It is truly amazing to think that this time last year, we four members of Blake had only just started recording our debut album! We had never sung in professional studios before, we’d never performed to the public as a group before, and we had no idea what was in store for us over the next 12 months. A year ago, we were 4 friends that shared a love of crossover music, and a vision to bring this musical style to a much wider audience than ever before. Sitting here now, a year later, I think we’ve made a good start on our intentions. After our debut album reached the top of the classical charts, and proceeded to hit Gold Disc status, we didn’t think it could get any better. With all the amazing support that we received from our kind fans, we weren’t sure we could impress you any further either. Over the last three months, I think we’ve proved to ourselves and everyone else, that Blake can indeed go much further indeed. We owe all our success to your amazing support, so let me take you through the last few months to show you what you’ve helped us achieve.

3 months ago we found out from the Classical Brits committee that Blake had been nominated for Album of the Year, an amazing honour, but a sudden realisation that our work had only just begun. We knew that with tough competition from the likes of the Hayley Westernra, The Scots Dragoon Pipers and Alfie Boe, we would need to work our hardest ever to achieve the public votes we needed. With your help, we toured the UK spreading the word about the Classical Brits and Blake’s nomination. We visited over 20 radio stations, appeared on 6 regional TV shows, performed at over 15 schools (to pupils from 6-18 years old), performed for the War Widows, appeared at the Bath rugby ground with the Bath team, gave interviews for 20  local newspapers & magazines, and performed to thousands of city financial workers at Liverpool street on two occasions. We emailed, we facebooked, we texted and phoned, until we were sure that there was nothing more we could all do to secure every last vote. Once the voting closed on the 11th of April, we had to endure over a month of waiting to see whether our and your efforts had paid off. As the day of the Classical Brits awards loomed, we crossed our fingers.

It was so reassuring to see so many of you at the Classical Brits awards to support our nomination. I can honestly say that one of the most touching moments of my life so far, was when our nomination was read out by Simon Bates and hundreds of people screamed in the audience. You guys really are fantastic in how your support us, and believe me, we absolutely couldn’t do this without you. When, Simon Bates opened the envelope to reveal that Blake had won, I think our reaction said it all. All I could do was jump for joy and give Ollie, Dom and Jules the biggest hug ever. What you might not have noticed in the TV footage of the event, was that as I jumped up, I actually kicked my chair over on to some poor person sat behind me. So many friends have commented since, that I was smiling so broadly from ear to ear that I must have been drunk – as our ever supportive management will tell you, I was so nervous during the evening I didn’t even dare to drink a thing! Being up on that stage in front of 3000 people, to pick up such a prestigious award counts as one of the most overwhelming moments of my life so far. Knowing that friends, family and fans were all so proud of us, but also that Blake had finally made a big impact on the classical music scene, really made the moment special.

Within days of letting the hangovers from celebrating fade, we were already being prepared for our next big adventure. After seeing how much music lovers liked Blake in the UK, executives at Universal Records in Japan, requested that Blake come over to Japan to launch our debut album there too. This was a massive surprise as we really didn’t expect to be taking our music to an international audience for years to come.

During the 2 weeks that Blake spent in Japan we got to experience the huge range of food, entertainment, luxury and scenery that this amazing country has to offer. We visited Osaka, Tokyo and Kobe, but also many other districts outside these major cities. As a result of performing prestigious shows for Cartier, Blake were treated to some fantastic luxury Hotels, including the Ritz Carlton in Osaka, and the Grand Hyatt in Tokyo. Staying in such amazing hotels certainly helped to ease the awful jet-lag which we were all suffering with for almost half of the trip. During our stay we experienced every type of traditional Japanese cuisine available, from bizarre seafood (including the very unusual brown sea urchin) through to the delicious but extremely expensive Kobe Beef. The Japanese are amazing hosts and made sure that Blake experienced everything possible. You’ll be happy to learn that Japanese music lovers enjoyed our music, almost as much as you tell us you do! By the end of the short two week trip, we had performed on 8 radio shows, been interviewed by 10 newspapers and had been shown on a number of breakfast TV shows. We were invited by Universal records to go into a typical Japanese record to see our CD’s on sale. It was so strange to see our CD’s stacked in rows, with big marketing boards all around them, so far from the UK where we had recorded the songs. It really brought home how far we had come.

Looking to the coming months, we’ve got lots of concerts with Katherine Jenkins, at venues across the UK. We’ve already performed two concerts with Katherine at Hampton Court Palace, which was a superb venue for a show. Katherine is an amazing performer and we feel honoured to be sharing the same stage with her. She even went as far as to introduce Blake as being “four boys who aren’t too hard on the eye”, a sure-fire way to flatter us four. Her concerts are full of wonderful songs that show off her amazing singing skills, whilst totally involving the audience in her special endearing way. We’re so proud to be sharing the stage as special guests again, when she goes on an even bigger tour in December. We can’t wait!

Last night we attended the film premier of Prince Caspian, at the O2 Centre in London. We spent time chatting to journalists and interviewers on the red carpet, before being ushered into the centre to watch the film along with 10,000 other guests. Dom actually performed with the lead actor of the film, whilst he was part of the National Youth Music Theatre, so he was very proud to see his friend doing so well. We took some time at the after show party to have some photos taken with Ben, they should hopefully be up on our facebook group soon.

Thank you again for all your collective support of Blake, this year is going to be quite a ride for all of us. Please excuse us if we go a little quiet over the summer though, concerts aside, as we are spending all our free time in Notting Hill recording the second album – it’s out in late September and you’re in for a real treat; more on that in our next blog. Look forward to seeing you soon as a summer concert.

Stephen.