Roll on Hard Rock

The Vienna Boys Choir boys are professional nomads. Every year, they visit the USA, Korea, and Japan, China, Mexico, plus a whole slew of other countries. If they are visiting a city with a Hard Rock Cafe, they go for a meal, at least - they like the atmosphere and the music. It is a kind of tradition, a choir ritual, and the boys look forward to it. Magnus loves the legendary burger, Stevie swears by New York Strip Steak, David prefers fajitas. They drink root beer or cola or perhaps a - non-alcoholic - cocktail. If you look at their various souvenir shirts, you can retrace their tours - from Surfers Paradise to Ho Chi Minh City, from Fukuoka to New York.

This summer sees the opening of Austria's first Hard Rock Cafe; finally. For the initial press event, the boys chose a Renaissance motet: "Because you can live in the music," says Michi. He could easily live in the new HRC.

They followed this with their own a-cappella version of Alan Merrill's classic rock song "I Love Rock n Roll", complete with stomping and clapping. The boys rounded off their performance with a rousing rendition of Pharell Williams's hit "Happy".

Raphael feels there isn't much difference between Classical and Rock music. "You have to feel it," he says. Singing "Happy", for instance, makes him laugh. "It just happens."
 

Christoph takes a more practical approach. "It's brilliant. Now I only have to walk down the street, if I feel like Twisted Mac and Cheese", he says, grinning.