Alexander Armstrong

[IcedVanillaLatte]

Seriously man. What were you thinking?

Every time I hear you singing "Golden Brown" I feel pain.

YABU. Stop it.

Just stop.

Stop.

[Agerbilatemycardigan]

What about Pretty Vacant Sitting ?

[MoonriseKingdom]

Thanks for this thread. It has solved the annual what to buy my MIL conundrum.

[MoonriseKingdom]

On the subject of drug abuse in popular music has anyone noticed Thorntons are using the song 'Pass it on' by The Coral in their Christmas advert. I am pretty sure that song is about sharing a joint (Find the feeling, pass it on). Maybe Thorntons have made their chocolates a bit more exciting this year.

[RitaCrudgington]

I can kind of understand how AA came to the conclusion that his very privileged upbringing didn't contribute to his success. He has spent most of his working life in double acts with Ben Miller or Richard Osman both of whom are comprehensive educated blokes from very ordinary backgrounds but have had almost identical levels of success to AA. If you were an English graduate who hadn't adjusted those three sample data points for the relative prevalence of each type of background in the U.K., I can see how you might conclude that class doesn't matter.

[BertrandRussell]

Joffrey- that really is utter bollocks!

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

Sounds like a classic case of the unnoticed privilege that this cartoon illustrates so well.

I am sure he worked hard and was talented and stood out at open auditions and got jobs and parts based on that rather than on contacts, but even so....

[SouthWindsWesterly]

He was in the live sound of music on itv and was quite good in that....

(Toodles off whistling...)

[BertrandRussell]

I doubt if Armstrong's background did help him much-apart from smoothing his passage to the Golden Ticket of light entertainment- Oxbridge............

[JoffreyBaratheon]

WouldHave, I've seen a trillion acts and heard them ripped apart by musicians afterwards. You grow up being able to rip apart anyone's singing in 5 seconds, whether you like it or not. And I'm guessing I'm his target audience.

I'm not the only one thinks he has a thin, reedy voice. The walking shots, beaches and chunky jumpers just make it all worse. But strip away the Val Doonican/Daniel O'Donnell soft focus shite - you still have a thin, reedy voice.

Although I do hope he's done one by a crackling log fire, wearing a cardi, in a rocking chair, with kiddies' xmas stockings hung up in the background. I couldn;tsit through any more of his nasal whining. Anyone want to tell me that there is one with a log fire?

[JoffreyBaratheon]

And he's talking crap about his silver spoon not being an advantage in show biz. I went to a Russell Group uni in the 1980s when it was bloody hard to get in. (Hard as in 30 people applied, got 3 or more A Levels and still got turned down for every one of us that eventually took a place).

On a course on around 100 people - only two of us came from comprehensive schools. Two.

A number of us have gone on to be on radio or TV, or actors on the stage, or published writers. I don't see anyone from my old comp doing any of those things and whilst I'm older than him, I'm not a great deal older... If he really said that - he's pretty offensive.

Which is a shame for an anodyne crooner.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

He was in the live sound of music on itv and was quite good in that....


Did he play Max? I didn't see him. I watched a snippet of it but had to quickly turn away from the horror

[phoenix1404]

Joffrey,

...strip away the Val Doonican/Daniel O'Donnell soft focus shite - you still have a thin, reedy voice.

For context, I have a degree in music and am a trained opera singer.

I've just had a detailed listen to the album on Spotify and I genuinely can't agree with you. Naturally he lightens his voice for the more 'poppy' tracks, as opposed to The Vagabond (for instance), but that doesn't make it 'thin', just lighter. And while there's always a danger of choristers and ex-choristers being reedy, it doesn't apply to his voice, which is full and rich. I wonder if you're thinking of tracks like Fields of Gold, where he exploits the colours at the junction between his head and falsetto voices?

His singing won't be to everyone's taste, and that's absolutely fine. But to say he's not a good singer is quite simply not true.

[BertrandRussell]

Joffrey- the tuning thing really is bollocks. Pitch perfect. As a Trinity choral scholar would have to be.

[JoffreyBaratheon]

His voice is awful. No two ways about it.

[Cary2012]

To the poster who wanted to throw something at the ad for the new Cliff Richard album - I feel your pain. Loathsome little weak voiced lizard man. Should have retired fifty years ago when he was middle aged.

And when I first saw AA sing at the end of Pointless one year, I thought it was a comedy sketch, half way through I realised it wasn't, and cringed on his behalf. Put me right off him.

Maybe Jeremy Kyle could do an album, 'The DNA results reveal' or something.

[phoenix1404]

OK Joffrey, you stick to your bollocks. Whatever you say.

[BuntyFigglesworthSpiffington]

I too initially thought his dad like crooning was part of a comedy sketch. When I realised he was being sincere in his crooning I found it far more amusing than any comedy sketch. I'm sure he has an adequate voice if you're into that kind of thing (who exactly is into this kind of thing?) but the cheesiness, oh the cheesiness. And you say he's covered Golden Brown?!

[JoffreyBaratheon]

His fans are scary. Mind you, so are Cliff's.

[BuntyFigglesworthSpiffington]

I've just listened to a snippet of his version of Golden Brown. 'Never a fwown with golden bwowwwwwwn'. Oh dearie me, I might need some heroin after that.

What's next? Aled Jones doing a grime track?

[Mondegreens]

I think he has the kind of good voice and obvious musicality you would expect from an ex-Oxbridge choral scholar - people with bad voices don't become choral scholars! - but I do think there's an audible mismatch between his vocal type and training and the MOR repertoire he seems to end up singing now. His training was in crisp choral diction, for one thing, and he sounds deeply comfortable singing anything slangy, informal or with contractions, and he was trained to project, unmiked, in a church space, rather than sing solo into a microphone etc. His voice shows itself at its best and most 'natural' in much more formal/choral repertoires.

[phoenix1404]

I think that's fair comment Mondegreens, particularly about his diction.

[bananamonkey]

AA is a Tory?! I'm not sure what's worse, finding this out or the music. Loving the Songs of Addiction

See also Laurence Fox, his dreadful Coldplay-lite music totally killed my crush

[BertrandRussell]

Just wasted some time on utube. Found a couple of rather lovely Christmas Carols, if you like that sort of traditional style for traditional carols. And some Gilbert and Sullivan and some Noel Coward.

As I said. There is much to criticise him for. Not least his politics. And his choice of material. And his teeth grinding sense of entitlement. But his singing is on the top side of good.

[WhatALoadOfOldBollocks]

"What about Pretty Vacant"

Oh yes..."Alexander Armstong Sings the Sex Pistols" out Christmas 2017 That would be comedy gold

[JoffreyBaratheon]

Maybe he could sing for the next tory party political broadcast?

'Annie's Song' whilst he does a long soft focus walking shot, then goes indoors to a cosy log fire and plays with some puppies or kittens; played over a montage of soft focus pictures of Theresa May, looking 'caring'? (If they can find that footage).

Although I prefer the Sex Pistols idea.

Does he twerk?