Singer thanks the choir for featuring on his High Flying Birds album
When Noel Gallagher emails to tell you he wants to send a gift, you’d be right to get excited. That’s exactly what happened to Crouch End Festival Chorus conductor David Temple when the singer gave him a platinum disc as a thank you for the choir’s hard work on his 600,000-plus selling High Flying Birds album.
“It was so sweet. His personal assistant emailed me and said, ‘Noel has something for you and what’s your address?’ When I got home, there was this big parcel – what looked like a painting or a photograph. When I opened it up I couldn’t believe it. It was these two platinum discs. He very kindly inscribed my name on it,” says Temple.
Temple and the chorus have worked with more famous artists than you can shake a stick at. They’re firm favourites of Kinks frontman Ray Davies and have performed with the likes of Italian film composer Ennio Morricone.
In fact, it was during a Morricone concert nine years ago that the Oasis guitarist saw the choir. “From then onwards, he had germinating in his head that at some point he would like to incorporate the choir into his music,” says Temple. “We were meant to be on the last Oasis album, but it didn’t happen as most of it was recorded in LA.”
Since then, they have performed with Oasis at the BBC Electric Proms in 2008 and supported Gallagher at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010 – the same year they recorded three tracks of the album in Abbey Road’s Studio Two.
“I think he was very pleased with it and one of the last things he said to me was, ‘I hope to see you again soon.’ I thought, ‘I hope something comes of that’ and then we were invited to go on his UK arena tour. We did lots of concerts in February and we have six more coming up in September,” says Temple.
“I’ve had some really exciting things happen in my life – but I’ve never received anything like that. I was really thrilled. I got in touch with him and said thank-you.
“It’s in my hallway at the bottom of the stairs, I’m still a bit chuffed with it really.My kids are chuffed too.”
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