Liam Gallagher Joins The Choir

Oasis are often criticised for being as adventurous as a bunch of six-year-olds at the salad bar — so it's surprising to learn that their latest collaborators are a group who have previously grappled with the sounds of Britten, Glass and Stravinsky.

This afternoon, fresh from last night's show at Wembley Arena, the Gallagher brothers will be joined on stage at the venue by 50 members of in-demand choir the Crouch End Festival Chorus. It's their only full rehearsal for a special show at the end of the month, part of the BBC Electric Proms season, that will finally see the band doing the unthinkable and trying something a bit different.

The Electric Proms have nothing in common with the Albert Hall pomp of the real thing, but since 2006 they have hosted some fascinating concerts that encourage rock bands to be a bit more experimental. Oasis were asked if there was another band they would like to work with, or if they would prefer to be joined by a choir.

Perhaps inspired by Crouch End's backing of Kinks star Ray Davies during last year's season, they opted for the choir.

Last week a dozen members met Noel Gallagher and guitarist Gem Archer in the Muswell Hill front room of Steve Markwick, who has been charged with arranging choral parts for six songs in the finale of the gig. They thrashed out ideas for taking old favourites such as Don't Look Back In Anger and The Masterplan to new heights of singalong elation. “Noel seemed really delighted with the beauty and power of the sound,” CEFC musical director David Temple tells me.

Also planned are a couple of compositions by Liam, presumably including his much-praised ballad from the new album, I'm Outta Time. Most excitingly, they'll sing on an overpowering climax of the band's traditional Beatles cover, I Am the Walrus.

“They do this extended cadenza at the end which is mindblowing. We're hoping to do some surreal improvisation in there, lots of different noises, like a collage of dreams,” Temple says. First they suggested throwing in a blast of Handel's Hallelujah chorus at the peak but that was rejected in favour of Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

It sounds like a lot of fun for a choir that has a reputation far weightier than the occasional pop collaboration would suggest. The night before the Oasis show, all 140 members will be singing Bach's Mass in B minor at the Barbican. On 1 March next year, again at the Barbican, they perform a major premiere — The Tension of Opposites by Chicago composer Matthew Ferraro.

CEFC began life in 1984 performing mainly in Hornsey Town Hall and are now known for being game for anything. They'll soon be heard singing on a collection of reworked Kinks classics by Ray Davies, the new album by Welsh opera babe Katherine Jenkins and the soundtrack to a forthcoming comedy horror Britflick, Lesbian Vampire Killers.

But for now, it's the Oasis gig that they're looking forward to. “I love Liam Gallagher's voice,” Temple asserts with passion. “He can hit top As that a classical tenor would die for.”
Oasis are at the BBC Electric Proms at the Roundhouse, NW1 on 26 October. Apply for
£5 tickets in a ballot at www.bbc.co.uk/electricproms.

Source: www.thisislondon.co.uk