COVER Gareth Malone
The UK’s favourite choirmaster Gareth Malone chats about a new project to help keep the nation singing
When life is good, music has the ability to make it even better. The joy that listening to a favourite record or song brings, the feel-good factor you get from belonging to a choir, taking part in a spot of community singing or playing an instrument, the delight that comes from being part of an audience and seeing live music performed...
But during troubled times, music is even more vital to our mental wellbeing and keeping spirits up. While we can still listen to our favourite tunes as so many of us self-quarantine, choir practice and performances – indeed getting together for any kind of musical outing or social sing-along – are out of the question right now, leaving many of us feeling more isolated than ever. Thank goodness, then, for the UK’s favourite choirmaster, Gareth Malone, whose ‘lightbulb’ idea of the Great British Home Chorus is helping raise morale.
“Music is a wonderful way of lifting the spirits and helping us to feel good – especially during bad times,” he tells us. “If we think back to the war, during the Blitz people would get together in an Underground station and sing songs
together. Well, we can’t do that now as we are not allowed to see each other. The one thing we need when we are frightened is human contact and that is one thing that singing and music can do – make us feel part of something. We have to try to look for the positives in this situation. We have to keep on keeping on.
With the Great British Chorus, we’re using music to help us feel better, explore our feelings about the situation and also express our emotions – the love we have for friends and family members whom we’re unable to see.
‘I think we’ll emerge from this time changed. We will realise what is really important in life – in fact we are doing that already. Our loved ones, kindness, a sense of community and a need for communal events, faith… and music’
It’s a community thing, a feeling of us all pulling together, like when we make cakes for a Royal Jubilee or wedding.”
So how does it work exactly and how can we join in?
“It’s thanks to technology but having said this, it’s still not possible for us all to sign up, sign in and sing along or play instruments all together on-line,” Gareth continues. “There is this thing called latency where there is a slight delay. It doesn’t matter when we are chatting, but if you try to clap in time with people online, the delay or lag means everyone slows down to try to get in time together and the whole thing falls apart. So what we’re doing – once people have signed up to the Chorus, that is – is sending out tracks plus resources such as music and lyrics via the internet. You can sing, play an instrument or just bang the salt cellar on the kitchen table if you want. Once we’ve had some online rehearsal sessions, everyone will individually record their contribution and then upload it. After that, it will be ‘stitched’ together by top music producer Steve Lipson, who I worked with on the All Star Choir. He produced the next Bond theme tune and is one of the best in the business.”
Shortly before Gareth announced the launch of the
Great British Chorus, Dame Esther Rantzen had suggested it during an online interview on This Morning. Was it she who gave him the idea?
“It was a bit of a coincidence,” he smiles. “I’d been thinking about doing something for a couple of weeks before but after Esther said what she said, I was inundated with people saying what a good idea it was.”
Although he is resolutely upbeat about the current situation, like all of us Gareth is worried about his lovedones and what the future holds.
“I am unable to see my parents at the moment,” he reveals. “Although they are OK, both do have underlying health issues. Dad is 78 and has heart problems while mum, who’s 68, is susceptible to chest infections. I also have an uncle in his 80s with COPD. It’s really hard not being able to be with them but thank goodness for the internet and Facetime – at least I’m able to stay in constant contact and actually see them. I also think about my children (ten-yearold Esther and seven-year-old Gilbert), and what effect this pandemic will have on their lives. When they’re older, their memories of childhood will be defined it. It will have changed their lives forever.”
Does Gareth (44) think all life will be different as a result?
”I do,” he replies. “I think we’ll emerge from it changed. A lot of things will be realised – that we’re not invincible because we have technology and modern medicine. It’s like we’re back in the 19th Century in some ways with the same fears. We will realise what is really important in life – we are doing that already. Our loved ones, kindness, a sense of community and a need for communal events, faith… and music.” Well said Gareth.
■ To find out more about Gareth’s Great British Home Chorus visit www.decca.com/greatbritishhomechorus