Craig Yates: Chord and Board

Chord and Board
08/09/08

Craig Yates is a baritone working with Welsh National Opera on the Surf Tailz project in Porthcawl. He's also currently competing in the BBC1 Saturday night show Last Choir Standing as a member of Only Men Aloud! Surf Tailz will see a group of young male surfers, aged between 14 and 25, make and star in their own surf film with a soundtrack that tells their stories. WNO's Surf Tailz film will premiere at Porthcawl's 2008 Surf Cult Festival in September with a live soundtrack.

Monday 25 August

10am Orchestra Hall. Rehearsal starts for Surf Tailz. We have Sax, clarinet, trumpet, piano, 3 guitars and 5 singers. Problem – I have no voice. Doctor says I have laryngitis and need to rest and not use my voice –yeah right!

12.15pm Leave WMC. Me and Aled change clothes into black shirt, tie and trousers. We walk across the barrage to the harbour authority building. Meet the rest of Only Men Aloud!, have a quick rehearsal outside the building. We board two speedboats. All have lifejackets on – I'm a bit worried, I'm a terrible sailor, and it's starting to rock already! BBC camera crew on the boats, we have a ride around the bay for 15 mins then approach Mermaid Quay. See thousands of people there. Can't be for us surely?? I guessed there must be a jugglers or something they are all watching! Massive reaction to us, we sing four songs on the jetty (well I mimed!). Quite speechless! We sign autographs and have photos taken with lots of people. Feel like a real star for a couple of hours! I spot the other members of the Surf Tailz group on the crowd clapping along. Then I check my watch, and it's time to head back to work!

2pm Got changed again and start rehearsals again for Surf Tailz. We are recording all the tracks tomorrow, so we know we have a little amount of time to rehearse. No time to grab any food after all that at lunch time – SO very hungry. Good rehearsal with everyone. We work out the best structure for the session tomorrow and which tracks we are doing first. Some of the songs are starting to sound very good, I'm just frustrated with the noise coming out of my mouth!

5pm Rehearsal finishes. I rush straight to the Millennium Guild bar in WMC for an interview with the BBC crew for LCS. I have an hour and a half interview about the whole competition. We go through, talking about round by round and how we felt at every moment of the month.

6.30pm Finally get to rehearsal with OMA! I'm half an hour late, and have to catch up a bit. We learn 4 songs for the final, two of our own and two group numbers. We have a dance rehearsal tomorrow night so we need to know the music before then.

10.40pm Get home. Exhausted. Have some food finally and get to bed at 11.30.