Tom Cully's All New MySpace

OK. I don't want to get everyone too excited, but I think Tom Cully reeeaaally does have a new MySpace page! He has only 12 friends, but one of them is the real Ben Crawley, so yeah, looks like it's for real this time. There's no music up yet, but he posted that a song called "Too Close to Home" is coming. Check out the page here and see what you think. He wrote a blog entry, too. Very interesting. ;) Hope, hope, hope it's real. Thank you to Jimmy Riddle for the link. 

Oliver Putland Wrote Back to Me!

Back on January 31, 2011 I posted an article about Oliver Putland. You can read it here.  Before I posted it, I sent it to Oli to see if he had any additions or corrections to make. I got a message back from him that was so nice, but I didn't want to print it unless he said it was OK. Well, he wrote again (back in March but I don't check YT very much-lol) and said I could! Now everyone can read about how funny and nice he is and what life was like for him back in the Angel Voices (pre-Libera) days. When he talks about being energetic as a kid, you can totally see that in some of the videos! lol. Thank you, Oli!  :D

Hello there, Lexi. Hope all is well in Chicago.

Sorry I didn't get back to you quite as quickly as I would have liked, but busy busy busy!

It's funny you talking about my singing all those years ago as it seems like another existence altogether. Like some film one remembers watching, it was so long ago.

Thanks for the flattering comments, there. Always nice to hear people's reactions to anything I've done.

Libera- or Angel Voices as it was called in my day (Bloody hell- 'in my day', it makes it sound ancient!) has really blossomed into quite a big thing now hasn't it? I remember it was one of the most exciting experiences of my life, both exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure and part of me can't quite comprehend that people are still talking about it at all, least of which people on the other side of the globe!

I started singing in St Philips Choir at around 1987-88, I must have been around 7 or 8.

My voice soared into the soprano heavens along with the rest of them for about 6 years until one day I was doing jumping jacks in gym class and my voice was unceremoniously jolted into the baritone, in which it still resides today.

When I first started, I was sorted into my house which was Purcell, the others being Attwood, Britten and Tallis- all named after illustrious British classical composers.

I can only assume that other Royal College of Music choirs were given similar houses to join to get a sense of public school style pride and competitiveness, vital to a young boy's education within the Church of England's infrastructure.

Contrary to what you may think, I wasn't very good at first.

Most of the time, if a TV show wanted the choir on it, I would be placed at the back or at worst, left out altogether.

This wasn't because I couldn't sing. On the contrary, I've always had perfect pitch and can hear a duff note in a choir of thousands. My problem was I couldn't keep still. In most of those appearances, we were required to appear like angelic monoliths, resolutely singing into a mystic ether of dry ice framed limbo. While all the others stood with a solemn gaze into the middle distance as if in saintly reverence, I jittered about like a grasshopper with the equally saintly reverence of St Vitus. It was only when I was about ten when my body finally calmed down and my volume increased that I became a viable option for Robert Prizeman (our Choirmaster) to put me more centre stage in his productions.

During that time, I did those two TV series you spoke of, but before then we were whisked up and down the UK in rather fun coach journeys, performing in strange, three act stage shows which involved a medley of random numbers, a comedy showcase and complete musical show-stopper.

These were honed, stalwart, never fail productions which always garnered a warm reception wherever we performed them, but I can't help misremembering the show as a weirdly entertaining mixture of something that Enya, Terry Gilliam and Tim Rice may have created in response to either several holy visions, or the consumption of heavily fermented communion wine.

I loved doing those shows and both series were also lots of fun to do, if hard work.

I've got loads of anecdotes, but I won't bore you with them all. I'm aware that even though I'm now in my early thirties, I can still easily sound like an old fart and I'm too excited about the potential of the future to wax lyrical of the past just yet. :-)

All my focus is on my film work now, which I've been steadily working towards as a career since I was about 12, so thanks very much for the mention of Foley Flip. The more publicity I can get for that stuff the better! Oh and thanks for the complements regarding the Website. I think it needs a few more changes to get what I want from it but I'm getting there!

I work for Aardman Animations now, the guys who make Wallace and Gromit. So still in the media biz though very much from the other side of the camera lens now- and very happy this side thank you!

Thanks very much for asking me about the article before printing it, I'm very flattered that you're doing it at all, and if you want to know more, I'll see what I can do. Busy-ness pending.

Take care, and good luck with the blog,

Oli

Joe Snelling On YouTube

Joe Snelling left Libera back in 2008. We haven't heard much about him until this song popped up on YouTube. Joe is now 15 years old and featured in a song by AbolishKidd. Don't really know who that is except that he does the rap part. Joe is the high singing voice you hear at the beginning and then throughout the song. Thank you to Treble on the French forum for finding this.

Oli Putland Wrote Back to Me!

Before I posted about Oliver Putland, I wrote to him to see if he would like to check it and make any corrections. And he wrote back to me!!!!

He is so nice and funny and interesting! Wow! I corrected some of the article which you can read here.  I had his starting date totally wrong. I will print his VERY interesting letter IF he says it is OK. Thank you for writing to me, Oli! You're the best! :D

Oliver Putland

OK, I know we all LOVE the current Libera members, but I am trying to learn my Libera history while things are quieter with Libera right now. So here is my next former member profile. If I got anything wrong, please let me know.  :)

Oliver Putland was a chorister and soloist in Angel Voices (Libera's old name) from 1987-1993. He was born in 1979, so that would mean he started singing at age 7 or 8 until he was 14! And what a voice he had!

The earliest video I can find of him is a Christmas 1991 appearance on a TV show called "Going Live." The St. Philip's Choir does the happiest version of "Winter Wonderland!" Oliver is the tallest one on the front row. He is wearing blue with gold tinsel hanging crookedly around his neck. To the left of him is Anthony Maher. Oliver jumps up and down around 1:03 and 1:08. lol  He makes it all look so fun!  :D



During the summer of 1992, Angel Voices/St. Philip's Boys Choir appeared on Alan Titchmarsh's BBC TV show "Titchmarsh on Song." It was a 6-part series exploring religious music-making in Britain. Oliver sang the solo for the show's opening song, "Praise to the Lord." If you click here you can watch all 12 of Angel Voices songs from the show. I noticed that Oliver is the soloist for nearly every one. His "O For the Wings of a Dove" is amazing!



Another video from these shows is "Pie Jesus." It has a short interview with Oliver at the beginning. You'll see Aled Jones there also! Oliver then sings from a church balcony. Daren Geraghty (Steven's older brother) and Anthony Maher join in.



Angel Voices also released an album in 1992 titled "Angel Voices." 

Of the 20 songs on this album, Oliver is the lead soloist for at least 14 of them. Some call this his solo album.  :) The same album was re-released in 1993 under a different record label.

Then in the summer of 1993, Angel Voices appeared on the TV show "Thora on the Straight and Narrow." This was a 4-part series where Thora and the boys explore the narrow path to Heaven and the wide road to Hell. This is a beautiful video of "Amazing Grace" with Oliver singing the solo at the beginning.



After singing with Angel Voices, Oliver went on to perform in musicals with the South Manchester Amateur Operatic Society in Manchester, England. Click here to read a review from 2004 that mentions him in "La Cage Aux Folles." I also read somewhere that he appeared in "Oliver!" but don't see him mentioned in that review.

This is a picture of him from around 2004.

Well, Oliver is apparently not just a talented singer. He grew up to become an artist and animator, too! He actually started working toward this goal when he was about 12 years old!

He has worked as an animator for 10 years. Part of that on the "Bob the Builder" cartoon! My 4-year-old cousin LOVES Bob the Builder! :D  He currently works for Aardman Animation which produces "Wallace and Gromit."

I know he has done animation for the shows "Shaun the Sheep"

and "Timmy Time." 

He has a really cool website you can view here, and a YouTube channel with some of his other animation on it. This is a clever cartoon he did called "Foley Flip."



It's really nice to see that a former chorister has gone on to do great things! :)

Andrew Hopkins

Here's another former choir member, only it wasn't Libera or even Angel Voices yet.

In 1970 a then 18-year-old Robert Prizeman became the choir director at St. Philip's Church, Norbury. Three of the boys from that early St. Philip's Boys' Choir went on to place in the Choirboy of the Year competition. Jonathan King was a finalist in 1976. Vincent Penfold was a finalist in 1982. And Andrew Hopkins won Choirboy of the Year in 1981.

This is a video of Andrew singing "O For the Wings of a Dove" on a TV show called Sunday Best in 1982. And it's kinda cool because he uploaded it to YouTube himself!  :D



Have to say I like the white robes they wear now waaaaay better! :)

Jake Shortall

It's always nice to see what former Libera members are doing now. While trying to identify the boys in the Luminosa picture, I found some information about Jake Shortall. He was in Libera from 2002-2005, sang on the 2004 Free CD and the 2005 Visions CD, and performed in concerts in the UK, Japan and Korea.

2002 - Jake is on the right next to Joe Platt.

In this picture Jake is behind Michael Horncastle.

Jake is now 19 years old and does or did go to the Brit School for Performing Arts. In this YT video he is playing keyboards. I'm not sure who the 2 adult men are - faculty, talent scouts??? And is that a very tall Joe Platt in the audience at 2:04?



He was also a member of a 4-man band called Perfect People. He did keyboards and vocals. I'm not sure if they're still working together anymore. You can see their rather inactive MySpace page here.  I searched YouTube and found several older videos. Here's a live version of "What You're Told" from March 2009. Jake is the keyboard player with a green t-shirt on.



I rather like this recorded version of "What You're Told" from October 2009 better.



                           Jake is on the left in this picture.

I can't find anything more recent on him. He may still be in school. He's very talented, so it should be interesting to see what else he does.

Update: Thank you to Vivere for commenting on this post and letting us know that "Jake did attend The BRIT School WITH Joseph Platt. That was Joe with the onlookers at 2:04. As far as Perfect People goes, they're not performing at the moment, but Jake by himself is a Freelance Pianist/Singer and has even performed at the House of Commons. Both Jake and Joe graduated from The BRIT School back in 2009."

Good for Jake! That's just awesome and brill! (my new favorite word!) :D 

Sam Coates

Steven Geraghty & Sam Coates 2002 - "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day"

It's always great to hear about former Libera members going on to be successful. Sam Coates was a Libera member from 1997-2005 (I'm not positive on those dates). He is 22 years old now and still works for Libera behind the scenes. (I actually met him at the Nashville concert!) He is listed, along with Ian Tilley and Robert Prizeman, as a producer and audio mixer of the Peace album. I found a website for Best Shot Theatre that wrote about him:

"Sam is an established singer and pianist, a multi-instrumental woodwind player, a music teacher, producer, music technologist and both choral and musical director. As a member of the World Famous Boy Choir 'Libera', he toured Europe and the Far East extensively where the group have had No.1 records. He has recorded six albums with them and has sung on film soundtracks such as Romeo and Juliet and Hannibal. He has recorded with artists such as Bjork, Elton John, Pavarotti and Hayley Westenra. Now he is a freelance producer for the group and for other classical crossover artists including Aled Jones. He has musically directed amateur and youth groups such as the Magdalene Players, Purley Youth Theatre and Graveney School - including West Side Story and Bugsy Malone."

Fuchsia - Sam is on the left

Sam has now helped to form a 5-member a cappella group called Fuchsia. They have a nice classical/jazz sound. On December 22, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. they will be singing Christmas a cappella music in the Front Room of Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank, London.

You can click on the links to view their website, Facebook page and MySpace page. Each page also has nice samples of their music.

Tom Cully's Privacy

2 days ago Tom Cully posted this status on his MySpace page:

"please do not take my pictures and videos and post them on to other websites, this is one reason i keep my privacy settings so high.” Mood: annoyed

A few of you wrote wondering what I thought about this. Thank you for your notes. I didn't answer right away, because I wanted to think about it. I don't have a MySpace page or any way to ASK Tom what he means. Only HE could really answer that. 

I don't think he is referring to photos taken while he was in Libera or while he is now working for Libera as Assistant Sound Technician. He obviously knows those pictures are being taken by fans, and he smiles and poses for them. I think he doesn't want his PRIVATE pictures taken and posted (like the ones that only his friends can see), and he doesn't want his new song videos put up on YouTube by other people.

I've seen a few people who took his MySpace profile picture and made it their avatar. He may not like that. But I think his biggest concern is videos on YT that have the actual recordings of Tom's songs, pictures (these look very private) and videos. I'm not sure what this fan's motivation is for doing this. While they ARE really good advertisements for Tom, if the real Tom wants to post stuff on YouTube, he can do it himself. I wish he would.  :)

Tom has the potential to be very successful in music, but he's still only 16. Now he has to deal with fans without the protective umbrella of Libera. And now that he's advertising himself on MySpace, it opens him up to fans more than ever. Someday he may even have the paparazzi chasing him. :) I like the way Ben Crawley handles himself. Stay warm and friendly with your fans, but keep your private stuff private. Only let your friends see your private pics, and know who your real friends are.

Tom took his songs down over a month ago saying that he's going to put out an LP in 3 months that we can buy. I hope that he is copywriting all of his songs. There ARE people who would like to steal his intellectual property and claim it as their own. And he shouldn't sign anything without a good lawyer. Think Paul McCartney.  :)

As fans, we should just keep supporting him. He's very talented and learning all he can in school. And in return we'll get to hear his new music when he puts it out. 

Update: On Dec. 5, 2010 Tom updated his MySpace status again saying, "one example of how pictures are being misused" and gives a link to a Korean blog. "Mood: angry" Well, now we know what he's talking about. Overly zealous fans have somehow gotten his private pictures (which look like pictures my friends and I put up on Facebook) and put them on a public blog. I'm very sorry about this. Hopefully these "fans" will see his message, remove his private pictures and be more careful next time about what they post.

As a fans we walk on a very fine line. I have gotten Libera pictures that I've chosen not to post. It's hard to explain. Let's just say that they were on tour but did not know their picture was being taken, so I chose not to post those. These pictures of Tom are a step beyond that. The Korean blog may not be the one that broke into his MySpace or FB (if he has one). They may have gotten them from somewhere else that also got them from somewhere else. It may be other kids at his school that are posting them. Who knows? But each of us must be careful not to spread them around and respect his privacy.

Update #2: On December 6 the Korean blog that Tom mentioned posted this message in English: "I feel deeply sorry Libera. I promise that I am going to close my blog and make an apology to all of you. Tom, One of these days I will apologise to you, Libera and all the fans of you."

I feel badly for this blogger. He/she is probably a big fan of Libera and just went too far in their enthusiasm. They may be just a kid, too. Now they know what is and is not acceptable. I'm all for learning from our mistakes and forgiving each other.

Ed Day on Twitter

Ed Day would like everyone to follow him on Twitter at "EdDayTheEagle." He tweeted about 4 hours ago:

everyone please tell all your fb friends, twitter followers, blog readers, friends and fello libera fans to follow me please. Thanks x

He's not in Libera anymore. He says that he and Zak are starting a blues duo. Nice!

Congratulations to Callum!

Callum Payne is getting married today! Congratulations to him and his new wife, Vicki! He's only 18, which by American standards is very young to be getting married, but by American standards he is also very mature and responsible for his age. So he must know that he's ready.  :)

You can follow Callum and his career at his blog http://officialcpayne.wordpress.com/. He said on there that he would like for Libera people to know about his blog and feel free to read it. He's also on Facebook if you'd like to "Like" Callum Payne. :)

Later edit: Got a message from Callum's blog saying that it has been closed.

Ben Crawley

I've mentioned Tom Cully and Liam O'Kane's post-Libera music. Time to give Ben Crawley his due. He's still working for Libera behind the scenes, but he also has a MySpace page with a new song out called "The Dead Artist." Funky name but really nice to listen to. You can hear it and buy it at http://www.myspace.com/bencrawleyofficial. This song gets better and better every time I listen to it! It's so cool!!!

New Song from Tom Cully

I GOT YOU!  It's a new awesome song by now 16-year-old Tom Cully! (Just had his birthday!) You can hear it and buy it on his myspace page - www.myspace.com/tomcully. For me it's hard to beat Cashmere with anything, but this is REALLY close. It's more peppy and up-beat than Cashmere, and Tom varies in between this new really beautiful tenor and that old Libera treble that we know him for. The song's theme is that the boy got his girl, and he almost can't believe it! It's really nicely done, and I can't wait to hear more from Tom! Awesome guitar playing, too!

Liam O'Kane

Well, while we're celebrating the accomplishments of past Libera members who are going on to have their own careers, I thought I'd post this newer video I found of Liam O'Kane.

I didn't know a lot about Liam except to see him on old Libera videos. One website says he was born May of 1984 (10 years before me!) and sang in Libera from 1992 through at least 1999. He had a fabulous voice when he was little. He has continued his singing career with a ska band, Jimmy the Squirrel, and a new solo album out called "Happy Days Sad Songs." That is also the name of this single.

In a BBC interview he explains that he is a really happy person (me, too!), but a lot of music on the radio is sad. So he made a happy song with sad words. I love this! And I love happy people! Great song, great voice!



Liam also has a MySpace page at www.myspace.com/liamokanemusic.

Tom Cully Update

Oh my word! Tom Cully's MySpace page has like 80,000 hits! I've been on vacation but still checked it a few times. He wrote that he's taking down "Cashmere" for a couple of days so that he can put up a newer version that you can "BUY" !!!!!!  :)

Supporting him DOES enable him to make more music. His guitar broke, so this will help him get money to fix it. I know I'll be buying "Cashmere" as soon as I get my laptop fixed. It decided to crash. Ugh! Guess it's having sympathy pains for Tom's guitar. Anyway, go to www.myspace.com/tomcully and support him in any way you can.

Tom Cully's MySpace Page? Yup!

On the Libera360 site, someone wrote in the livefeed that Tom has a MySpace page. I went to it but was not sure that it was for real. Inna writes about a lot of Josh imposters being out there, so I'm sure there are a lot of Tom imposters also. But this one DOES look real. The picture looks like one of his friends took it, and the songs are unbelievable!

Update: It looks like this IS for real! You can see Tom Cully's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/tomcully. He created the page on May 27 and already has over 12,000 views! I don't know if he realizes how popular he is and could be. He has an amazing voice, incredible musical talent (he plays the piano and guitar), is studying at the Brit School for Performing Arts (so he'll only get better), and is actually writing his own songs. I love classical music like he does, but his song "Cashmere" is really good! I also love his cover of "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room." I don't really understand all of the words, but his voice is amazing. Put something up on YouTube and he could be the next Justin Bieber or Greyson Chance.

Somehow Libera4You got this picture from Tom's MySpace. He looks like a model!