Lloyd Griffith is a “disarmingly good” comedian (The Times) and a professional choirboy. He supported Jack Whitehall and Rob Beckett on their respective sold out UK tours including performances at Wembley Arena, Manchester Arena, Newcastle Metro and Hammersmith Apollo. You may have seen him most recently on TV, in It’s A Sin, House of Games or Jonathan Ross’ Comedy Club. Alongside his comedy and acting career, Griffith is a countertenor, and can often be found singing with the choirs of Westminster Abbey and St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. He was a chorister from the age of seven, was awarded a choral scholarship to Exeter University, and from there made singing his career (or at least, one of them…).

We discussed how being a chorister was the perfect training for becoming a comic and how the classical music industry can reach a more working-class audience. Listen to some of Lloyd’s top tunes in our Spotify playlist.

Let’s kick off with a quick-fire round...

Favourite cathedral? I’m obsessed with cathedrals. I have a bit in my stand-up set where I say if you name any cathedral I can tell you at least one fact about every cathedral in the UK. It’s not your traditional comedy but it’s funny. My favourite is Exeter.
Favourite composer/era? Thomas Tallis. My favourite piece of music is Spem in Alium. My love of music basically is from medieval through to baroque, and then from the 20th century with the revival of the countertenor. Classical music in its truest sense can absolutely do one.
Favourite place to sing? Mary Harris Chapel at Exeter University. It’s like an upturned bathtub. You could fart in that venue and it would sound incredible.
Favourite opera? A Midsummer Night's Dream by Britten.
Favourite Mag & Nunc setting? Howells’s St Paul’s Service. In between the first two lockdowns I got leathered in Borough and then decided to walk home to Battersea. I was looking at St Paul’s Cathedral over Jubilee Bridge and it looked amazing. I started playing Howells St Paul’s Service, sung by St Paul’s Cathedral Choir, whilst looking at St Paul’s Cathedral, pretty much in tears like some fat, sad lunatic.

What have you been watching on TV during lockdown? Absolutely everything. I just finished Baptiste and Lupin. Also Line of Duty, Tiger King, The English Game. I never used to be a big binger but I’ve really been getting into it.
Any new lockdown hobbies? I always said if I had 6-20 weeks spare time, I'd learn how to play the piano, because that's something I can't do and it's a massive bug bear with me. To this day I still maintain the reason why I didn't go to Oxford University was because I couldn't play the piano. But also I live on the fourth floor in an apartment block so to get an actual piano up here would be the biggest nightmare in the world. So I wish I could play the piano but really I've just been writing a lot.

Let’s start at the beginning. How did you get into classical music?

When I joined my school there was a big service in the church. I remember asking my headmistress at the time: “What’s happening? Who’s singing?” That led to auditioning with the organist – I think I sang “jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled” – and got in. It was very random because I’m from a very working-class background and single-parent, non-musical family. It got me off 50% off the school fees, so my Mum was keen. The local posh school was the only parish church in the country with its own choir school (St James School, Grimsby) so it was quite prestigious. My auntie had a quite rich friend (I say rich...rich in Grimsby terms) who gave my Mum some money for me to go.

Lloyd Griffith Credit Karla Gowlett.jpg — “I owe all of my career to the fact that I was a choirboy”

How did you find chorister life?

It was the best time of my life. It gave me something to be a part of which I hadn't had, apart from with my family. I went to a normal comprehensive school before St James and there were no real clubs, and I was bullied for being a little fat loser, and then I went to St James and I had an identity. I was a good singer, I had a choir with loads of mates, went on tour, we earned money from singing at weddings, it was great. I think that’s why a lot of kids join football teams, because it gives them a sense of belonging. I actually think that adults lack a lot in this day and age, and that’s why you get so many angry football fans and political fans. I absolutely loved every minute of my choir years.

Having sung for pretty much every day of your life, first as a chorister, then as a choral scholar at Exeter (doing nine services a week) and a lay clerk at Guildford Cathedral, it must have been really tough losing that part of your life during lockdown.

Not to be able to sing for the last 18 months has been absolutely insane for my mental health. Singing in choirs is just something that I’ve taken for granted really. It’s a real hole in my life, having done it religiously for 30 years.

Have you done any virtual choirs?

I couldn't think of anything worse. I've done a lot of virtual comedy because I think that can work, but I wouldn't get any enjoyment out of singing in my dining room by my golf clubs.

On top of singing being paused for over a year, have your comedy and acting jobs also been on hold? How have you found the sudden lack of creative inspiration?

I've really struggled to write comedy, and I'm sure a lot of my peers will say that I've had that problem for the last five years, but I just felt a bit mean on myself, being like "Come on, Lloyd, everyone's going through this". I remember listening to Radio 1 when Annie Mac was interviewing Gaz Coombes off of Supergrass. She asked "Have you been writing any new music?" And he was like "No I can't, I literally can't, I can't be creative at the moment, my head's not in a good place" and I was like "finally, someone feels the same".

As someone who is regularly in the spotlight, I can’t imagine it was the easiest thing for you to suddenly be alone all the time.

It has been an absolute disaster for mental health. I was always the class clown. I found a way of channelling that by doing stand up and by doing the various things I do. I can’t be the class knobhead if there’s no class, so it’s just trying to find ways of combatting that and dealing with it. Online comedy gigs were great because that gave a little bit of the drug that I need.

If I had your various careers I’d have a lot of performance anxiety. Do you have ways of dealing with stage fright or is it not something you really suffer from?

I think my stage fright for comedy has been curtailed because of singing. My most recent tour was with Jack Whitehall and we were doing venues like the O2 and the Manchester Arena – 10,000-20,000 seater arenas. I wouldn’t get nervous before going on because the worst that can happen is I start to have a shit one but I can rescue it by taking the piss out of myself for having a shit one. Whereas if you sing, you can’t get away with getting it wrong. There’s only tiny room for error and that’s how you’re measured, validated and reviewed.

Lloyd Griffith 152 - Credit Karla Gowlett copy.jpg — “It’s deeply frustrating that classical radio stations are alienating 70% of the country”

It sounds like being in a choir was good training for you becoming a comic.

100%. Singing in a choir from the age of seven gave me the training to understand how to perform on stage, how to deal with nerves and anxiety, respect, teamwork, individuality and so much more. I owe all of my career to the fact that I was a choir boy. It was an amazing upbringing.

How have you found it going between the different classes in your various worlds?

I’ve had to navigate that from an early age. I went from being one of only three kids to get the bus to school (everyone else was driven in their nice cars) to a very middle-class university experience, singing with people who all went to Marlborough, Oakham and St Paul’s. I remember going on an Eton Choral Course when I was 16 or 17 and just thinking it was next level posh. The industry doesn’t do itself any favours by the talent they get on the screen and radio. They need to appeal to a younger and more working class audience. I think it’s a real market to capitalise on, especially in the last year using classical music as an aid to get through what we’ve gone through.

Is classical music something you post about on your own social media channels?

In the first lockdown I walked past Albert Bridge every day in Battersea and would do a story accompanied with choral music. A lot of people reached out and said “I love listening to your music, can you do a separate playlist of choral music on Spotify?”. It’s called Bridge Music and you can find it on my Instagram highlights. [We’ve made this into a Spotify playlist]

Any suggestions for what can be done to improve the class divide in classical music?

There’s a real movement at the moment to make comedy more accessible, and rightly so. You’ve got a lot more diverse acts in front of the camera and behind the camera. You don’t get that as much on Classic FM or Radio 3. I think it’s deeply frustrating that they’re just alienating 70% of the country. I don't think people in Grimsby would know what Radio 3 is. You’ve got your middle class presenters on Classic FM doing their very middle class thing. I think they’re great but you need younger, working-class people on there to bring in a new, fresh audience, otherwise it will dwindle and become extinct.

Sounds like something you’d be ideal for.

I would absolutely kill for a radio show. That would be the dream: having a two-hour choral music slot on Radio 3 or Classic FM, not being pretentious about it but teaching people about the choral classics.

Lloyd Griffith is touring the UK with his Not Just A Pretty Face tour from September 2021.

Sign up to our mailing list

Interview: Lloyd Griffith