Gareth Malone, star of TV's The Choir, is bringing his own show to Oxford's New Theatre. He tells Katherine MacAlister what we can expect

Gareth Malone, he of The Choir and The Military Wives, NHS specs and the Mr Tumnus beard, who spurs us all into action, single-handedly responsible for reigniting an interest in choral music not witnessed since Handel wrote The Messiah, is coming to Oxford.

The unlikely star is bringing his own choir to town this time, Gareth Malone’s Voices, who have just released their own album and are hoping to raise the roof at the New Theatre with a selection of modern classics.

“It is a big step,” he says, “but also a logical one – I am, after all, a musician, so love performing live. I am looking forward to going out there and playing live, building a rapport with the audience and having a good time, doing what I love to do.”

So is it still as exciting as it used to be, when he first stepped out on to the national stage in his BBC series The Choir? “Playing live is such a special thing but with a choir it’s much better live than a recording. Hearing those voices in a room is infinitely better than hearing them on a CD player.”

Promising a night of new, contemporary and classical pieces, Malone will offer a show that is big on audience participation, and acknowledges that the size of some of the venues, including the 1,785-seater New Theatre, is recognition of the impact that he’s had in bringing choir to the masses.

“It’s been incredible how successful The Choir has been and how much attitudes to singing – and singing in choirs – has changed. It seems like a normal thing to do now, and I think this has, in part, been due to having a programme about it on BBC2, and the huge impact that offered. Ten years ago, we couldn’t have done an evening of choir music at these venues.”

Of course, choir singing still has some way to go and Malone believes he knows why.

“It’s too closely linked to the church, and that puts people off. But we’re looking at continuing to reinvent the idea of what a choir is. People sing at football matches or at karaoke and that’s okay, but the idea of singing in a choir is somehow not, and that’s ridiculous really. It’s an artificial distinction.”

With Malone at the helm, cajoling people to sing, he will presumably prove once again that, even when it’s against our instincts, our voices can soar to the rafters. He has coaxed emotional and cathartic singing out of the uninitiated, uninterested and (quite often) undervalued again and again.

So does everybody have the potential to be a good singer?

“Most people have got a voice and can make a contribution and improve, and most people are better than they think they are.

“It’s very rare that someone has got no ability to sing whatsoever. We’re not all going to be Beyoncé, but we can all give it a go. So you can affect the life of one person in a seemingly small way and that can be powerful. That’s the great power of music; it goes beyond words.”

It was the success of Military Wives which propelled Malone into a position where he could take a national tour out on the road, the No.1 single Wherever You Are being, Malone says, his greatest achievement: “It was wonderful and in terms of national impact is the best thing I’ve done. People who hadn’t even seen the series found out about it. It was life-changing for them and for me. It was going well before, but that changed my whole life really.”

TV and international stardom beckoned, but Malone is now back on his home turf and doing what he does best. “I have done lots of TV, but the bit where I go and do the performance at the end, that was always the part I’d really relish.”

What the 38-year-old is more surprised by is his metamorphosis into something of a sex symbol. So what does he think about that?

“It’s a bit strange,” he laughs. “For years and years, working in music, being a student, generally huffing around, I was routinely ignored by women. And then you grow up a bit, grow into yourself, get on TV, and people look at you in a different way.

“I think it is revenge of the geeks. We are finally reclaiming what is rightfully ours!”

SEE IT
Gareth Malone is at the New Theatre Oxford on Saturday. Tickets are available from
atgtickets.com/oxford or on 0844 871 3020. He will be joined by his new choir, Gareth Malone’s Voices