Review: Aled Jones and Russell Watson bring their Christmas tour to Cambridge
It certainly did start to feel a lot like Christmas at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on Saturday, December 3, as Aled Jones and Russell Watson - the ‘Ant and Dec of classical crossover’ - performed songs from their most recent album Christmas with Aled and Russell. A Christmas tree and small snowman on the stage also helped to set the scene.
Opening the show was the delightful classical singer, Natasha Hemmings, who sang some seasonal favourites, as well as a stirring rendition of Amazing Grace, noting the relevance of the song to her Christian faith.
We then when straight into the first half of the main event, Aled and Russell coming out in grey and brown suits respectively, both with matching pink ties (“We decided to wear pink for Cambridge”), accompanied by four backing musicians and the famed Rock Choir, made up entirely of members from the Cambridgeshire region.
The first half was made up of more recent seasonal favourites including It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, The Little Drummer Boy and Sir Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe and Wine - which got the audience singing and swaying along - as well as moving takes on more traditional festive fare such as Silent Night (sung in English, German and Welsh) and O Little Town of Bethlehem.
The camaraderie between these two seasoned professionals, highly respected as solo performers in their own right, and appearing at the Corn Exchange for the first time since 2019, was clear for all to see and the banter between them, which often introduced the next song, did include some laugh-out-loud moments.
Revealing who they’ve previously been compared to (Little and Large, Morecambe and Wise, among others), Russell noted that the most recent one was someone who referred to them as “the Ant and Dec of classical crossover”. Russell also asked Aled what his favourite thing about Christmas was, to which Aled replied “the cheques from Walking in the Air”. “I bet you wish you’d written it,” quipped his singing partner.
The second half started with a sprightly Feliz Navidad, Russell observing that in his native Salford, people often thought the lyrics were “Police nabbed me dad”. He also recalled that he and Aled started recording the Christmas album on the hottest day of the year this past summer, saying it was strange to be singing In the Bleak Midwinter while wearing a T-shirt and shorts.
One of only two non-Christmas songs was the superb Shenandoah, though this was primarily a festive show. Leaving the stage to a standing ovation, there had been one glaring omission up until that point. The pair came back out and sang Aled’s signature song Walking in the Air, which made him a household name, of course, at the age of 14.
[Read more: Aled Jones and Russell Watson promise ‘a lot of melancholy and a lot of memories’ at upcoming Cambridge concert, Aled Jones interview: ‘Performing on stage is as natural as breathing to me’, Rock Choir founder Caroline Redman Lusher celebrates 10 years of the choir in Cambridgeshire]
The inclusion of it on the new album was the first time the Welsh baritone, who also presents BBC1’s Songs of Praise, had ever done it as a duet. It was a glorious rendition, evoking such beautiful nostalgia, and was a fitting end to a heart-warming Christmas concert.
For more on Aled Jones and Russell Watson, visit aledandrussell.com. If you would like to join the Rock Choir (no audition required), the Cambridge branch rehearse every Monday, starting from January 9, 2023. For more information, go to rockchoir.com.
