Chants for charts

BY PIERS MUGRANDLE
MONKS AND CHOIRBOYS from Downside Abbey are to release a new album of Gregorian chants next month. Virgin Records have described the album, called The Abbey, as the "ultimate winding down experience".
The music, which was recorded at Downside Abbey in April, follows in the wake of the multi-million selling Canto Gregoriano and The Choir. Record company executives are keen to exploit a growing niche in the market.
This is not the first entrance for the monks into the recording industry and Downside choirboys have already made an impact around the world.
According to press reports, their music moved pop singer Sting to tears at a recent birthday performance at the ex-Police star's country home in Wiltshire.
Downside choirboys have also performed to a starstudded Hollywood crowd that included Liza Minelli and Warren Beatty.
The driving forces behind The Abbey, which is to be backed up by, a major television and advertising campaign, are choirmaster Fr Dunstan O'Keeffe, director of music David Lawson and charismatic headmaster Dom Antony Sutch, himself a former pupil of the school.