by Chris True
With a rotating membership based upon a certain necessary vocal quality -- that of the traditional chorister -- the Choirboys started in 2005, when members Charles John Porter-Thaw, Patrick Aspbury, and Ben Inman were brought together and signed to Universal for an eventual release. With the classical crossover phenomenon in full swing, their debut album, The Choirboys, was an instant smash, selling 100,000 copies in the first week. It would eventually sell in the neighborhood of 750,000. Unfortunately, the glory for the individual members was to be short lived, as maturity set in, changing the voices of the singers, and in 2007 a new lineup was announced. The powers that be brought in new singers William Dutton, Bill Goss, and Andrew Swait to record the second Choirboys album, released in December 2007, a holiday record entitled The Carols Album.