Vocal harmony group Blake are celebrating 10 years of singing together. Ahead of the group's Weymouth concert, Stephen Bowman, co-founder of the band, tells Joanna Davis why he has spent the last decade doing his dream job.

YOU could certainly bring all three members of Blake home to meet your mother.

Suave, well mannered and with the voices of angels to boot, Blake are the kind of stars you can imagine tucked up in bed with a Horlicks after a concert.

Made up of Stephen Bowman, Ollie Baines and Humphrey Berney, Blake have captured the hearts of many with their swoon-some versions of popular songs such as Chasing Cars, Abide With Me and I'll Make Love To You. In fact, you could say these songs have been given a Blake-over.

Indeed, these boys are so well behaved that the incredibly charming and well spoken Stephen Bowman is sat by the phone waiting for me to call at the agreed time. Believe me you, not many people answer a phone call from the Dorset Echo after just one ring.

The mellifluous voice that greets me is one that still sounds as enthused as an impressionable starlet starting out in the music industry.

Stephen, 38, said he only expected the band to last for a couple of years, but 10 years later, with more than a million albums sold, number one hits in 10 countries and nearly 150 TV appearances around the globe, Blake are setting out on their 10th anniversary tour, calling in at Weymouth Pavilion on Friday, September 7.

“It feels like a long marriage, which in many ways makes the audience our children who have grown older with us!" Stephen jokes.

“None of us expected it to last longer than a couple of years. And then it all took off and we were getting ready to go to other countries and realised that this was kind of a proper job.

“The highlight for me has been performing at the Royal Albert Hall. We've done it eight times in total and every time has been really special. To sing in such an iconic British setting is incredible.”

Slightly less grand than the Royal Albert Hall but just as iconic to Weymouth, Blake will be playing the pavilion theatre when they're in town next Friday.

Stephen tells me he's quite familiar with Dorset having grown up not too far away in Bath.

“I remember going to Weymouth years and years ago in my early years. It will be fun to come back and see it again. It's a gorgeous place," he says.

I ask Stephen if he's surprised classical crossover artists have lasted the course, after the boom in the genre in the early 2000s. It seemed as though classical crossover artists were everywhere after Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli's Time To Say Goodbye, the arrival of Vanessa-Mae, Charlotte Church, Bond and Russell Watson, to name but a few artists.

Stephen said: “When we were starting out there were Il Divo and G4, now there are lots of groups doing this type of music and it has become something of a mini industry.

“In classical crossover all the artists know each other. It's not as dog eat dog and as serious as people might think it is. They probably like to think that we're all squaring up to each other. It's not like the sharks and the jets in West Side Story – it's all very amicable!"

To coincide with their 10th anniversary year Blake released an anniversary album which went to number one in the official UK classical artists chart earlier this year.

Stephen tells me: “It's all the songs we wanted to do over the last decade but never quite got round to it. It went to number one and it's a lovely feeling that all the people who have supported us over the last 10 years have come on this journey with us.”

People can expect songs from the new album and some of Blake's greatest hits over the years at the Weymouth Pavilion concert, Stephen reveals.

“It's a really big mix of pop music and classical music. We've tried to keep it very eclectic so people can have a big variety of songs. We've got a big screen with visuals so people can really get into it. Nessun Dorma has got its own visuals, we want to take people there with the song.”

This year has to be the busiest yet for Blake with a UK tour followed by a tour of Christmas concerts and then a string of dates in Europe followed by a tour of China. How do you cope with all that touring? I ask.

“It sounds very girly but for me the most essential thing is to take my favourite shampoo. When you're going through hotel to hotel you're generally expected to use the shower gel as shampoo. So for me it's all about having the home creature comforts like shampoo and your favourite toothpaste on the road with you. Another lovely thing is when you come back to the hotel and the bed is all made up for you.”

You'd think that he's seen and done it all after 10 years but there's still plenty to tick off Stephen's list.

He said: “We haven't done the Sydney Opera House yet and it's such an iconic location its certainly on my list. I've been slowly ticking them off!"

And as for songs he'd like to record?

“I'm a massive David Bowie fan and there so many David Bowie songs I'd like to sing. Life on Mars is a big classic ballad and I'd love to do that one. We're fans of so many different songs. All of Me by John Legend is another one I'd love to do."

Away from singing Stephen runs his own virtual reality company. He does, however, see Blake continuing for many years into the future.

“We're lucky because for the boy bands who are trying to make that move into a man band it can be hard to evolve but we started out as an old man band, we were always old to start with!

“We were lucky in a way because we never needed people to accept that version of us, we were always it. People just come along and enjoy the music and that's what we want them to continue to do in the future.”

*Blake play Weymouth Pavilion on Friday, September 7. Call the box office for tickets.