Vocal trio Blake headline Worthing hospice fundraiser

Vocal trio Blake will once again be headlining a charity concert in Worthing, raising funds for Chestnut Tree House.
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Blake

Support comes from Faryl Smith, Sussex Gruffs Male Voice Choir, Seaford College Chapel Choir and the CMT Academy of Performing Arts at the Pavilion Theatre in Worthing on Saturday, November 10.

Humphrey Berney, one third of Blake, is delighted to be back: “We have been going there quite a while, and it is amazing how many people come to our other shows and say that they have seen us in Worthing. It has always been a big part of Blake life. We are very lucky to do a lot of work around the UK as well as in countries abroad, and it is great to see people coming back.

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“It is always important that we attract new people, but it is lovely also to have our returning supporters and audience members. It makes it all very familiar as well as exciting.

“If you do as many shows as we do and if you are lucky enough to have pretty consistent returning audiences, you might think that you ought to be always doing a new show each time, but obviously you can’t do that. It is generally a new show every year.

“On a tour, the set list has to be pretty fixed, but what can never be fixed are the interactions between us on stage, and I think it is that that really sets us apart from other groups. We have been going now for nearly 12 years, and that is a long time in this business, but we are really close friends.”

And the interactions on stage allow that closeness to come through.

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“We were a bit disorganised with our tenth anniversary. We released our tenth-anniversary album on Easter Friday this year. We were supposed to release it last year but it got delayed because making an album is a very long process, but we originally formed in spring 2007 and so it will be 12 years next year that we have been going.

“We certainly feel different. We have a maturity about us as a group… though not too much! But you become aware of what works and what doesn’t, what you were singing because you felt you ought to, what actually is right for you, that you are not just singing things to tick boxes. But also it means that we can enjoy different collaborations, that we don’t always know what is going to happen and that’s what makes it exciting. Next year we are going to Hungary and Germany and Denmark, and we just don’t know what international artists we might end up performing with.”

The point is that they are flexible – more so since their fourth member Jules Knight left.

“It was wonderful having Jules, but just being the three of us generally makes it easier. Looking back at the four of us on stage, it meant that we tended to pair up, but with three, we are much more three individuals and then we can come together as three and then also it is much easier to invite in other collaborative artists.

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“But also it helps that as a group we sing such a plethora of styles and genres and the fact that we are not a cutting-edge cool group trying to write the next number one… and in a way that makes us timeless in the way that we sing so many different things.”

Supporting Blake will be Faryl Smith making a welcome return to Worthing following appearances in charity concerts featuring Collabro and Aled Jones. Faryl came to prominence when she reached the final of Britain’s Got Talent in 2008 aged only 12 years.

She went on to release two successful albums and has duetted with Jose Carreras. Katherine Jenkins and Russell Watson.

She has also sung the National Anthem at various football and rugby finals. The Sussex Gruffs Male Voice Choir are a 40-strong local choir aged between 20 and 80 years who sing a wide range of music and enjoy entertaining audiences around Sussex.

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Tickets from Worthing Theatres – http://worthingtheatres.co.uk.

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