Aled Jones was born in 1970 and joined the choir of Bangor cathedral aged nine. He became a household name in 1982 for his version of Walking in the Air, from the animated film The Snowman. As a boy soprano, Jones sold more than six million albums by the time his voice broke at 16. He went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music, before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and has since combined singing with broadcasting. One Voice – Full Circle, Jones’s duet with his treble vocals recorded when he was a teen, is out now.
I was 15 and singing the high note in a traditional Welsh folk song at the Royal Variety performance in Covent Garden when this photograph was taken. It was so exciting. Better than a day at comprehensive school. Mum would have cut my hair and the bow tie was from Burton’s in Bangor. The trousers, too – I always wore those Simon Cowell slacks that were way too high.
