Published: Thursday, 2nd October, 2008 10:30am

The boys in the band

by Lucy Crossley

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Fans of Jonathan Ross will already be aware of the presenter's house band, Four Poofs and a Piano, but now the boys are striking out on their own. LUCY CROSSLEY chats to band member Ian Parkin.

SINCE November 2001 staying in on a Friday night has been the new going out, thanks to Jonathan Ross and his unique brand of witty celebrity interrogation.

But the unsung heroes of the show are undoubtedly ‘Wossy's' house band, Four Poofs and a Piano, who are now stepping out of the popular presenter's shadow and into the spotlight as they hit the road on their first ever national tour.

Telly fans will recognise the band, who help make star guests feel right at home with their choral introductions, but as one of the quartet, who are described as "more hairdressers than barber shop", Ian Parkin, explains, there is a lot more to the group than 20-second musical morsels.

"Whenever we get feedback from the audience they always say things like ‘wow, you can actually sing'", Ian says. "When we first started performing after we'd appeared on the show people were really surprised about how much we actually did because they've only ever seen us do a few seconds worth before a guest comes out.

"But we are all singers and we are a real group!"

Ian and the rest of the boys have already wowed audiences across the country with jaunty re-workings of classic covers mixed with their own comic observations of life in the noughties and as they prepare to hit Reading Ian says he is enjoying life on tour.

"I love doing the live stuff," he says. "I just hope the audiences are enjoying the show as much as me.

"We've got everything from the sublime to the ridiculous - we've got a religious piece called Tesco Saves and we're even doing a choral version of Bohemian Rhapsody.

"That was so hard to put together and halfway through we were thinking ‘why did we do this' but it shows off the musical aspect of what we do and people have really appreciated that."

The fabulous foursome met when they joined another choir at the same time, and after discovering they shared a mutual background in the entertainment industry, decided to form a singing group of their own.

"We didn't for a moment think that within six months we'd be on telly," Ian says.

They had only been together for eight months when the group was spotted by Ross's producers performing a charity gig at the infamous Groucho Club in London.

"We were just very, very lucky," says Ian. "And it did come as quite a shock to start doing the show. For a lot of the first two series we were like rabbits in the headlights but by the third series we had relaxed a bit and now it's really good fun."

It's hard to believe but the series of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross showing on BBC one at the moment is actually the 15th but Ian says everyone involved is enjoying themselves as much as ever.

"The show is recorded as a live show so there is no stopping and starting," explains Ian. "That's quite exciting but it means that if we make a mistake it goes in and we can't do anything about it.

"It's a really happy show to work on and it's hard to believe we've just started series 15 because we still get very star struck, especially when huge stars like Meryl Streep come in."

And Ian is full of praise for the show's host. "Jonathan is very intelligent and very sharp," Ian says.

"He's got a memory like a filing system and it's very hard for us to keep up with him a lot of the time.

"He might say something to us and it's quite difficult to come up with a witty response - we normally just laugh."

Four Poofs and a Piano play Reading Concert Hall on Friday, October 10, at 8pm. Tickets are £14.50 from 0118 960 6060 or www.readingarts.com