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Last Choir Standing - the final fifteen choirs
The final 15 choirs in Last Choir Standing, 91Èȱ¬ One's new Saturday night search for the nation's favourite choir, have been chosen.
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Representing choirs from all walks of life the final 15 will now sing in one of the three heats to impress the judges, hoping to make it through to the live shows where they will face the public vote in the hope of being crowned Last Choir Standing.
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Heat One
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Alleycats
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A mixed-voice contemporary group, Alleycats are made up of a group of 10 students from the University of St Andrews.
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Aged between 19 and 23, the students study a wide range of different subjects from History and Arabic to International Relations. Ìý
The Alleycats were set up six years ago by a group of friends who had the bright idea, whilst sat in the pub, that they could create a group to sing at parties.
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Initially a male voice choir, when the guys met Rebecca they thought her talent would be such an asset that they changed to a mixed voice group – and Rebecca ended up becoming the choir's musical director.
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Their repertoire includes a range of songs from the likes of Queen, Take That, Mark Ronson, The Fratellis, The Fugees and Massive Attack. Ìý
Brighton Gay Men's Chorus
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The Brighton Gay Men's Chorus was formed in 2005 by former members of the London Gay Men's Chorus.
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With more than 30 members the choir exists to give the gay men of Brighton a chance to meet and interact with new people away from the social scene of bars and clubs.
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The choir's chairman, Silvio, says that the three S's of the choir are: sing, support and socialise.
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The choir performs several times a year at charity concerts and they even bake cakes and give them out at intervals – which goes down well with the audience.
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Their repertoire includes songs by Abba and the Pussycat Dolls. Ìý
Dreemz
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Hailing from Birmingham, Dreemz is made up of young people aged 14 to 22.
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The choir was formed three years ago by Theresa McKenzie, a local woman who saw that her sister's children and their friends spent their spare time hanging around shopping centres.
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The impetus for starting the choir was when her niece's friend was killed, aged 16.
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Theresa decided to invite her nieces and their friends to come along to the church hall, where it was safe and where they could spend time together singing.
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The choir has always struggled to keep a musical director and this has been a problem for Dreemz.
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After the Cadogan Hall auditions, they were advised to get an MD, and they found Birmingham music graduate Laura Douglas to lead them through the competition.
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Theresa entered the competition without telling the rest of the choir, only revealing it to them when they had been invited to audition in London. Ìý
Sense of Sound
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Founded in 2005, Sense of Sound is a Liverpool-based aÌýcappella choir whose members hail from across the world and a range of different professions.
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Refusing to be boxed into any one genre, the choir specialises in pop, soul, gospel, alternative and experimental music.
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The choir's Friday night rehearsals are a social event.
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They are a close choir who go out to celebrate each other's birthdays and get together outside of rehearsals.
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The choir also reached the grand final of 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3's Choir of the Year competition in 2006.
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Ysgol Glanaethwy
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The choir is a part of the performing arts school Glanaethwy in Bangor, where they hold evening classes and workshops.
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The school was started 18 years ago by the choir's Musical Directors, Cefin and Rhian Roberts, who felt that children in the area were not getting the right performance training.
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The choir was not originally in the plan for the Glanaethwy. It was started as a way of improving students' breathing and honing their performance skills, in order to support their drama studies.
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The choir have performed internationally in Italy, Ireland and Hungary – where they won an award for best youth choir at an international competition.
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The choir are very proud to come from Wales and often sing in Welsh. Ìý
Heat Two
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The Common Room Choir
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The Common Room Choir was formed several months ago after discussions during a general studies period between Tim Cunningham and fellow music students.
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The choir is made up of members from the same school, but they don't consider themselves a "school choir".
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Tim is an 18-year-old "Mozart-in-the-making" who arranges most of their music and plays various musical instruments.
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The choir has an eclectic repertoire of pop, contemporary rock and soul.
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They enjoy singing songs from The Lion King and have recently introduced gospel into their repertoire.
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Many members completed their A-levels during the run-up to the heats, so juggling choir commitments and their studies has been difficult during the first two rounds of the competition. Ìý
Hereford Police Male Choir
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Hereford Police Male Choir was formed in 1957 to sing at a special thanksgiving service at Hereford Cathedral to mark the centenary of Herefordshire Constabulary.
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The choir was made up of serving police officers.
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Today, 50 years later, the choir continues to successfully sing, although its ranks have long since been opened up to men from all walks of life.
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Current members include retired teachers, undertakers and train drivers – as well as members of the police ranging from a PC to a Chief Inspector.
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Three of the original police officers, now retired, still sing with the choir.
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The choir retains its strong links with West Mercia Police and Chief Constable, Paul West, is the choir's President.
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Last Minute
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Last Minute by name, last minute by nature, the choir was only formed a few hours before recording the audition tape for the competition and its members literally came up with their name just as they began filming their audition.
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Aged between 19 and 35, the a cappella group's singers are all former members of Oxford University choirs.
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Some of the members are still students at Oxford, while others work in a range of fields including accountancy, finance, IT, and environmental work. Ìý
Revelation
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Revelation was founded ten years ago by Musical Director Nick Bowers-Broadbent, when he began teaching at St Bonaventure's School, a Catholic boys' comprehensive in Forest Gate, London.
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The choir started as a community youth choir, drawing its members from three schools – St Bonaventure's, its sister school St Angela's Ursuline Convent School and Sarah Bonnell School, an all girls' secondary.
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The choir is now made up primarily of ex-students aged between 18 and 27.
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Revelation represents the young people of East London in a positive and vibrant way through fresh and youthful performances of gospel music.
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The group occasionally sings at weddings and is starting to put together an album.
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Only Men Aloud!
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Only Men Aloud! was started in 2000 by Musical Director Tim Rhys-Edwards, who wanted to create a young male voice choir unafraid to tackle music not usually performed by traditional male voice choirs.
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The choir's repertoire ranges from 15th Century music to contemporary songs.
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The choir is made up of 20 lads aged between 18 and 44, who also regularly play football together.
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Combining their loves of singing and football, they often sing songs while on tour which they've written about other choir members.
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Andy, their administrator and also a member of the choir, reckons they're a pretty sexy group. Ìý
Heat Three
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A Handbag of Harmonies
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Made up of 50 divas from Cheshire, A Handbag of Harmonies was originally set up as a 10-week project by musical director Matt Baker and a friend to give the ladies an exciting escape from their hectic lives as mums, housewives and professionals.
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After just one year the waiting list for ladies wanting to join was almost as big as the choir – and several years on, the choir is still going strong.
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Known for their uniform of pink feather boas and their array of glittering handbags, the ladies describe themselves as similar to the Calendar Girls.
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Their repertoire includes a wide range of songs and styles, from the likes of Judy Garland to Britney Spears. Ìý
ACM Gospel Choir
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Aged between 17 and 21, the ACM Gospel choir is made up of 35 students from the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford.
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Formed as an extra-curricular activity, the choir members enjoy the opportunity to get together and have what one member describes as a vocal jamming session.
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The students are studying a variety of different instruments from drums to guitar.
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With none of the members coming from a gospel background, they have taken the genre and created what their Musical Director, Mark De Lisser, describes as a 'new gospel' sound. Ìý
The City of Bath Male Choir
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The City of Bath Male Choir was formed when experienced choral director Grenville Jones placed an ad in the Bath Chronicle advertising that he was starting a male voice choir for men aged 16 to 65.
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Forty per cent of the choir are in their 40s and below – and the members include including teachers, solicitors, carpenters, electricians, social workers, architects, engineers and stonemasons.
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Their ethos is that the choir is about singing together and making friends.
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They believe their unique quality is the power they generate when they sing – and that their enthusiasm is very apparent in their performance.
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They sing modern music to appeal to younger people. Ìý
Hear Me Now!
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Hear Me Now! was formed in September 2007 by a group of friends studying for a Masters at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
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Made up of 13 people aged between 21 and 30, the choir is led by Musical Director Maggie Copeland.
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Despite having a boyfriend, Maggie revealed she has a big crush on Russell Watson at the auditions.
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She put on extra lipgloss to impress him and was delighted when he blew her a kiss.
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The choir performs all musical styles but before the competition had only ever performed a handful of times in public, so the competition will be the biggest thing the singers have ever done.
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Open Arts Community Choir
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The Open Arts Community Choir is an inclusive choir based in Belfast, founded by Musical Director Beverley Whyte in 2000.
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She says: "I'd like to think the standard of the choir is as high, if not higher, than an able-bodied choir.
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"It's about the music. We don't think about the disability, it just doesn't come into it." Ìý
This rhetoric is continued throughout the choir – the singers are proud of the fact that they sound fantastic.
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A common theme with all the choir members is that, no matter what kind of day they have had on a Monday, they spend a few hours singing together and all is forgotten.
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They really enjoy themselves and look forward to it. As an energetic bunch, they believe the pride in what they do really comes across.
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The main message from the choir members is that they want to show people at home that despite any disability, it doesn't mean they are not able to sing fantastically.
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RB
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