WELSH WHEN IT COMES TO WAR AND RUGBY
Daily Post, Friday, June 22, 2001-06-23 (By Philip Key)

Thanks to Meirion for transcribing this article.

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We were in the car at the time and I looked out the window and saw an estate agents board and said I wanted to be an estate agent. A week later, he had organised an interview with a local estate agent. I freaked out.

But I was in the Surrey youth theatre and the lady who ran it suggested I try for drama school. It was not until I was that I realised I was doing the right thing.

Ball went on to become one of Britain's great musical stars, starring in shows in the West End and Broadway Les Miserable, Phantom of the Opera and Aspects of Love among them touring in sell-out concerts and starring in his own television shows.

Born in Bromsgrove in the Midlands, his fathers career took the family to Plymouth, Farnham and, at one point between the age of eight and 11, to South Africa.

But curiously he says he feels himself to be Welsh. That comes from his mothers Welsh background and he thinks his Welsh genes are the strongest. It could be one reason why he was blessed with such a magnificent voice, he agrees.

I am Welsh when it comes to war and rugby and I spend a lot of time there. My uncle Tom is the most beautiful lyric tenor in his local male voice choir of which I am a member.

That's the Mountain Ash Rugby Football Club Male Voice Choir based in what was once a mining village but no longer since the local pit closed. As a member I have to pay a fine every time I miss a rehearsal which is every rehearsal. So they get quite a few drinks out of me.

But he has sung with the choir and often finds them work. I have had them on an album and they have been on my television show twice. I try and get them involved with things when I can like big extravaganzas at Cardiff Arms Park or the new Millennium Stadium. If they need a male voice choir I tell them I know one. All they want is a coach and limitless beer and they're happy. They are of good mining stock and, God, they can drink.

By a curious twist of fate, Ball's first professional engagement was in Wales at the seaside resort of Aberystwyth. Although he had trained as an actor he landed a role in the musical Godspell in the town although the cast eventually referred to it as Cods Smell.

It was an area I didn't know well but it is beautiful. And I had a great time there, and made a lot of friends and got my Equity card as a result.

At present, Ball is in the studio recording another album to join the ten best-selling solo albums he has already made.

I am returning to my theatre roots so the album will be taken from shows, most of them current ones or shows I have been in and songs I had not been able to sing. I will also be singing something from my favourite musical, Blood Brothers.

Liverpool actor Con ONeill who starred in Willy Russells show is Balls best mate.

We went to see his opening on Broadway and we were so proud of him. He had a fantastic triumph. That show is so well and the book so good, so emotional. I have recorded the finale song Tell Me Its Not True.

Ball is about to leave his recording studio to face new concert challenges including an appearance at Liverpool's Summer Pops at the Kings Dock.

It will be his third appearance at the Pops, his previous appearances being with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, but on this occasion he will be taking his own orchestra and fellow musical star Claire Moore, another old friend.

Its all very well singing in a dark studio listening to your own songs. But its not until you get in front of an audience that you can gauge the reaction to see if you've done the right thing.

That's why I love doing live shows, you can get a real rapport with an audience and, you know, audiences are different from place to place.

I have done so many tours I know things go better in some places more than others. Liverpool audiences are brilliant and always up for it and know how to enjoy themselves.

The further South you go, the more people are prone to sit back and be less responsive.

He will be singing songs from the new album in Liverpool but will, of course, include some of his favourites. There are songs I always include like Love Changes Everything and Empty Chairs: If I didn't there would be a lynch mob! They are such good songs and I never get tired of singing them.

This year, he is also undertaking a new challenge, a solo show at Londons in-vogue Donmar Warehouse, the theatre where Hollywood stars like Nicole Kidman have been appearing.

Sam Mendes runs it and he rang me and asked if I could do two weeks there. Its smallish but the most happening place in the West End at the moment. People go there to take risks. "It is so intimate that you can see the whites of the audience's eyes and they can smell your breath. It's very close up and personal".
 

He is devising a special show for the event. "I am deliberately going to do things people are not expecting. I am compiling it right now as I agreed to do the thing without thinking what the hell I was going to do. I have a director and he is in America with Steven Sondheim who I hope is going to write a couple of songs for me.

Yes, it will be a challenge. But you can never stand still in this business.

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