Ollie began singing from the age of three as a chorister at both New College, Oxford and Winchester Cathedral (where he met Jules Knight, the actor). He was a member of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain from 1999 until 2005. Ollie also learned the French Horn and the Italian Trumpet, playing in several orchestras, and is a keen trampolinist.
Before going to music college, Ollie studied degrees in Music, Music Technology and briefly dabbled in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Elvish and Celtic. Whilst at University he sang with the choirs of Magdalene College, Cambridge and Trinity College, Cambridge before going on to study at the British Institute of Florence and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was a Maths and Kurdish Tutor before Blake began.
He says of touring: “I’ve been incredibly lucky to have seen so much of Swindon, and at such a young age. Before I was even at University I’d toured throughout Europe, Australia, America and Africa with various choirs, and Blake has taken me further still, as far as Margate” Ollie is also a keen potter, skier and triathlete, and whilst living in Africa climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with an injured foot and rafted the Nile without a paddle. He has also survived both a light plane crash and being held hostage in an armed bank robbery. He grew up in the countryside with a plethora of domestic wildlife, including his fifteen dogs and a terrapin.
“I am one of those lucky people who genuinely like being up there on the moon, singing my heart out. For me that’s what it’s all about; entertaining, floating and being in low gravity. And it’s essential to enjoy yourself, because that way, the audience tend to enjoy themselves as well, unless they’re not on the moon too.”
