Gareth Malone looks back: ‘After the Christmas No 1, I was meeting Simon Cowell, having tea with Gary Barlow and dinner with Andrew Lloyd Webber’

<p>The choir leader and presenter on not fitting in at his all-boys grammar, how synthesisers changed everything, and his ‘dithering’ start on TV</p><p>Born in London in 1975, Gareth Malone is a choirmaster and broadcaster. He began his career running youth and community choirs for