Xmas with the Overtones

The Overtones hit the charts back in 2010 with Good Ol' Fashioned Love and since then have gone from strength to strength, appearing on all the prime time TV shows as well as enjoying sell out tours.

As the nights draw in and those inevitable Christmas adverts appear like magic, The Overtones are hitting the road with a Christmas tour, visiting our very own Bridgewater Hall on 28th November.

Canal St's Chris Park caught up with Mike, Mark and Darren to talk all things Christmas.

1. Tell me about the tour?
Mark - We’re going on the road this November and December for our “Christmas with the Overtones” tour. Last year we did our first official Christmas tour and we had an absolute ball. We all agreed it was easily our most fun and best tour we’ve ever done. It was a big Christmas party so we’re doing it all again this year.

There will be lots of Christmas classics from our album, Good Old Fashioned Christmas, but alongside that, we have five albums in our back catalogue so we’ll be looking to dig out some old classics that we’ve not done for a while as well as some new songs. It’s gonna be a great night.

2. What has been your best live experience?
Mark - Performing at the Queen’s Jubilee was a pinch yourself moment. We were performing in front of a quarter of a million people on The Mall and outside Buckingham Palace.

Darren – We’ve done some crazy gigs. One highlight for me was we did New Year’s Eve in Germany for 1.5 million people, that was crazy.

Mike – I’d probably say performing on Dancing on Ice was the turning point for us in our career. We sang 9 songs throughout the evening and within the week we’d gone to number 5 in the charts and within a couple of weeks we’d gone platinum. I think that was the first proper introduction to the UK for The Overtones so that’s very special and holds special memories for us.

3. Have you had any on stage disasters?
Mark – I had a Madonna moment in Glasgow and fell downstairs singing a soppy ballad. I don’t think my pride has recovered to this day.

4. Mark, you’re from these parts (Mark is from Sale), does it feel like a proper homecoming when you hit Manchester?
Mark – Yes, I used to work in Manto on Canal St and on the way there I used to get the tram past the Bridgewater Hall. Little did I know that I’d be performing there and we’re back on 28th November.

5. Which diva would you love to sing with?
Mark - We’re already singing with Mike and he’s a diva. We sang with Beverley Knight on our album Saturday Night At The Movies, we did a song called Hit The Road Jack, just  seeing her doing her thing in the studio, she’s phenomenal. We saw her recently in The Bodyguard, she blew the roof off.

Darren - I’d love to sing with Buble, we could do the next Bond song together. Let’s make it happen.

6. Do you ever fight over parts?
Mike - We’ve been singing together so long, we know our parts and what sits with our voices. Darren is high, Mike and Mark are mid-range and Lachie is lower. We have honed this over the years.

7. Tell me your discovery story?
Darren – we have been together over ten years and were doing everything struggling artists do, we were knocking on doors, sending emails, sending demos, phoning people, one management company threatened to call the police unless we stopped bugging them but we believed in our ability.

Lady Luck tapped us on the shoulder one day, we were working as decorators so we could earn some money and practice at the same time and someone heard us on our tea break singing, we didn’t think much of it but she got in touch and we found ourselves singing for one of the big guns at Warner Brothers. We had to prove ourselves to earn a five album deal but six years later we’re here.

It’s important for us to keep working hard because we love what we’re doing and we don’t want it to end anytime soon. We have our feet firmly on the ground and we’re striving to improve all the time.

8. You’re known for your sleek look, is this you or a stylist?
Mike - We pride ourselves in every element and aspects of what we do, whether it be arranging harmonies or the moves and the look that we have as well. We’ve had stylists in the past but we’re happiest in clothes that we’ve put together as a five.

For a video or TV appearance we might have a stylist but the majority of the time it’s us and that’s how we like it. When you stand on the stage, particularly on television with a live audience at home and there’s you have such a lot to think about with singing and dancing the last thing you need is not being comfortable in what you’re wearing.

9. What are your best Christmas memories?
Darren - I went to watch Mike in a panto once, that was one of my highlights, he was Prince Charming.

Mark - When I was dancing, I was in the Nutcracker when I was little, I was a toy soldier, so I spent Christmas away from home in London performing at the Opera House, that was quite special because it was quite Christmassy.

Darren – I think every year is equally as special, the family gets bigger, my sister has kids and Christmas is all about kids.

Mike – My best memory of Christmas when we were kids was we would have our pile of presents and my Dad was a photography lecturer at Bristol College so Dad used to get all the cameras and video cameras from work and he’d film us opening our presents so we’d have to do it one by one and it was brilliant, every Christmas morning Dad would spend twenty minutes saying “OK sit down I just want to get the angle right” We’d be sat in front of this huge pile of presents just waiting, foaming at the mouth.

10. You have £5 to spend in Secret Santa to the bandmate on your right, shout the name and what you’d get them
Mike – I’ve got Mark and I’d go to a bargain bin in a Service Station buy an 80s CD

Mark – I’ve got Darren, I’d go to a charity shop and get him a hat because he likes hats.

Darren – I’ve got Mike and I’d go to the £1 shop and get him some Just For Men and as much hairspray as I can. He won’t deny the fact that that would be a welcome gift.

For more information please visit www.theovertones.tv

Published: 27-Oct-2016: (3948)