the age of seven.

He’s driven and ambitious and puts this down to the fact he became professional at a young age. By the age of 13, he’d performed all over the world including tours of South America, the USA, and Australia where he sang solos in venues such as the Sydney Opera House. He also sang on all of Winchester Cathedral’s albums between 1990 and 1995.

After winning choral scholarships to Eastbourne College and Wells Cathedral, Jules developed a second passion - this time for acting which he combined with his singing talent, playing the lead in many musical and plays. This experience and versatility later won him a place at London’s prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama.

‘Going to drama school has taught me to put emotion into singing. Every line should be driven by emotion, otherwise it doesn’t mean anything,’ explains Jules, who describes himself as the more feisty member of the group.

‘Blake is not just about high quality voices. We have personality, energy and all of us have an innate musicality which makes us a different, newer sound which is so marked from anything before us like Il Divo or G4.’

While Stephen acts as the pacifier of the quartet, Jules is a firebrand. ‘I like to shake things up,’ grins Jules, who loves socialising and organised Scotland’s biggest charity ball. ‘I’m the cheeky one who is impulsive and spontaneous.

‘Although I went to school with Ollie, we didn’t really know each other well. I knew he could sing but didn’t know if he was any good. So I could never have imagined that would be working together like this. We all come from classical backgrounds but we inject elements of pop. We’re not geeky or academic - we’re cool young blokes.’

DOMINIC TIGHE, 24, (DATE OF BIRTH: 20.04.83)

Not only is Dominic a talented singer, but he is also an accomplished and established actor. His childhood was steeped in classical music when, as a chorister for Devon’s Buckfast Abbey School, he recorded three albums before later going on to sing at the Queen’s private 80th Birthday at Windsor Castle before the entire Royal Family. He has also sung at Buckingham Palace before Prince Edward and in the presence of Nelson Mandela on his last Sate Visit to UK.

‘My dad was in the Navy and my mum was a naval wife and neither were musical, but somehow me and my two big brothers were all born with good voices,’ explains Dominic who grew up in Devon but travelled to Italy, Belgium and the USA because of his father’s career. Dominic teamed up his talent for singing with his passion for acting and was a member of the National Youth Music Theatre from the age of 11 to 18, where he had three lead roles before winning a degree course place at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama.

‘I’m confident and optimistic,’ he says. ’I was a bit of a rogue and drama was the only class I could be myself and get away with it. But I had the drama prize taken away from me because I was rude to one of my fellow class members. I was upset as it was the only prize I ever got at school because I was a bit of a rebel.’

Until recently, Dominic has done more acting than singing because since leaving drama school two years ago has not had a period out of work. He has worked with, amongst other directors, Alan Ayckbourn, Edward Hall and Kevin Spacey. He came straight from a major theatre tour to start recording Blake’s first album.

‘It was strange going from the acting world straight into singing,’ explains Dominic. ‘I love the contrast and now I’m working hard on my voice. Blake is made up of four different voices - my voice is lighter like Jules. So while Stephen and Ollie are fully classically trained with deep, rich tones, Jules and I are like the polish on top. I’ll be leading the popular rather than the classical songs.

‘You get an idea of our personalities from our solo lines. I put my acting into my singing, I love the words as much as the music.

‘That’s why we think the name Blake is appropriate for our group. We named ourselves after the English poet William Blake because I think that says a lot about who we are.’

OLIVER BAINES, 24, (Date of Birth: 23.11.82)

There is nothing, it seems, which Oliver can’t turn his hand to. Despite admitting that the male line of his family are tone deaf, Oliver luckily managed to inherit his mother’s talent for singing and playing the piano.

From the age of eight, Oliver received professional classical music training and to this day, has always sung in several choirs from choral, to chamber and chapel. At the age of 17, he was accepted into the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, joining them for their world tour in 2003.

While still at school, Oliver still managed to find time to play the trumpet and French horn to a high standard, as well as becoming an accomplished jazz pianist.

‘I went to school with Jules but always imagined he was going to stick to his acting and I would stick to singing and eventually opera. It’s funny to think that we’ve now met in the middle and are working together,’ says Oliver, who received sporting accolades for swimming, shooting and fencing, whilst at school, and is a keen tennis player.

After leaving school, Oliver began a degree in music technology. ‘But this left me unsatisfied musically. So I decided to switch to a music degree but didn’t finish that either,’ says Oliver, who comes from Wiltshire and describes himself as eclectic and confident. ‘It wasn’t until my singing teacher said I had a career in singing that I had the confidence to train to sing professionally. So I was determined to get into the Guildhall School of Music and I’ve now been there for the past year.’

It’s Oliver’s background in music technology which has given him a great interest in the production of Blake’s album. ‘I think that our producer, Nick Patrick, who has worked with Russell Watson, Katherine Jenkins, Myleene Klass and Lulu, among many others, has had a problem keeping me away from the production side,’ laughs Oliver. ‘We have done a modern version of Gladiator which is my favourite track on the album. It’s a huge, anthem-type song which starts with this incredible choir and then seeps into the Gladiator music.

‘We’re not a manufactured group and this shows because we’ve been allowed a huge amount of creative control. We chose the repertoire ourselves and all the tracks are original because every single song has been completely re-arranged. We really are a one-off quartet.’