Aled Jones - Aled Jones--My Story

T HE FIRST TIME I heard about being summoned before the Prince of Wales was when I came home from school on a Monday afternoon. As usual, I had spent the day at David Hughes Comprehensive in Menai Bridge and had returned home on the school bus, with more pupils crammed on board than there were seats. I always stood up at the front with my mates. We were typical 13-year-olds with scuffed shoes and ties that had been ripped off and stuffed in our sports bags the moment we left the school buildings.

It was 1985, I was at the height of my career as a boy soprano and there was a great offer of some sort waiting for me nearly every day when I arrived home. All important decisions in our house would be made around the kitchen table. Mam was the teacher of the reception class at the local primary school, so she got home first and cooked the evening meal. Dad would come home from his job as an engineer. We would all sit around the table and invariably there would be a letter inviting me to sing in one concert or another.

On this particular day, though, my parents were both white-faced. Mam asked, How do you feel about singing for Prince Charles and Princess Diana?

When the call came through from Prince Charless private secretary my parents could not believe it, presuming it to be a practical joke. The official said: Prince Charles has loved your sons voice for a long time. He knows that hes thirteen and would like to hear him sing for himself before his voice breaks. So would he be kind enough to come down to Kensington Palace and perform for the Prince and Princess of Wales?

Oh, yeah! was my immediate reply, because secretly I loved Princess Diana, I really did. I thought that she was the best thing in the world. Then, when Mam and Dad told me where I would be singing, in the Prince and Princesss private living room at Kensington Palace, I just didnt know what to make of it. It was all going to happen just three days later.

The first thing that went through my mind was that it probably wouldnt get any bigger than singing for royalty. People who live in North Wales dont often get the opportunity to see the royal family. It was to be the biggest thing that I could have done at that time. What made me even more nervous was that the Prince and Princess were inviting me into their house. All sorts of silly questions flashed through my mind. What would I wear? What would I have to eat? What would happen if I made a mistake? Lying in bed that night, I felt a mixture of nervousness and real excitement. The next morning the big question was: what was I going to sing?

I was asked to bring a pianist with me and I chose one of the best I have ever worked with a lady called Annette Bryn Parri. When she found out that she was going to be playing at Kensington Palace, she was as amazed as I was.

What happened to me as a child was easy for me because I didnt fully appreciate what was going on, but for my parents it must have been the biggest shock of their lives. They both continued with their normal jobs Dad worked really hard and was unable to get time off to come down to London for my royal command performance. So it was myself, Mam and Annette who stood on the platform of Bangor station waiting for the train to London. As I shivered in the wind, I became convinced that it was one of the coldest places anywhere in the world.

We stayed at the Royal Garden Hotel, right next to Kensington Palace. That evening, one of the Princes equerries came to the hotel to explain what would happen. Thats when the precision of it all hit me everything was planned down to an exact time. Before I went to bed, I looked out of the window of my room. I could see policemen walking along the private path to the Palace, which was lit by the glow of these very old-fashioned lanterns. That was the path I would be taking the following evening.

The day of my special performance passed very quickly. Soon it was time to get dressed for the evening. I wore a pair of grey trousers, a white shirt and a red bow tie, much to my embarrassment as I look back on it now. Bow ties were something of a trademark of mine at the time, because the lady who looked after the wardrobe for a BBC Wales television series I had made had decided that I would wear a different-coloured one for each programme. I ended up with more than 20 of them in every embarrassing colour imaginable. Needless to say, they are no longer part of my stage wardrobe these days.

A Welsh businessman who lived in London, Simon Davies, offered to drive us to the Palace in his Rolls-Royce. By this stage, I was so nervous that I couldnt manage to open the car door. I sat in the front and sank deep into the massive leather seat. As we drew up to the first guard post outside Kensington Palace, a policeman came out. He was expecting us and said, On you go, Mr Jones. We continued along the drive. The lanterns seemed to be a different colour from normal streetlamps, more like those old sulphur ones with an orange glow. It was all very Dickensian, very old London. We stopped at a second guard post and another policeman checked who we were, before waving us through. Eventually, we arrived at the back door of Kensington Palace. I was aware that we were going to a pretty awesome house.

The equerry whom we had met the night before greeted us at the door, along with the butler. He said, Theyre very excited about you coming. Theyve been talking about it all day. I couldnt quite believe it I was 13 and this was the future king. Why would he be excited about meeting me? Surely it should have been the other way around? Mam, Annette and I were whisked into the Prince and Princesss private living room. We sat there on our own waiting for them and I suppose that at that moment I was more nervous than at any other time in my career. Even Annette, who was always very level-headed, said, I cant believe were really in their house. It definitely was a home and nothing like the sort of stateroom that you might imagine; you could tell that it was a room that they actually used. There were sofas everywhere, photos of Prince William and Prince Harry as babies and pictures of the Prince and Princess wearing normal clothes. These were all shots that you would never see in the papers.

Moments after we had sat down, the door opened and Prince Charles walked in. He was so gracious and such a lovely man, particularly with Mam and Annette. The first thing he said was, You must have a drink. Mam and Annette didnt know if he meant a cup of tea, a cup of coffee or wine. He must have sensed their confusion and I will never forget how he leaned forward, touched Mams knee and said, Youd fancy a gin and tonic, wouldnt you?