Welsh singer, broadcaster and former child star Aled Jones will be touring New Zealand for the first time in May. Photo / Getty Images
Welsh singer, broadcaster and former child star Aled Jones is promising an “intimate” and “fun” experience for fans as he prepares to tour New Zealand for the first time.
Jones, who shot to fame as a teenager with a surprise hit cover of Walking in the Air, is playing three shows in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington in May.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan that aired on Sunday night, Jones said concert-goers will be treated to a show traversing his life and more than 40 years in show business through music and storytelling.
From singing with Leonard Bernstein and at Bob Geldof and Paula Yates’ wedding, to forgetting his words in front of the Queen in a Royal Variety show, Jones says the first half of the show will be about what it was like to record 16 albums and travel the world, all while at school.
The second half is everything from adulthood – his TV career, parenthood, and a “poignant” duet with a recording of his younger self.
“I sing everything from the big hymns to the inspirational songs, to the more intimate music too. It’s a lot of fun.”
Speaking to Real Life about his childhood in the public eye, Jones said it was a “mad time”, but he never felt the burden of expectation to succeed.
“As far as pressure, there wasn’t any, because we didn’t have a blueprint, we didn’t have a menu to follow. I was the first person – me and Pavarotti – that made this kind of music popular,” he explained.
“I remember signing my first 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’.
“So my mum and dad and I, we made the most of everything, we enjoyed every moment. And I had opportunities that don’t come to 12 and 13-year-old boys from Llandegfan in Anglesey – to sing in the Hollywood Bowl, to travel around the world, but equally to have a childhood as well.”
While an accomplished teen soprano already, Jones catapulted to global fame when Walking in the Air was released, with his cover reaching No 5 in the UK Singles Chart in 1985.
Jones told Cowan it was the piece of music that introduced him to a much younger audience, but there was a “defining moment” before then that ultimately led to that opportunity.
“I made an album for the BBC in the UK; it was linked to a programme where we went to the holy land and sang in all the holy places.
“I’ll never forget the executive producer ringing my father up the night before the programme aired and saying, ‘Now listen, we’ve pressed 4000 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 programme was watched by 18 million people and the same producer rang my father four days later and said, ‘You’d better sit down. Your son’s currently No 2 in the pop chart behind Bruce Springsteen and Born in the USA, and the album in four days has sold 275,000 copies.’
“That’s when life changed forever. It was mad.”
Since then, Jones has enjoyed a successful career in music and later in TV, including on Dancing with the Stars and across many decades with religious choral programme Songs of Praise, which also airs in New Zealand.
He told Real Life that now, more than ever, faith is a big part of his life.
“I’ve always understood how to sing this music. I’ve never really analysed it, but the minute I’m on stage singing a hymn or a spiritual piece of music, it just seems to resonate, it chimes with me,” Jones said.
“When you’re a little kid singing in cathedral or church, you don’t really listen to the sermon – well, I didn’t, I was too busy talking to my mates in the choir stall and being naughty.
“But as I got older, I really appreciate having a higher power, somebody greater than I am, that I can look up to and turn to.”
Aled Jones is performing in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch in May. Tickets can be purchased from Ticketek.
Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7.30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.