The Welsh Choir "Only Men Aloud!"

Back in August, 2008, I officially got on facebook. As I was looking up some people on facebook, I decided to look up Karl Scully, to see if he was on it -- which he was.  Karl Scully is one of The Irish Tenors -- he replaced Ronan Tynan, who has since returned to The Irish Tenors. So, at that time, it was Finbar Wright, Anthony Kearns, and Karl Scully and then it became, once again, Finbar Wright, Anthony Kearns, and Ronan Tynan as The Irish Tenors.

So, I found Karl Scully on facebook.  I looked at his list of facebook 'friends', and requested 'friendship' among some of them.  One of them was Jeff Howard and I remember seeing, for the first time, "RWCMD Staff" after his name on Karl Scully's 'friends' list. Well, at that time, I had absolutely no idea as to what "RWCMD"; but, I figured that whatever it was, it was pretty important -- it sounded pretty important, anyway. ("RWCMD" stands for "Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama", as I later found out.) So, I requested friendship with Jeff Howard.

It was through him that I found out about Only Men Aloud! because at that time, he was their accompanist. Immediately after we became facebook 'friends', in our private, facebook conversations, and most definitely upon me asking him about "Only Men Aloud!", and as I have never heard of them previously, I certainly became very interested in them.

The first time I ever heard them sing was the first time I ever saw the video that they performed with The Cory Band (which makes it also the first time that I ever heard of The Cory Band, who are  an absolutely FANTASTIC brass band from Wales who have won numerous awards).  This particular video was of them singing, and The Cory Band playing, "Cantilena" from the Karl Jenkins CD, "This Land of Ours". On this particular CD, which was produced by EMI, Only Men Aloud! was known as "Cantorion" because, from what I understand, EMI thought that the name "Only Men Aloud!" sounded "sexist." So, "Cantorion" (Only Men Aloud!) sang the songs on the CD and The Cory Band played all the music.

As soon as I started hearing the song "Cantilena" (which is in Welsh), I KNEW these guys were GOOD!! I have never ever heard a song like THAT before and I KNEW that I just had to get these guys to come to MY city, here in The U.S.!! I was DETERMINED  to make it happen!! Well . . . it did, but in a different way.

So, here is the video "Cantilena" sung by "Cantorion" (Only Men Aloud!), with the music by The Cory Band:

                      

When I saw this video, for the first time, it was somewhere during the last half of August, 2008. Then, Jeff Howard told me about Only Men Aloud! being contestants in BBC One's "Last Choir Standing". Here is a clip of them singing "Cwm Rhondda" during this competition:  

If I'm correct, it was the last Thursday of August, 2008, that Jeff Howard told me that the next night was the FINAL night of this competition, where Only Men Aloud! was one of two choirs still standing and that a winner was to be chosen between the two. Well, I couldn't cast a vote for them from all the way over here, in The U.S., obviously!! But, what I could do, and did do, was pray for them. In fact, I turned to Blessed Titus Brandsma, OCD, for his intercession. (Blessed Titus Brandsma was a Carmelite martyr for the Catholic Faith who died in the Concentration Camp at Dachau.) Whenever Blessed Titus intercedes for me, and my requests are granted through his intercession, it is always immediately.  From my experiences with him, if it's something that has to be done here-and-now, and if it's God's Most Holy Will, then he'll do it.  But, if it's something that one would request of him in a nine day novena to him or something that can be answered in the future, then one will have to ask that of another Saint, because Blessed Titus just seems to want to get the request done "right here and right now" and not have to wait about it.

So, based on my experiences with him, and based on the fact that the very next day was the last day of BBC One's "Last Choir Standing", I asked Blessed Titus Brandsma to please help Only Men Aloud! to win and to please be there during this last time.

Well . . . they DID win and they won BIG TIME!! From what I understand, they had 1 million MORE callers call in than the other choir!! This is a clip of the moment that they were waiting for:

After that, and because of being the winners, during the first full week of September, 2008, they signed a 7 - digit, 5 album contract with Universal.

So, they signed the contract with Universal and then during the first full week of October, 2008, they recorded their self-titled debut CD!! At the very beginning of that week, half of this 18 - 20 voiced choir was sick and the other half was well.  By the end of the week, the half that were sick were well, and the half that were well were sick!! Also during that week, about 10 minutes or so after they got done with a photo shoot, their new agent dropped dead in front of them, basically -- it was a heart attack (Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let Perpetual Light Shine upon him.  May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.) -- AND, being that the guys were sick, their choir director, Tim, went to the store to buy some more vitamins and, without realizing it, he walked right into a robbery that was currently taking place and he got escorted out by the London police because they thought he was involved in this robbery!! On top of all that, and in a week or less, Only Men Aloud! did 60 hours of recording!! Phew!! This is enough to almost make someone's throat strained just thinkin' about it -- with all that went on that whole week!!

So, somewhere around the middle of October, 2008, they were finally done with their 60 hours of recording, and then the music had to be recorded. Their debut albums release date was November 17, 2008!! So, basically one thing happened after another.

They were hitting #1 in pre-sales with their debut album!! Likewise, once it was released!! In fact, within a few weeks after it's release in the U.K. it went to either Platinum or Gold -- whichever is the highest of the two.

In the meantime, I'm over here, in The U.S., only hearing about all of this excitement going on over there in The U.K. and realizing that we're missing all of this excitement over here!! By this time, I'm sure that EMI was really regretting that they made Only Men Aloud! change their name to "Cantorion" just for Karl Jenkins' album, too. EMI lost out big time and, the last I heard about EMI, Universal bought them or was in the process of doing so.

Here is a clip of one of Only Men Aloud's songs from their self-titled debut album:

As all this excitement was going on over there, as a fan of  theirs, I wanted to do something for them over here!! I wanted to help get them KNOWN over here, in The U.S.!! I had absolutely no experience, and no knowledge whatsoever, in what I was about to do!!

Other than the internet, there was no way that we, Americans, could purchase a copy of their CD!! And, there was no way that any Americans even knew of them without first SEEING them -- a picture of them, that is.  Well, I was DETERMINED that somehow, as strictly a fan of theirs, that I was going to help make their CD more available to us, Americans, although I had no idea as to how.

So, I started with the music store "Borders", which no longer exists. But, "Borders" was a world-wide chain that sold books and CD's. So, sometime during Only Men Aloud's pre-sales, I started emailing "Borders" over here, regarding trying to get Only Men Aloud's CD sold over here -- or more available for purchase. I always, always, ALWAYS addressed myself as a fan of theirs when emailing "Borders" (and the others). ALWAYS. I even corrected "Borders" on several occasions when they seemed to think that it was MY CD that I was asking them to consider selling.

However, "Borders" would tell me who to email regarding this, and I would email those people/companies -- always addressing myself as a fan of Only Men Aloud! and nothing more!! I couldn't speak HIGHLY enough of Only Men Aloud! to these people, via email!! Sometimes I would get emails from people from these particular music companies telling me that they forwarded my email to someone who works at a company who's in charge of them.  I honestly can't remember the names of these various music, marketing, companies (or whatever they were), whom I corresponded with via email regarding trying to get Only Men Aloud's debut CD sold over here in The U.S. I have those company names written down somewhere. However, not one person, whom I corresponded with, turned me down, which means that they did not turn Only Men Aloud! down!! In the end, somehow, through all of this correspondence with these various people, I found out about "All Music Guide".  Every CD that is sold in all of these music stores in The U.S. (and maybe even around the world), must be 'registered' with AMG ("All Music Guide") first and all that they require is a copy of the CD -- which they accepted a link to all of songs on Only Men Aloud's debut album, instead of a CD -- maybe it was via itunes. I can't remember.

So, around the beginning of January, 2009, I received a response from AMG, via email, regarding the link with all of Only Men Aloud's debut CD songs, basically stating that it would take 6 - 8 weeks; but I can't remember if it was a  6 - 8 week decision process or that it would take 6 - 8 weeks for the debut CD to be on AMG web site. However, that doesn't matter any more. In February, 2009, I again looked on "Borders" web site . . . and this time, to my joy and to my surprise, there was Only Men Aloud's debut CD!! It was on "Borders" web site because it was also on All Music Guide's web site . . . and it's been on AMG's web site ever since, which means that anyone, in The U.S. (and maybe even around the world) can order that CD through any record store or the record store's web site.

During all of this time, too, Only Men Aloud! had somewhat of an idea that I was doing this for them -- only according to what I revealed to them.  Needless to say, they were quite happy with my success and so was I!! Week after week after week after week, I was consistently in contact, via email, with all the right people, who guided me as to how to get Only Men Aloud's debut CD available to us Americans. Beforehand, I had absolutely no experience whatsoever and all during this time, I just did this all myself because I believed in Only Men Aloud!  They were so well worth it and I absolutely LOVED doing what I did -- I gained experience and I LOVED it!! I would do all of this all over again, in a heartbeat!!

Now, I can use that experience to help other recording artists. I don't even have to go through all of those various steps anymore.  All I have to do is just tell them to contact "All Music Guide". It's as easy as that!!

And, by-the-way, within several months after Only Men Aloud! won Last Choir Standing, besides them inspiring young men to join choirs over there in Wales, their beautiful singing inspired me to join my college's choir, which I was involved with for 2 years and in the top sopranos section. In fact, Only Men Aloud! really inspired me so much, that not only did I join my college's choir for 2 years; but I also added the music minor to my Criminal Justice major, that I was going to college for ( I never graduated, though), and the music minor included voice and piano lessons; and I also worked as a Federal Work-Study Assistant to the Music Department for about a year-and-a-half and I absolutely LOVED it and I gained such a passion for good music!! Not only that, but because of the fact that my choir director, my piano instructor, and myself realized that I have a gift of writing music, I became a life-long member of A.S.C.A.P. -- American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers!! All of this is basically because of OMA!, as we, the fans, call them for short. They never talked me into any of this. I just did all of this because of the ripple effects of the good inspiration that they had on me with their beautiful singing!!

Although some people may think that this whole post seems prideful, I certainly didn't write it for that reason.  Most people don't know about any of this because I've only chosen to reveal this to a small amount of people. I think that only a small amount of people will read this post, too; but I hope that they are the right ones because I really hope to do all of this music stuff on a more professional level someday. Why should I let my experience go to waste when I can use it to help other good recording artists??  There is so much unknown talent out there and  they MUST BE MADE KNOWN!!

Since their debut CD, OMA! has recorded a couple of others.  Here is a clip of a song from the second CD, entitled "Band of Brothers".  This song is called "Men of Harlech" and it is sung in Welsh:

    

Luv you and God bless you, OMA!! Keep up the beautiful singing, guys!!


P.S. Only Men Aloud! is now in the process of being 're-structured'!! So, I can only hope that they're re-structuring doesn't flop, but is successful!!