CLASSICAL POP: Blake at Worthing Pavilion Theatre with the Shoreham Singers-by-Sea

Blake’s nationwide search for local choirs to join them as part of their autumn tour was such a success that the classical foursome decided to extend the search for their 2011 tour.

Spokeswoman Hannah Milton said: “Shoreham Singers-by-Sea and Ditchling Singers are two separate community choirs founded by world-renowned bass player Herbie Flowers.

Altogether they boast nearly 300 members, so the choir performing with Blake will be a very much scaled-down selection of singers.”

Conductor Michael Hinton said: “We’re all very excited at the prospect of appearing on stage with Blake.

“It’ll be a real challenge, but also a wonderful opportunity to broaden our repertoire and our horizons.”

Each date of the tour will see a different choir from the local area take to the stage with Blake to perform several songs.

The classical foursome came up with the idea of having a local choir joining them on stage after they toured schools across the country giving performances and talks about the music industry.

Baritone Jules Knight explained: “The schools tour was part of the campaign for our second Brit nomination, but it quickly became so much more than that to us.

“The kids really engaged with what we did and we were blown away by the talent and confidence of some of them in the mock X-Factor auditions that we held.

“With all that singing talent, we just couldn’t understand why choirs weren’t as popular as they used to be”.

The four members of Blake all found their love of music at a young age and sang with various groups and choirs throughout their childhood.

Their passion for music continues to grow and they wanted to share this with the communities they would be visiting on their tour.

Tenor Oliver Baines added: “We thought about how we could involve school choirs and local community choirs in our live shows, and that getting some of the choirs up on stage with us would be a great experience for both them and us.”