Out of the Blue (OOTB) is an all-male a cappella vocal group at Oxford University in England. The group concentrates on covers of modern rock and pop songs, though also perform soul, folk, hip hop, dance and regularly perform their own comedy sketches. They regularly perform in Oxford and travel extensively around the UK having performed in schools all over the country. In recent year gigs have included performances at Edinburgh Castle, Nassau Coliseum at an NHL match between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Islanders and for guests the world-famous Gleneagles Hotel. As pioneers of college a cappella in Europe, they have travelled to the USA and were instrumental in starting the first European regional competition for the International Championship of College A Cappella. Not only did they host the first competition, in April 2006, having beaten all other UK groups to be named European Champions of Collegiate A Cappella Out of the Blue were invited to sing in New York's Lincoln Center in the World Finals and were placed second in the International Championship of College A CappellaSee 2006 Results. With that achievement they became the only non-US group to place in the top three in the competition's history. That same month, Out of the Blue went on tour around the West Coast of the United States, with performances in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon and Seattle. In March 2008 the group were named European Champions again, taking home the award for Best Choreography for the second year running and following a tour of California including San Francisco and Los Angeles over Easter they represented Europe once more in the International Finals of the ICCAs in New York, performing in the 3000-seater Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Center. In November 2006, Out of the Blue featured on the 8th Episode of The Slammer, a children's television programme broadcast throughout the UK on BBC1, failing to win their freedom from the fictional prison. Episode Guide from BBC-run website This followed appearances on both Central News (ITV) and South Today (BBC) in May 2006. On April 20th 2008, Out of the Blue performed in Helen and Douglas House Hospice's Childish Things 4 alongside the likes of Bill Bailey, Jimmy Carr and Rowan Atkinson. The group now supports this charity with their annual profits. OOTB's live performances at the Edinburgh Fringe were recommended by the Daily Telegraph (link), and The Scotsman (link). In addition, positive reviews from critics have been posted on several influential websites covering the Edinburgh Fringe, including Edinburgh Guide, and publications on the Fringe such as Broadway Baby, who judged OOTB as one of their top-rated shows on the Fringe in 2006. ThreeWeeks magazine gave OOTB a maximum five-star rating. [1] In 2007 they once again received the maximum five-star ratings from ThreeWeeks and Broadway Baby publications and were given a Fringe Sell-Out Award for their month run. The group has produced several CDs [2]. The most recent, Redshift, was met with critical acclaim by the Recorded A Cappella Review Board in 2007. In 2009, Out Of The Blue won the UK Voice Festival and came second in the international finals of the ICCA awards, Edmund Jones winning the award for outstanding arrangement for his rendition of Damien Rice's "Cold Water" -- Source Wikipedia.org

• published: 28 Sep 2009
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