AN UNLIKELY friendship with Dame Shirley Bassey is just one of the many facets to the multi-talented Blake.

The trio of heartthrobs - Ollie Baines, Stephen Bowman and Humphrey Berney rose to fame in 2007 with their debut album going straight to number one in the UK Classical Alum Chart.

Ahead of their visit to Taunton's Brewhouse Theatre, I caught up with Bath-born member Stephen Bowman.

Music runs deep in the veins of Stephen, with an opera-singing mother and a German rock-guitar playing father, it was almost inevitable he'd follow suit.

But it wasn't until his teenage years that he really took an interest in music.

So what can audiences next week look forward to?

Stephen said: "Taunton is definitely one of the places I would have visited while I was growing up, but this is our first time performing there and we are really looking forward to it.

"We're on tour at the moment and it's been going so well, we've been all over the UK and over in America.

"It's always really lovely as a performer to come back to somewhere local to you."

The tour is a new one which features the finest songs from stage and screen, featuring music from Hanz Zimmer, Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Beach Boys and many more.

Stephen added: "All of us have a love for songs in films and musicals and I think the reason so many people enjoy them is because when you hear them on the radio it brings you back to that iconic moment on stage and screen.

"As a band there's so many amazing songs out there and we wanted to do bring together some of our favourite songs from musicals and films in a tour and it's been pretty awesome actually.

"It's kind of naff but my favourite is the theme from Top Gun - Take My Breath Away.

"The English lyrics didn't quite work with how we wanted to perform the song so instead we've translated it into Italian and there's something really quite beautiful about it.

"Three three of us have quite different musical backgrounds really, both Ollie and Humphrey were choristers whereas I was in a rock band growing up and it wasn't until my head of music said to me that if I wanted to get serious about going to a good music school I should be studying classical music."

Stephen went on to audition for the London Guildhall of Music and Drama and was granted a place.

The band are good friends of Dame Shirley Bassey, and together they recorded "The Christmas Song" last year.

"We were asked to sing at her 70th birthday party, and she took us under her wing that night and looked after us, so we've known her from when we started out," Stephen recalls.

"She's absolutely amazing and one of our biggest icons in music.

"We've always kept in contact and last year she was talking about how she had never done a Christmas song throughout her career so we asked her if she wanted to join us on a song and she said yes but we thought it was just the pink champagne talking but then it actually happened.

"We performed together on Strictly Come Dancing on Christmas Day last year which was just so surreal but absolutely amazing."

The band were formed over Facebook when Stephen and Ollie, who both studied at the Guildhall decided to start a band.

Stephen added: "We knew we wanted to form a harmony group with a cross-over of genres to suit our different musical tastes and training so thought we would do an informal search of Facebook to see if there was any of our contacts and we found about four and took it from there.

"We managed to get a chance to perform at Universal Studios and after just 20 minutes of singing they signed us,.

"It's quite rare in music to come together like that and be able to do what you want to do instead of being told what to do, I think we were lucky that the music label were looking for something like us.

"One thing I've taken from our journey so far is that you need to continue to work hard.

"The success of the first album was a bit of a dream really, we just thought that was what happened when you went into music but then there's the tricky second and third albums and establishing yourself to new audiences, it's always a challenge but so enjoyable.

"Next year marks our 10th year and we are working on something quite special really going back to our classical roots with a full orchestra and some special guests but I couldn't possibly say who."

A keen motorcyclist, Stephen says he is never late for rehearsals thanks to his quick mode of transport.

He added: "I have a 600 CC superbike which I use to get around London.

"It's been great as over the summer I've used it a few times to get to concerts but it is getting colder now so I think when we come to Taunton, I'll just stick to the warm seat of a car."