With a double platinum debut album under their belts singing sensations The Soldiers, a vocal harmony trio comprised of working soldiers, will be one of the star attractions at the Rhythm Force concert at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, Twickenham, on September 25. Group member Sergeant Richie Maddocks talks to Will Gore about performing at his workplace and the importance of raising cash for army charities.

Are you looking forward to Rhythm Force?

Definitely although it will be a strange one as it is where I work as a course supervisor. This will be the fifth Rhythm Force I have performed at - I usally perform with whatever band I’ve been serving with at the time but this will be the first time I’ve performed at the show with The Soldiers.

The show helps raise funds for charities such Help for Heroes - how important is this fundraising drive?

To coin a phrase, every little helps. The whole country is strapped but the more we can raise the better. We recently gave the proceeds of our first album [just over £271,000] to various army charities and we hope to do the same with the second record that we are working on at the moment. We don’t make any money ourselves, it is just a great experience and the money will go to a worthy cause.

The public have taken the group to their hearts, but what has been the reaction like among your army colleagues?

On our webpage we are knocking on 80,000 fans and a lot of them are forces wives and dependents and soldiers themselves. They leave plenty of messages of support so I think they are pleased and proud of what we have done. Of course, when we are back at work people take the mickey a bit.

Are you enjoying the fame and all that goes with it?

We are and we are getting better at all of the videos and photoshoots. Because we are soldiers we are used to being told what to do but it can be tricky for people to get much out of us because it can take us an hour or so to relax. None of us ever dreamt it would get this far and we couldn’t do it without the army being behind us and letting us get off duties so we can do promotions.

What does your job at Kneller Hall involve?

I help oversee phase two of people’s training. The recruits train to be a soldier and then we teach them how to be a musician in the army - playing in a band, getting the uniforms correct and things like that. Everyday is different as one minute you’ve got to deal with a crisis and the next minute you get quite emotional as people are passing out of the college.

Rhythm Force, Kneller Hall, Twickenham, September 25, 4pm, £20 (£12.50 concessions), 0844 847 1742, army.mod.uk/music/concert/