November 1973. At St John’s College, Oxford, a shaggy-haired, flamboyantly dressed undergraduate is happily dividing his time between studying for a law degree and playing guitar and singing in his rock group, the Ugly Rumours – his main aim for the latter, as a fellow bandmember will later admit, is to meet girls. That student is called Tony Blair. His nascent career as a rockstar might get no further, but he will at least go on to quite big things in politics.
Meanwhile, in the year below Blair, a fellow St John’s student (with shorter hair) has a more serious musical intent. On 3 November at the Church of St Mary Magdalen, across the road from college, a 20-year-old Peter Phillips takes to the stage to conduct a group of fellow enthusiasts in a concert of Renaissance choral music. Empty seats far outnumber the occupied ones, but the seeds of enthusiasm are sown. Phillips decides he can make a go of this on a long-term basis – the story of the Tallis Scholars has begun.
‘I would love to meet someone who was in the audience that night,’ reflects Phillips when we chat some 49 years and seven months later. ‘I think there were about 20-or-so people there, but I’ve never found anyone who is prepared to admit it! Maybe we should put it out on social media?’
‘The trouble is, those who were there are all of an age that probably doesn’t use Twitter…’ comes a reply to my left. This is Amy Haworth, a soprano with
