The Soldiers - A Band REALLY Worth Listening To

29 September 2009

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Their story sounds like a movie script written by Richard Curtis. It begins in the British Army, features a band of friends on a dream journey, takes in the world’s war zones and reality TV and boasts a feel good soundtrack you would leave the cinema singing. Except this tall tale is true.

The Soldiers are about to make history by becoming the first group of serving, British soldiers to have a hit album. Since being approached last year to record a mix of original material and classic covers, then signed to a major label on the strength of soon-to-be first single Coming Home, the trio have had to squeeze studio sessions in between their respective duties at home and abroad.

As 24 year old Lance Corporal Ryan Idzi, a former X Factor contestant puts it – “Sometimes it’s hard believe we’ve been making an album. One day, we’re in a recording studio in London, the next I’m back at the barracks in Germany. I have to pinch myself to check if it’s real.”

The youngest of The Soldiers, Idzi is in fact the most surprised of the three by his singing success. Despite reaching the boot camp stage of 2007’s X Factor - a series he was tipped to win before succumbing to stage fright – the Caerphilly-born Lance Corporal who has seen active service in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the 20th Armoured Brigade never considered himself a good singer.

“I only entered X Factor because I didn’t have a choice,” he laughs. “I was given the application form by my family and made to fill it in. It was just a joke. I had never considered singing professionally before. I mean, I enjoy singing and I’m a king at karaoke, but that’s as far as it ever went.

“I wasn’t aiming to get far in the contest. I don’t have that mental attitude. As for being tipped to win? Ah, give me a break! It was for a minute or so after the first round. My life didn’t change, unless you count a few folk recognising me as that guy off TV.”

Yet several months later, an email Idzi received from music entrepreneur Jeff Chegwin and partner Nick Patrick, a Grammy-nominated and multiple Classical Brit-winning producer who has worked with Katherine Jenkins, Russell Watson, Hayley Westenra and the Gypsy Kings, did change his life. Chegwin and Patrick already had their eye on two serving sergeants from the Corps Of Army Music, who they planned to approach with the idea of recording an album. When they spotted Idzi on X Factor, they knew they had a band.

“All three of us jumped at the offer,” says Gary Chilton, a Sergeant Major who has served in Germany and Northern Ireland and spent six months on the front line during the first Gulf War, for which he received the Gulf War Medal, presented by The Prince Of Wales. “I have been involved with military music since I joined the army at the age of 16. To be asked to be part of a project like this is fulfilling a lifelong ambition.”

Like Chilton, Oldham-born sergeant Richie Maddocks is a trained soldier who provides musical support for the army. One of seven brothers and sisters – his six siblings are all gigging musicians – Maddocks enlisted at 16 and has toured throughout Europe, Canada and The Falkland Islands. He was deployed as a medical assistant in the first Gulf War and awarded the Gulf Medal and now serves with The Minden Band as drum major of The Queen’s Division.

“I’ve played everything from Colonel Bogey in the middle of the desert in Saudi Arabia to rock’n’roll at an abandoned aircraft hanger to entertain the troops in Iraq. We play wherever we’re needed. We do Freedom Parades and Pass Off Parades – you couldn’t imagine a parade without music. I’ve played to crowds of 6000 in Cyprus and to fifty dignitaries at a dinner.”

Despite how keen The Soldiers were to start recording, there were logistical problems.