March 16, 2026 • 24 mins
Aled Jones MBE, a name synonymous with musical brilliance, has been enchanting audiences since the 1980s. He was the original cross-over artist and is eternally cherished as one of the most accomplished boy sopranos globally, captivating the world from his debut at 12 years old in Handel's Oratorio Jeptha, broadcast on BBC2 and BBC Radio 3. After a brief pause when his voice broke at 16, Aled’s career continued to flourish across musical theatre, recordings, and broadcasting. His albums Aled and Higher topped the charts, including in Australia where he became the biggest selling classical artist. He has also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, hosted programmes including Good Morning Sunday and Friday Night is Music Night on BBC Radio 2, and now presents the most listened-to shows on Classic FM on Saturday and Sunday mornings as well as the BBC’s flagship religious TV programme Songs of Praise.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Gooday, Welcome to real life. I'm John Cowan and New
Zealand is soon to be visited by one of the
most famous and best loved voices in the world. And
the owner of that voice joins me now, Alan Jones, Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you very much. What a lovely introduction. I half
expected somebody else to come up.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Are You're probably very used to being introduced at all
sorts of different venues in places over your long career
as a singer and actor, TV producer, TV presenter and
all sorts of different roles. You actually became a superstar
as a teenager with a British top ten hit back
in nineteen eighty five and sixteen top selling albums all
(00:56):
before your fifteenth birthday. You've sung for the Queen and
the Pope and sold out the Hollywood Bowl and gone
on to have these other multiple careers on stage, radio, television,
and you're going to come to New Zealand. Can I
just say this been over dune.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
It's so overdue, it's ridiculous. Really, you know, I've been
to that other place, Australia quite the other place is yeah,
the other place. And I've loved being there as well.
You know, I think I've been ten, ten or eleven times.
I've toured Australia nine times, and every single time I
go over, I always say to whatever promoter is working
(01:36):
with me, are we doing New Zealand as well?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
And yeah, yeah, next time, next time. So this is it.
Next time has happened. You know. My mom and dad
have been to New Zealand quite a few times.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
They came with me to Australia on tour one year
with the family needless to stay.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
They didn't come and see a single one of my concerts.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
They just went around touring Australia and actually, I turn lie.
They came backstage before one concert in Newcastle in Australia
and I thought, well, how lovely.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
They're going to come and see me sing.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
And my father I was just raiding the band's rider
so he could have a few beers for his trip
that he was making that afternoon. And they've been to
New Zealand I think five or six times in their
lives and they always say you've got to go.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
It's like it's like Wales.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
It's beautiful, the people are fantastic, so you know, I'm
really looking forward to it. It's taking me fifty five
years to get there.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Oh well, I will be very welcome to see you.
You're going to be here in May. I'll give details
of the concerts later on, but you'll be playing at Auckland,
Wellington and christ Church. And what will concert goers get
when they come to one of your concerts here.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Well, if you know me, then you'll know me even better.
If you don't know me or my music, then you
will know me by the end of the concert. It's
probably one of my most intimate events I've ever put on.
I did a similar thing in the United Kingdom where
I am now last year. In the year before. It
was a huge talk for me. It was one hundred
and thirty dates or something, and it's basically I tell
(03:07):
my story, sorry, from beginning to end. You know, there's
lots of singing, lots of I describe it as the
first half is seventies and eighties, so very bad haircut,
very bad clothes and you know me singing for royalty.
You know, I tell stories of singing in Bob Geldof
and Paula Yates's wadding, singing with Leonard Bernstein, forgetting my
(03:31):
words in front of the Queen in a royal variety,
having my haircut by Princess Diana's hairdresser, and recording and
recording sixteen albums, and traveling the world, you know, whilst
also going to comprehensive school. And then the second half
is everything from adulthood really, you know, I talk a
bit about Songs of Praise, which I know some people
(03:53):
will watch over New Zealand. I've been presenting that program,
which is the BBC's sort of flagship religious program for
twenty five years now. I talk about lots of the
TV I've done dancing with the stars of that, and
there are so many funny clips and also you know,
(04:13):
private clips that people won't have seen. I talk about
my family a bit, and I sing with Little lad
which is a poignant moment where we have on the
big screen Little Aled singing and you wet with him.
So that's kind of a special moment. And you know,
I sing everything from the big hymns to the inspirational
(04:35):
songs to the more intimate music too.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Right, Oh, it sounds like a great show and it's
a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I'll just say that when you talk about Baird here,
are you allowed to say your had bird here? Because
I believe your mother cuts your here, didn't she?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
She did for a while until I had Princess Diana's hairdresser.
Yeah literally in North Wales. I don't know what it's
like in New Zealand, but in North Wales where I
come from, we had, you know, one clothes shop and
one barber's and that was it.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
And so my mum cut my hair until I was
about fourteen, I think. So I wonder why I was
bullied at school.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Everyone else is here has been cut by their mums.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, well maybe they were a little bit more trendy
than mine was. But you know, she always joked to
me that, you know, oh, it'll only be because we
haven't got a hairdressers here. But actually, if you went
to my mum and dad's house on Anglesey in North
Wales this evening and knocked on the door and my
father answered the door, he would still be sporting the
same haircut.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Okay, So she still cuts his hair to this day.
So your stories do go back to landeg Van and
how was the pronunciation.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, well said yeah, yes, and you start with you
start with clandeg Van and then you move on to Sandbay,
push gingis Goga, come to Ashantail.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Say that ten times fast and the policeman there's.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
A good tongue twister. Yeah, that's the village next to
the one I was born in.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
And so yeah, there's a.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Lot of Wales over the mide bridge, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Yeah, well on anglesey itself. Yeah, you know, I was.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I was born on an island, lived until I was
eighteen on an island, and then I moved to London
where I went to college and stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And speaking Welsh. Speaking well, yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Can speak Welsh.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So you mentioned a school syncram and I gave a
here have you? So I am fluent in Welsh, you.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Know, yes, And so that would have been the language
and the home, in the home and in school, yes, gosh.
And so it was a difficult translator, you know, moving
into English. Do you did you have to travel? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I was. I did for quite a while.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I used to dream and think in Welsh, whereas now
I'm ashamed to say I do both in English, just
for the simple reason that I you know, the only
people I really speak Welsh to I'm my mom dad, now,
unless of course I'm in Wales.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
But yeah, I was up to the age of fifteen sixteen.
Everything was taught through Welsh. I sing in Welsh all
the time. You know. I think I've released forty one
albums in my life.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Are something ridiculous, and I think that I would say
probably on ninety percent of those there's a Welsh song
which is important to me.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
You know, it's who I am.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Okay, Now, your musical career started in choral work in
Bangor Cathedral, and I mean, God gave you those pipes,
but I guess you had to learn how to use them,
and so was that good training?
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Yeah, it really was. You know.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I remember walking into Banger Cathedral as a young kid, thinking,
my God, this is the greatest, biggest building I've ever
been to in my life. And only now do I
realize that actually it's the size of a glorified church.
You know, it's not one of those grand cathedrals. We
didn't have a residential cathedral school or anything like that.
You know. I went I lived at home, went to
(08:04):
normal school, and then Tuesday's Thursdays Fridays. Twice on a
Sunday I would be singing in choir. And it doesn't
just teach you how to sing this amazing music, but
it also gives you a grounding in life.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
And you know it was it was such a happy
time for me.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I was in the cathedral for four years before it
became impossible for me to stay there just for the
simple reason that you know, I was making albums and
trying to cram in as much as I possibly could.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Really okay, And I guess your career really lifted into
the stretosphere with Walking in the Air We're Walking in
which became number number five and the British Chats and uh,
(08:56):
you were ahead of David Bewie and who else was
on the list? They packed in Billy Ocean. You were
beating him. Yeah, you're on the Chats with wha whem
and shaking Stephens and it was a.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Mad time, you know it was.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I suppose that was the piece of music that introduced
me to a much younger audience. I talk about this
on tour. There was a defining moment before then, actually
that I made an album for the BBC in the
UK and it was linked to a program where we
went to the holy land and sang in all the
holy places, and I'll never forget the executive producer ringing
(09:34):
my father the night before the program aired to the
TV and saying, now, listen, we've pressed four thousand copies
of an album. We don't expect it to sell at all,
but we'll put a little ad at the end of
the show and see how it goes well. The program
was watched by eighteen million people, and the same producer
rang my father four days later and said, you burstit down.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Your son's currently number two in.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
The pop charts behind Bruce Springsteen and born in the USA,
and the album in four days has solved two hundred
and seventy five thousand copies, and that's when kind of life.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yes, that's amazing. So your father didn't hang up on
the producer. I believe that, do you know?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I feel I feel so sorry for my dad because
you know, at the time he was he's retired now,
but he was an engineer and the last thing he
wants to do after a day at work.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Was talked to record companies and TV producers.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
And the occasional prince that calls up.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
There is a story about that as well on tour.
I won't give too much away, but I think that
was probably one of the lower moments in his.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Life that took a few years off his life.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I think, needless to say, he's probably in a select
gang that have told the now king to ye and
then bleep beep beepep. You'll have to come down to
the tour to find out exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
What he said.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
After sitting that story up for you, But that's a
good reason go to the show and here he'll Ellen's
father swore at the king. A lot of Welsh that
would be quite willing to do that, but that's the
way Welsh nationalism here.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
But that's true.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Now, as a young person, this must have been an
incredible pressure on you.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Was it odd?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Having all the stuff that you're doing in the evenings
and weekends and on tour and then going back to
school and.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Going back to school thing wasn't you know, the best
thing in the world. But actually I'm glad that my
mom and dad made me do it. And as far
as pressure and stuff like that, you know, there wasn't
any because we didn't have a blueprint, we didn't have
a menu to follow. It was. You know, I was
the first person that kind of I suppose me and
(11:57):
Pavarotti that made this kind of music popular. And so
I remember signing my first record deal, big record deal
to Virgin Records, and Richard Branson saying, well, I haven't
got a clue how to sell your sort of music,
so we'll just sell it like we do Phil Collins
or Boy George.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
And so my mum and dad and I we made
the most of everything. We enjoyed every moment.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And you know, I had opportunities that don't come to
twelve and thirteen year old boys from Sandek Van on Anglesey,
you know, to sing in the Hollywood Bowl, to travel
around the world, but.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Equally to have a childhood as well.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You know, my mum famously used to the only thing
I wasn't allowed to do as a boy, because I
always seem to get a cold every time I did.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
This was go swimming.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
And my mum was such a panicer that at one
time she dropped me off at the swimming pool and
said to me, try not to get wet.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Maybe she expected you to walk on top that maybe
very high, so maybe not. That's right. If you've just
joined us My guest tonight is l Jones is going
to be coming to New Zealand soon. We're talking about
his amazing life and music, and after the break we'll
talk more about his life on TV, radio and on
the stage. So hang around. We'll be back in just
(13:20):
a minute. I'm John Cown. This is Real Life on
News Talk ZEDB. Welcome back to real Life. I'm John
Cown talking with recording superstar Ellen Jones. And Ellen, what
are we listening to?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
There?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
That was any Boy?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
It is Danny Boy, but given the twist that it
has two of me involved in it, so it's got
what we named Little Aled and Big Aled singing together.
And we made world history with the first album, which
was called One Voice because no one had ever released
(13:56):
an album before with the same person but with two
different voices. So I sing in harmony with myself and
you know, and this is something that I touch upon
and sing on tour. And it was to start with
the weirdest experience ever. I was at home with my
mom and dad and I'll tell you the story very quickly,
(14:17):
and Dad had had a few.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Glasses of wine.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
It's fair to say when he announced there's an album
of yours in the airing cupboard, and I went, right, okay,
I went, this is as an adult. I went into
the airing cupboard and there, sandwiched in between my mum's
knickers and bras was indeed a cassette of me as
a little boy, singing folkused on from England, Island, Scotland
(14:40):
and Wales. And the tape had been handed over to
my dad twenty five years before by an engineer. It
had never been released because my voice had broken.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
And I kid you not when I say that. The
engineer handed the tape over to my father and said
keep it somewhere warm.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So my father went, I know, just the place between
your mother's bra and nickers, exactly yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
And exactly that.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
And so that tape stayed there for twenty five years,
and I took it back to London, and I'm ashamed
to say I've forgot all about it. And then one
night I had it in the car and I was
with my producer and I put it on and I
started singing along.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
With little Alad.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
It was a Scottish folks on called Eris k Lovelilt,
and you could tell instantly that it was the same
person singing nothing had changed, all the phrasing, the emotion,
everything was exactly the same, except that one voice was high,
one voice was low, and every hair on my arm
shot up. And we got the opportunity to go and
(15:47):
record an album, never thinking that it would be a
successful one, and it resonated so much with so many people.
You know, it's my best selling album ever, you know,
out selling One Direction and stupid things like that. And
it was such a lovely thing to be able to do,
you know, to be able to I suppose in a
way draw a line on that part of my life.
(16:08):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I believe your mother had also kept old videos that
you're able to use to make music videos out of it.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
They keep everything, Honestly, when I go home, it's ridiculous
what they've got. But yeah, it's it's been a really
lovely project to put together. And on tour, you know,
people all I hear and I'm sure it'll be the
same in New Zealand. Is people sort of going ah ah,
you know here because it's so nostalgic, you know, it's
(16:38):
it can't but be so nostalgic, you know, going back
to that era where life was a lot simpler.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Now I've seen you seen dewets with your son Lucas,
and does he have a similar voice to you back
then or is it quite different? I mean, are you
sure that this is you and young Ellen? That's not
your sneaking lord sneaking your son.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Then what a good idea that would be?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Do you know what? He's now six foot so he
doesn't sing in a voice soprano voice now, but you
know he he had a fantastic voice as a boy,
totally untrained. He didn't want to do it, and my god,
I wasn't going to force him go down that route
where the minute he opened his mouth everyone would be
listening anyway. So you know, he sang at school and
(17:27):
one day again I talk about it on tour, but
one day he came with me to the studio and
out of the blue, he recognized the song as the
theme to Vicar of Dibley, and he said, can I
ever go? And off he went and recorded it, and
it's just so beautiful. You know, I play that moment
on tour and it always gets a huge round of
applause because you know it's something very special. But that
(17:51):
was his one and only trip into the studio, so
that's all we've got. And he now, you know, he's
he's at university doing business. My daughter is an actress.
She's traveling the world doing her bit. Well, she's she's great,
you know, she's she's working very hard and enjoying a
brilliant career, which is great.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
But Lucas is very happy behind the camera right now.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
A lot of your repertoire songs of faith, hymns and
sacred music. And you know, you started your life and
not started your life, but your musical career in a cathedral.
Is faith still actually a genuine part of your life?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
I would say now more than ever. You know, I've always.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Understood how to sing this music, and I don't know how,
I've never really analyzed it. But the minute I'm on
stage singing a hymn or a spiritual piece of music,
it just seems to resonate.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
It chimes with me.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
You know, even now, earlier on today, I was deciding,
you know, what am I going to move?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
What am I going to sing on tour?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
And I started singing make me a channel of your piece,
which is one of my favorite hymns, and everything just
feels right, you know, it's almost effortless for me to
do this sort of music, and I do, in the
darkness on stage, feel a connection, you know, not always,
but quite often when.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I'm singing something like how great thou art? Or you
raise me up? Or you know some of the hymns
that you just you mentioned.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So yeah, it's I think that you know, when you're
a little kid singing in cathedral or church, you don't
really listen to the sermon.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Well I didn't, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I was too busy talking to my mates in the choirs,
dolls and being naughty. But as I got older, I
really appreciate having a higher power than somebody that's a
greater than I am, that I can look up to
and turn to.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Right in that a lot of this music is now
for many people nostalgic. It harks back to something Oh yeah, oldie,
worldie and old. And do you find that that there
is a risk of sometimes sacred music just becoming encapsulated
in nostilgia rather than carry the messages that were intended.
(20:10):
You're shaking you nogorously.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Yeah, no, I don't, because because if anyone listens to
any of my albums, I hope anyway that we do
these hymns in a different way, you know, for instance,
make me a channel of your piece. I do as
a kind of a late almost like a late night
jazz type kind of piece. And yes they're oldie, worldie,
(20:33):
but you know what a testament to these hymns that
we're still singing them, you know, will we still be singing?
Speaker 1 (20:40):
You know?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I don't know Taylor Swift songs in two hundred times,
two hundred years times, maybe we will.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
But for me, they're great melodies.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
They've got great words that are uplifting, and it's up
to me as as a singer, as a performer, to.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Take the audience or the listener somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
So I love the challenge of not modernizing them, but
putting my partner's soul into these pieces, if you like.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And I hope we do that right now. Elli, You've
had two very distinct phases in your life. You know,
before your voice broke, this wonderful, trible voice now a
wonderful baritone voice. There must have been a period though,
when you were at sea wondering where is my life
going to go? Did you feel a time in between
(21:27):
that was difficult to adjust it?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It's funny isn't it.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
You know, I should have thought about all these things
a lot deeper than I did. I just kind of
went back to school and was left alone for quite
a while, which was lovely. And then Japan got to
hear of my voice and I couldn't sing, but they
invited me over there. I narrated Believe it or Not
Hansel and Gretel in Japanese whilst the Vienna Boys Choir
performed it. And between the age of sixteen and eighteen,
(21:54):
I went to Japan a lot sold three million records
or something ridiculous there, and the fans over in Japan
were all sort of teenagers as opposed to the older
generation in the UK, and it seemed to bridge gap
from me really, and I knew I wanted to perform
again as an adult.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Whether I'd sing in the bath or whether I'd sing
in the album all it wasn't really up to me.
It was up to somebody else.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
So, you know, all I was adamant about was that
if I did come back and perform as an adult,
I wanted to be trained.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
So at least if the critics say.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Well, Ala Jones was utter rubbish, now they have to
stay well Ala Jones, who studied at the Royal Academy
of Music and bristol Olivic Theater School is rubbish and.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
That I'm fine with that because you know, I've paid
my dues.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
So you and also become very successful and successful at
all sorts of different dimensions, as people who go to
your concerts will find out as you tell your story.
I've been talking with Ellen Jones and he's going to
be playing performing in Auckland, Wellington and christ Church in
the middle of May, and you can find tickets on
(23:00):
ticket tak and details on how to book, and I'd
hardly recommend that you do so because I've been so
enjoying talking with you. To you and we'll go out
on another song. I think it's a Welsh song that
you've picked. What have you got for us as where
you're going out?
Speaker 3 (23:15):
This is a really special song to me and I
suppose you know it just goes to show that Wales
is with me wherever I am in the world. And
thankfully I think seventh apes or ninth or something like that,
or just just before then in May, I'll be in
your beautiful country for the first time. But you know
it's it's a song that in Welsh it's called Avon
(23:37):
Davangel and it's it's about having a guardian angel with
you wherever you go. And you know, I've been very
lucky to enjoy a really charmed life and and to
still be doing what I love, you know, and still
have new experiences that still excite me, and coming to
New Zealand is definitely going to be there, but there
will always be that Welsh guardian angel on my shoulder
(23:59):
looking after me.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
And I'd look forward to seeing you when you get
when you get here, I'm John Cawn. I've been talking
with Ella Jones versus real Life. Looking forward to being
with you on News Talk SeeDB next Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
For more from News Talk sed B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Gooday, Welcome to real life. I'm John Cowan and New
Zealand is soon to be visited by one of the
most famous and best loved voices in the world. And
the owner of that voice joins me now, Alan Jones, Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you very much. What a lovely introduction. I half
expected somebody else to come up.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Are You're probably very used to being introduced at all
sorts of different venues in places over your long career
as a singer and actor, TV producer, TV presenter and
all sorts of different roles. You actually became a superstar
as a teenager with a British top ten hit back
in nineteen eighty five and sixteen top selling albums all
(00:56):
before your fifteenth birthday. You've sung for the Queen and
the Pope and sold out the Hollywood Bowl and gone
on to have these other multiple careers on stage, radio, television,
and you're going to come to New Zealand. Can I
just say this been over dune.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
It's so overdue, it's ridiculous. Really, you know, I've been
to that other place, Australia quite the other place is yeah,
the other place. And I've loved being there as well.
You know, I think I've been ten, ten or eleven times.
I've toured Australia nine times, and every single time I
go over, I always say to whatever promoter is working
(01:36):
with me, are we doing New Zealand as well?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
And yeah, yeah, next time, next time. So this is it.
Next time has happened. You know. My mom and dad
have been to New Zealand quite a few times.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
They came with me to Australia on tour one year
with the family needless to stay.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
They didn't come and see a single one of my concerts.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
They just went around touring Australia and actually, I turn lie.
They came backstage before one concert in Newcastle in Australia
and I thought, well, how lovely.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
They're going to come and see me sing.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
And my father I was just raiding the band's rider
so he could have a few beers for his trip
that he was making that afternoon. And they've been to
New Zealand I think five or six times in their
lives and they always say you've got to go.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
It's like it's like Wales.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
It's beautiful, the people are fantastic, so you know, I'm
really looking forward to it. It's taking me fifty five
years to get there.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Oh well, I will be very welcome to see you.
You're going to be here in May. I'll give details
of the concerts later on, but you'll be playing at Auckland,
Wellington and christ Church. And what will concert goers get
when they come to one of your concerts here.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Well, if you know me, then you'll know me even better.
If you don't know me or my music, then you
will know me by the end of the concert. It's
probably one of my most intimate events I've ever put on.
I did a similar thing in the United Kingdom where
I am now last year. In the year before. It
was a huge talk for me. It was one hundred
and thirty dates or something, and it's basically I tell
(03:07):
my story, sorry, from beginning to end. You know, there's
lots of singing, lots of I describe it as the
first half is seventies and eighties, so very bad haircut,
very bad clothes and you know me singing for royalty.
You know, I tell stories of singing in Bob Geldof
and Paula Yates's wadding, singing with Leonard Bernstein, forgetting my
(03:31):
words in front of the Queen in a royal variety,
having my haircut by Princess Diana's hairdresser, and recording and
recording sixteen albums, and traveling the world, you know, whilst
also going to comprehensive school. And then the second half
is everything from adulthood really, you know, I talk a
bit about Songs of Praise, which I know some people
(03:53):
will watch over New Zealand. I've been presenting that program,
which is the BBC's sort of flagship religious program for
twenty five years now. I talk about lots of the
TV I've done dancing with the stars of that, and
there are so many funny clips and also you know,
(04:13):
private clips that people won't have seen. I talk about
my family a bit, and I sing with Little lad
which is a poignant moment where we have on the
big screen Little Aled singing and you wet with him.
So that's kind of a special moment. And you know,
I sing everything from the big hymns to the inspirational
(04:35):
songs to the more intimate music too.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Right, Oh, it sounds like a great show and it's
a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I'll just say that when you talk about Baird here,
are you allowed to say your had bird here? Because
I believe your mother cuts your here, didn't she?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
She did for a while until I had Princess Diana's hairdresser.
Yeah literally in North Wales. I don't know what it's
like in New Zealand, but in North Wales where I
come from, we had, you know, one clothes shop and
one barber's and that was it.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
And so my mum cut my hair until I was
about fourteen, I think. So I wonder why I was
bullied at school.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Everyone else is here has been cut by their mums.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, well maybe they were a little bit more trendy
than mine was. But you know, she always joked to
me that, you know, oh, it'll only be because we
haven't got a hairdressers here. But actually, if you went
to my mum and dad's house on Anglesey in North
Wales this evening and knocked on the door and my
father answered the door, he would still be sporting the
same haircut.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Okay, So she still cuts his hair to this day.
So your stories do go back to landeg Van and
how was the pronunciation.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, well said yeah, yes, and you start with you
start with clandeg Van and then you move on to Sandbay,
push gingis Goga, come to Ashantail.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Say that ten times fast and the policeman there's.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
A good tongue twister. Yeah, that's the village next to
the one I was born in.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
And so yeah, there's a.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Lot of Wales over the mide bridge, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Yeah, well on anglesey itself. Yeah, you know, I was.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I was born on an island, lived until I was
eighteen on an island, and then I moved to London
where I went to college and stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And speaking Welsh. Speaking well, yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Can speak Welsh.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So you mentioned a school syncram and I gave a
here have you? So I am fluent in Welsh, you.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Know, yes, And so that would have been the language
and the home, in the home and in school, yes, gosh.
And so it was a difficult translator, you know, moving
into English. Do you did you have to travel? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I was. I did for quite a while.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I used to dream and think in Welsh, whereas now
I'm ashamed to say I do both in English, just
for the simple reason that I you know, the only
people I really speak Welsh to I'm my mom dad, now,
unless of course I'm in Wales.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
But yeah, I was up to the age of fifteen sixteen.
Everything was taught through Welsh. I sing in Welsh all
the time. You know. I think I've released forty one
albums in my life.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Are something ridiculous, and I think that I would say
probably on ninety percent of those there's a Welsh song
which is important to me.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
You know, it's who I am.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Okay, Now, your musical career started in choral work in
Bangor Cathedral, and I mean, God gave you those pipes,
but I guess you had to learn how to use them,
and so was that good training?
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Yeah, it really was. You know.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I remember walking into Banger Cathedral as a young kid, thinking,
my God, this is the greatest, biggest building I've ever
been to in my life. And only now do I
realize that actually it's the size of a glorified church.
You know, it's not one of those grand cathedrals. We
didn't have a residential cathedral school or anything like that.
You know. I went I lived at home, went to
(08:04):
normal school, and then Tuesday's Thursdays Fridays. Twice on a
Sunday I would be singing in choir. And it doesn't
just teach you how to sing this amazing music, but
it also gives you a grounding in life.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
And you know it was it was such a happy
time for me.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I was in the cathedral for four years before it
became impossible for me to stay there just for the
simple reason that you know, I was making albums and
trying to cram in as much as I possibly could.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Really okay, And I guess your career really lifted into
the stretosphere with Walking in the Air We're Walking in
which became number number five and the British Chats and uh,
(08:56):
you were ahead of David Bewie and who else was
on the list? They packed in Billy Ocean. You were
beating him. Yeah, you're on the Chats with wha whem
and shaking Stephens and it was a.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Mad time, you know it was.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I suppose that was the piece of music that introduced
me to a much younger audience. I talk about this
on tour. There was a defining moment before then, actually
that I made an album for the BBC in the
UK and it was linked to a program where we
went to the holy land and sang in all the
holy places, and I'll never forget the executive producer ringing
(09:34):
my father the night before the program aired to the
TV and saying, now, listen, we've pressed four thousand copies
of an album. We don't expect it to sell at all,
but we'll put a little ad at the end of
the show and see how it goes well. The program
was watched by eighteen million people, and the same producer
rang my father four days later and said, you burstit down.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Your son's currently number two in.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
The pop charts behind Bruce Springsteen and born in the USA,
and the album in four days has solved two hundred
and seventy five thousand copies, and that's when kind of life.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yes, that's amazing. So your father didn't hang up on
the producer. I believe that, do you know?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I feel I feel so sorry for my dad because
you know, at the time he was he's retired now,
but he was an engineer and the last thing he
wants to do after a day at work.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Was talked to record companies and TV producers.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
And the occasional prince that calls up.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
There is a story about that as well on tour.
I won't give too much away, but I think that
was probably one of the lower moments in his.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Life that took a few years off his life.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I think, needless to say, he's probably in a select
gang that have told the now king to ye and
then bleep beep beepep. You'll have to come down to
the tour to find out exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
What he said.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
After sitting that story up for you, But that's a
good reason go to the show and here he'll Ellen's
father swore at the king. A lot of Welsh that
would be quite willing to do that, but that's the
way Welsh nationalism here.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
But that's true.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Now, as a young person, this must have been an
incredible pressure on you.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Was it odd?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Having all the stuff that you're doing in the evenings
and weekends and on tour and then going back to
school and.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Going back to school thing wasn't you know, the best
thing in the world. But actually I'm glad that my
mom and dad made me do it. And as far
as pressure and stuff like that, you know, there wasn't
any because we didn't have a blueprint, we didn't have
a menu to follow. It was. You know, I was
the first person that kind of I suppose me and
(11:57):
Pavarotti that made this kind of music popular. And so
I remember signing my first record deal, big record deal
to Virgin Records, and Richard Branson saying, well, I haven't
got a clue how to sell your sort of music,
so we'll just sell it like we do Phil Collins
or Boy George.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
And so my mum and dad and I we made
the most of everything. We enjoyed every moment.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And you know, I had opportunities that don't come to
twelve and thirteen year old boys from Sandek Van on Anglesey,
you know, to sing in the Hollywood Bowl, to travel
around the world, but.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Equally to have a childhood as well.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You know, my mum famously used to the only thing
I wasn't allowed to do as a boy, because I
always seem to get a cold every time I did.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
This was go swimming.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
And my mum was such a panicer that at one
time she dropped me off at the swimming pool and
said to me, try not to get wet.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Maybe she expected you to walk on top that maybe
very high, so maybe not. That's right. If you've just
joined us My guest tonight is l Jones is going
to be coming to New Zealand soon. We're talking about
his amazing life and music, and after the break we'll
talk more about his life on TV, radio and on
the stage. So hang around. We'll be back in just
(13:20):
a minute. I'm John Cown. This is Real Life on
News Talk ZEDB. Welcome back to real Life. I'm John
Cown talking with recording superstar Ellen Jones. And Ellen, what
are we listening to?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
There?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
That was any Boy?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
It is Danny Boy, but given the twist that it
has two of me involved in it, so it's got
what we named Little Aled and Big Aled singing together.
And we made world history with the first album, which
was called One Voice because no one had ever released
(13:56):
an album before with the same person but with two
different voices. So I sing in harmony with myself and
you know, and this is something that I touch upon
and sing on tour. And it was to start with
the weirdest experience ever. I was at home with my
mom and dad and I'll tell you the story very quickly,
(14:17):
and Dad had had a few.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Glasses of wine.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
It's fair to say when he announced there's an album
of yours in the airing cupboard, and I went, right, okay,
I went, this is as an adult. I went into
the airing cupboard and there, sandwiched in between my mum's
knickers and bras was indeed a cassette of me as
a little boy, singing folkused on from England, Island, Scotland
(14:40):
and Wales. And the tape had been handed over to
my dad twenty five years before by an engineer. It
had never been released because my voice had broken.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
And I kid you not when I say that. The
engineer handed the tape over to my father and said
keep it somewhere warm.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So my father went, I know, just the place between
your mother's bra and nickers, exactly yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
And exactly that.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
And so that tape stayed there for twenty five years,
and I took it back to London, and I'm ashamed
to say I've forgot all about it. And then one
night I had it in the car and I was
with my producer and I put it on and I
started singing along.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
With little Alad.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
It was a Scottish folks on called Eris k Lovelilt,
and you could tell instantly that it was the same
person singing nothing had changed, all the phrasing, the emotion,
everything was exactly the same, except that one voice was high,
one voice was low, and every hair on my arm
shot up. And we got the opportunity to go and
(15:47):
record an album, never thinking that it would be a
successful one, and it resonated so much with so many people.
You know, it's my best selling album ever, you know,
out selling One Direction and stupid things like that. And
it was such a lovely thing to be able to do,
you know, to be able to I suppose in a
way draw a line on that part of my life.
(16:08):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I believe your mother had also kept old videos that
you're able to use to make music videos out of it.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
They keep everything, Honestly, when I go home, it's ridiculous
what they've got. But yeah, it's it's been a really
lovely project to put together. And on tour, you know,
people all I hear and I'm sure it'll be the
same in New Zealand. Is people sort of going ah ah,
you know here because it's so nostalgic, you know, it's
(16:38):
it can't but be so nostalgic, you know, going back
to that era where life was a lot simpler.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Now I've seen you seen dewets with your son Lucas,
and does he have a similar voice to you back
then or is it quite different? I mean, are you
sure that this is you and young Ellen? That's not
your sneaking lord sneaking your son.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Then what a good idea that would be?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Do you know what? He's now six foot so he
doesn't sing in a voice soprano voice now, but you
know he he had a fantastic voice as a boy,
totally untrained. He didn't want to do it, and my god,
I wasn't going to force him go down that route
where the minute he opened his mouth everyone would be
listening anyway. So you know, he sang at school and
(17:27):
one day again I talk about it on tour, but
one day he came with me to the studio and
out of the blue, he recognized the song as the
theme to Vicar of Dibley, and he said, can I
ever go? And off he went and recorded it, and
it's just so beautiful. You know, I play that moment
on tour and it always gets a huge round of
applause because you know it's something very special. But that
(17:51):
was his one and only trip into the studio, so
that's all we've got. And he now, you know, he's
he's at university doing business. My daughter is an actress.
She's traveling the world doing her bit. Well, she's she's great,
you know, she's she's working very hard and enjoying a
brilliant career, which is great.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
But Lucas is very happy behind the camera right now.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
A lot of your repertoire songs of faith, hymns and
sacred music. And you know, you started your life and
not started your life, but your musical career in a cathedral.
Is faith still actually a genuine part of your life?
Speaker 4 (18:33):
I would say now more than ever. You know, I've always.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Understood how to sing this music, and I don't know how,
I've never really analyzed it. But the minute I'm on
stage singing a hymn or a spiritual piece of music,
it just seems to resonate.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
It chimes with me.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
You know, even now, earlier on today, I was deciding,
you know, what am I going to move?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
What am I going to sing on tour?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
And I started singing make me a channel of your piece,
which is one of my favorite hymns, and everything just
feels right, you know, it's almost effortless for me to
do this sort of music, and I do, in the
darkness on stage, feel a connection, you know, not always,
but quite often when.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I'm singing something like how great thou art? Or you
raise me up? Or you know some of the hymns
that you just you mentioned.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So yeah, it's I think that you know, when you're
a little kid singing in cathedral or church, you don't
really listen to the sermon.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Well I didn't, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I was too busy talking to my mates in the choirs,
dolls and being naughty. But as I got older, I
really appreciate having a higher power than somebody that's a
greater than I am, that I can look up to
and turn to.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Right in that a lot of this music is now
for many people nostalgic. It harks back to something Oh yeah, oldie,
worldie and old. And do you find that that there
is a risk of sometimes sacred music just becoming encapsulated
in nostilgia rather than carry the messages that were intended.
(20:10):
You're shaking you nogorously.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Yeah, no, I don't, because because if anyone listens to
any of my albums, I hope anyway that we do
these hymns in a different way, you know, for instance,
make me a channel of your piece. I do as
a kind of a late almost like a late night
jazz type kind of piece. And yes they're oldie, worldie,
(20:33):
but you know what a testament to these hymns that
we're still singing them, you know, will we still be singing?
Speaker 1 (20:40):
You know?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I don't know Taylor Swift songs in two hundred times,
two hundred years times, maybe we will.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
But for me, they're great melodies.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
They've got great words that are uplifting, and it's up
to me as as a singer, as a performer, to.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Take the audience or the listener somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
So I love the challenge of not modernizing them, but
putting my partner's soul into these pieces, if you like.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And I hope we do that right now. Elli, You've
had two very distinct phases in your life. You know,
before your voice broke, this wonderful, trible voice now a
wonderful baritone voice. There must have been a period though,
when you were at sea wondering where is my life
going to go? Did you feel a time in between
(21:27):
that was difficult to adjust it?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It's funny isn't it.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
You know, I should have thought about all these things
a lot deeper than I did. I just kind of
went back to school and was left alone for quite
a while, which was lovely. And then Japan got to
hear of my voice and I couldn't sing, but they
invited me over there. I narrated Believe it or Not
Hansel and Gretel in Japanese whilst the Vienna Boys Choir
performed it. And between the age of sixteen and eighteen,
(21:54):
I went to Japan a lot sold three million records
or something ridiculous there, and the fans over in Japan
were all sort of teenagers as opposed to the older
generation in the UK, and it seemed to bridge gap
from me really, and I knew I wanted to perform
again as an adult.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Whether I'd sing in the bath or whether I'd sing
in the album all it wasn't really up to me.
It was up to somebody else.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
So, you know, all I was adamant about was that
if I did come back and perform as an adult,
I wanted to be trained.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
So at least if the critics say.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Well, Ala Jones was utter rubbish, now they have to
stay well Ala Jones, who studied at the Royal Academy
of Music and bristol Olivic Theater School is rubbish and.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
That I'm fine with that because you know, I've paid
my dues.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
So you and also become very successful and successful at
all sorts of different dimensions, as people who go to
your concerts will find out as you tell your story.
I've been talking with Ellen Jones and he's going to
be playing performing in Auckland, Wellington and christ Church in
the middle of May, and you can find tickets on
(23:00):
ticket tak and details on how to book, and I'd
hardly recommend that you do so because I've been so
enjoying talking with you. To you and we'll go out
on another song. I think it's a Welsh song that
you've picked. What have you got for us as where
you're going out?
Speaker 3 (23:15):
This is a really special song to me and I
suppose you know it just goes to show that Wales
is with me wherever I am in the world. And
thankfully I think seventh apes or ninth or something like that,
or just just before then in May, I'll be in
your beautiful country for the first time. But you know
it's it's a song that in Welsh it's called Avon
(23:37):
Davangel and it's it's about having a guardian angel with
you wherever you go. And you know, I've been very
lucky to enjoy a really charmed life and and to
still be doing what I love, you know, and still
have new experiences that still excite me, and coming to
New Zealand is definitely going to be there, but there
will always be that Welsh guardian angel on my shoulder
(23:59):
looking after me.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
And I'd look forward to seeing you when you get
when you get here, I'm John Cawn. I've been talking
with Ella Jones versus real Life. Looking forward to being
with you on News Talk SeeDB next Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
For more from News Talk sed B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
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