Interview: Only Men Aloud discuss their exciting 25th Anniversary Tour

Stephen Price

Only Men Aloud have added four additional dates to their 25^th anniversary tour which kicks off this September, and spoke to Nation Cymru in advance of their highly anticipated live performances.

The group famously performed for the Queen at two Royal Variety Performances and at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony after making male voice choirs mainstream.

OMA’s diehard fans The OMAniacs have been crying out the tour, which now plays Cwmbran, Llandrindod, Monmouth and Newtown in addition to Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Swansea and Llandudno.

Launched by founder and conductor Tim Rhys-Evans (now Director of Music at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama), the one-time UK biggest boyband of 25 is now a condensed 8-piece whose day jobs include pharmacy, teaching, gardening, but mostly music and musical theatre.

This eight-date Wales tour opens in September at Cardiff’s New Theatre, with Only Kids Aloud also performing and is not so much of a comeback stint – they last performed an intimate five-date show last Christmas but, says Craig Yates, an OMA original now Creative Director of the Aloud Charity: “This is a celebration tour. We’ve had a wonderful time with OMA, which has really evolved over the last 25 years.”

OMA’s first performance was for BBC Songs of Praise at St David’s Cathedral in 2000, although it was 2008 BBC One’s Last Choir Standing which catapulted them into living rooms across the country.

Champions

They remain reigning champions of that talent show and the exposure led to a longlist of too-many-to-mention showbiz highlights, a tour of America and supporting the legendary Diana Ross at Cardiff Castle ten years later. OMA have also been immortalised in LEGO with Swansea superstar and power ballad heavyweight Bonnie Tyler, who became a regular on OMA’s bill.

“We’re all adults now,” says Craig, “with the range of family responsibilities which come with that. We’ve all got jobs and OMA is a hobby – but what a hobby to have! We’ve known each other so long that we can drop very easily back into song as it’s tough to get everyone together for rehearsals. We get on so well and went through so many surreal moments together.

“It’s only when you stop and take stock that you realise what an amazing time it has been. There are far too many highlights. For the final of Last Choir Standing, the film crew visited the hometowns of the finalist choirs and we were all speed boated into Cardiff Bay. We kept looking at each other in disbelief. We also realized then that we had fans, because there was a bit of a crowd waiting to see us.

“And there were so many other very surreal moments including on the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special with Bruce Forsyth, at the opening of the Welsh Assembly and at Showtime at the Stadium, when the Millennium Stadium opened. We were also all in a Bollywood pop video.”

Plenty of these anecdotes will feature on the new tour, alongside favourite traditional choral arrangements and upbeat adaptations which have been given a choral glow-up injected with typical OMA energy. 

Only Boys Aloud, the byproduct of the Aloud Charity, who are coached by OMA members, recently gave a surprise performance with Ed Sheeran at Cardiff’s Fitzalan High School and will open the tour in Cardiff with OMA on Saturday, September 27^th.

Craig said: “It’s been amazing and we are thankful that people still really enjoy listening to and seeing us. It’s lovely to be back.”

Does it feel like 25 years ago that you all performed together? 

No it absolutely doesn’t. It’s been such a massive part of all of our lives, but the time has completely flown by. We have all grown up, met our partners, had families during the time we have been in OMA, and we still absolutely love what we do. 

Do you remember that first performance?

It’s a vague memory, but it’s still there. I remember the rehearsals up to that first performance were so much fun, and like nothing I had ever done before.

I was suddenly surrounded by people who loved doing what I loved to do, and we made an amazing sound. I don’t think then I would have thought I would still be in the group 25 years later, but what a time we have had. 

Why do you think that OMA was such a Last Choir Standing success?

We just had something slightly different to anybody else. We had the fantastic harmonies and voices that everyone else had, but we performed the songs in a slightly different way.

We worked incredibly hard with a choreographer and each song became a mini show in itself. No one had really seen a male choir perform like that, and thankfully the public liked what we were doing. 

You’ve been part of some incredible events, but which have been some of the many highlights from the last 25 years?

There have been so many! The couple of years after winning Last Choir Standing were really special. We were recording albums, going on tour, travelling around the world to sing, performing on numerous TV shows, and just being in OMA for a living. It was amazing.

Winning a classical Brit Award in the Royal Albert Hall was something I will never forget. We were not favourites to win by a long way so it was a massive surprise when our name was read out.

Another highlight of the group was singing at the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games in 2012. We sang at the exact moment the flame was lit. It was a very special moment for us all – and we had the best view in the stadium of the firework display that followed! 

And When / how did you realise you had become well known? 

During Last Choir Standing, we were spending the whole time in rehearsals or travelling between Cardiff and London. We had no idea that it had taken off to the levels that it had. For the semifinal, the BBC filmed each of the choirs, arriving and performing in their hometowns.

We arrived in Cardiff Bay on speed boats, to see thousands of people lining the Bay, shouting and cheering for us. We performed for them all on the dock side, and we were treated like rock stars! Photos with everyone, autograph pens out, and everyone knew our names. It was very surreal, but amazing. 

Tell us about The OManiacs and performing for two of them. 

The OMAniacs are our fan club. Set up by two amazing ladies Lynne and Joan, Chesterfield, South Yorkshire, they did an incredible job at building our fanbase and keeping everyone up to date with our plans.

They produced a fanzine every quarter with tales and picture of every gig we had done. They would all travel around the world to see us perform. We are very lucky to have had them part of our journey. 

One of our albums was a pledge album where fans could bid for an experience or item and they helped us pay to produce the new album. Lynne and Joan bid for a private concert, and we all travelled to their homes to perform a very special an intimate concert for them and their families. One of their houses was turned into our dressing rooms and green room, and the other was our performance space – their lounge. We just about fitted in and sang all their favourite songs in a very unique, acoustic performance. 

Which are some of the biggest names you met?

We have performed over the years with Bonnie Tyler, Josh Groben, Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins, Hayley Westenra and Evelyn Glennie. We have sung for HM Queen Elizabeth and HM King Charles. We have met a wide variety of people like Take That, Peter Kay, Gary Lineker and Shirley Bassey. 

Will Bonnie be joining you? How did you first team up with her?

Bonnie is a Welsh icon, and we were thrilled when she agreed to sing a new version of Total Eclipse of the Heart with us on our second album. We wanted to make a bid splash with our Band of Brothers album, and she really helped us do that. She is an amazing artist and a really lovely person to work with. 

What are the 8 of you up to now? 

We are all working in different areas, some in music, some in completely different things, but we all love to cone together and sing together. We have actors, teachers, signing teachers, marketing experts, a pharmacist, an IT worker, and two who k for charities that promote singing – a real mixed bag. 

What can people expect from the 25^th anniversary tour?

We want to take people on a journey through the last 25 years. The music that we started singing, and what we are singing now, with everything in between. Hopefully it will be a nostalgic look back at all the amazing experiences and opportunities we have had over the years. 

And finally, if you could pick anyone, who would OMA like to perform with and to within the next 25 years?!

We just want to keep singing and keep enjoying what we are doing. We are very proud of where we come from and would love to show what Wales has to offer to everyone in the world. The male choir is something that is under threat as numbers of members across the UK continue to decline. We want to be positive role models to young boys and men to sing and show what amazing experiences can be achieved by singing in a group or as a soloist. 

We’ve always wanted to sing with Tom Jones but never managed it. That would be amazing! 

For ticket information, head to https://onlymenaloud.os.fan/only-men-aloud-2025

September 27 2025 – Cardiff – New Theatre with Only Boys Aloud

October 22 2025 – Aberystwyth – Great Hall 

October 25 2025 – Swansea – Brangwyn Hall 

October 31 2025  – Llandudno – Venue Cymru 

November 26 2025 – Cwmbran – Congress

November 28 2025 – Albert Hall, Llandrindod

November 29 2025 – The Savoy, Monmouth

December 11 2025 – The Hafren, Newtown