Battle of the choirs – singing PhD student features on BBC’s new talent competition

Imperial student hopes to be in the Last Choir Standing - News

Monday 21 July 2008
By Naomi Weston

A last minute decision to form a choir for a new Saturday night singing competition has landed one musical Imperial PhD student a slot on prime time television.

Ed Brightman, who is currently researching fuel cells in the Faculty of Engineering, is preparing to perform on BBC1's Last Choir Standing, a competition to find the UK's favourite choir, with his group Last Minute. He makes his television debut on Saturday 26 July.

The choir, made up of 13 men, is an a cappella group, meaning that they sing without any instruments. The group beat thousands of others to reach the third round of the competition.

The programme on Saturday night will see them compete against 14 other choirs, including Only Men Aloud, Hereford Policemen's Choir, Revelation gospel choir and a sixth form choir called The Common Room.

Ed is quietly confident that Last Minute has what it takes to win the competition. “We are competing against choirs from all over the country but I think we stand out because we have the young virile appeal," he says. "We will be singing some popular rock and pop classics such as It’s My Life by Bon Jovi, which will be fun.

“I’m pretty nervous about performing in front of the cameras, however, and I really need to learn the music!”

Despite deciding to enter the competition only a few hours before the deadline for filming the audition video, Last Minute caught the judges' attention and was one of only 60 choirs to go through to audition in front of the panel, which includes TV presenter Myleene Klass and opera singer Russell Watson. The group then reached the callback stage, and performed in a TV studio for the first time. It is now at the heats stage and every week will have to perform and survive being evicted.

Ed now balances his time between his work at Imperial and travelling to Oxford, where the choir is based. He adds:

“The best thing about participating in Last Choir Standing is that it is raising awareness of a cappella music, a style of singing that is quite unusual.”

Professor Nigel Brandon, Director of Imperial's Energy Futures Lab and Ed's supervisor, says:

“We have an amazing range of musical talent within our research group at the moment, including Ed – and we are all enjoying his success. I wish him well.”

Ed plans to set up an a cappella choir at Imperial. If you enjoy singing rock and pop songs but would rather sing the instruments than play them, get in touch with him on: e.brightman07@imperial.ac.uk