Aled Jones has recalled the only time at school he felt “trendy” – when he was parodied on Spitting Image.
The Welsh singer rocketed to fame as a teenage chorister when his recording of Walking In The Air was a Christmas chart hit in 1985.
He told the Press Association: “I was very lucky as a kid to have these mad four years where I released 16 albums, travelled the world, sang everywhere from the Hollywood Bowl to the Vatican.
“I was only ever trendy at school once, and that’s when I was on Spitting Image, the satire show on a Sunday night, and they had a little doll made up of me who unfortunately had curly hair and a South Walian accent, but we don’t go into that.
“But they basically had me recording 32 albums in 10 minutes, and it was a bit like that when I was a child, but it meant that I was introduced to so many fantastic pieces of music.”
Jones is now a regular presence on TV and radio and will soon replace Alexander Armstrong on Classic FM’s flagship weekday show, which airs from Monday to Friday from 10am to 1pm.
Armstrong, who hosted the show for the past six years, will present a new Friday evening programme, while Dawn O’Porter will join the station to host her own Saturday show.
Jones said: “Being able to share my passion with the listeners every day of the week is going to be fantastic.
“I’m always somebody who tries to present classical music in a popular way.
“I remember signing my first record deal when I was a kid to Virgin Records, and Richard Branson saying, ‘I haven’t got a clue how we’re going to sell this record of the music you do, so we’re just going to sell it like we do a Boy George or a Genesis album’, and that’s how I present Classic FM.
“When I was a child, there was no difference for me between listening to Handel or Rachmaninoff and Queen or Spandau Ballet, a kid of the 80s. So it’s all great music.
“And so the way I’ve always presented classical music has been in a very open way, because it’s brilliant.”
He said he believes classical music is now more accessible than when he was a child and young people are more likely to treat it like other genres.
He said: “I remember when I used to be younger, going into a record store, and the classical department would be on the third floor, behind glass, as if it was some dangerous animal and go in there at your peril, but not at all now.
“My kids, for instance, they have everything on their MP players, from the classical big hits like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, but also rap and stuff like that as well.
“I think these days people like good music, that’s it.”
Jones paid tribute to his “radio dad” Terry Wogan, who was a “dear friend” and said he learned a great deal from the broadcasting veteran, who died in 2016.
He said: “He was amazing. I had the, he always used to say dubious, honour of going on the Wogan show more than any other guest. So, as a kid I went on seven times in three years.
“Little did I know that he and I would have a great connection.
“My biggest selling single is not Walking In The Air, it is Little Drummer Boy with Terry Wogan.”
He added: “He was for me the greatest broadcaster that’s ever lived, you know, it’s as simple as that.
“Over the years I watched him from afar and close by, and, and learned such a lot from him.”
The Classic FM new summer schedule launches on June 1.
