The Rossendale Male Voice Choir was featured on the spin-off Britain’s Got Talent program ‘BGT Unseen,’ which aired on ITVX last weekend, and their performance received four yes votes from judges Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, KSI, and Bruno Tonioli.
More than 40 members of the choir, which now numbers 65, traveled to Blackpool via coach, where they were greeted by the BGT Production Team and spoke with Ant and Dec backstage.
The choir was hustled onto the large stage for a sound check, and once the spotlights were on them, they played their favorite modern song, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis.
She then asked who was the oldest member of the choir, and Matthew pointed to Owen Stanton, who was about to turn 90.
Amanda spoke with Owen and inquired whether the choir went to the bar after practices, following which she pledged to join them if they advanced to the next round. The judges’ remarks were full of admiration, with Bruno saying he was ‘loving the silver foxes.’
Alesha Dixon responded with, “You’re just a great group of guys getting together doing something you absolutely love, and that’s made us all feel great today, so thank you so much for coming on our show.”
KSI further commented, “As someone from the social media world, you don’t really see a choir like this online a lot, and I feel like we need to see more of this, one hundred percent.”
The choir was ecstatic when the judges delivered their “yes” judgments one by one, advancing them to the next stage.
Peter Beetham, choir secretary, said, “We were approached by a BGT producer last autumn and asked if we’d want to go on the program, so we decided to go ahead.
“We had a lot of work to do in a short time to give them all of the material they needed, including papers, films, music selection, and so on. But with just a few days to go, they verified that we got a spot in the audition in the Winter Gardens on October 19 last year.”
According to Chairman Charles Crowley, the choir decided that performing on the show would be an excellent opportunity to honor the choir’s members, who have accomplished so much during its distinguished history.
He added, “Having our audition featured on BGT Unseen is incredible, and it will soon be posted on BGT’s YouTube channel, which has 22 million global users.
“That’s a massive audience for any choir and a great way to promote male voice choirs in particular, how great they sound, and how much fun they are to be part of.”
Treasurer Paul Heaton commented, “It all felt a little surreal; one minute I was chatting on the coach with my choir buddies, and the next I was on a massive stage, looking out at a 3,000-seat auditorium into dazzling lights, with the BGT crew buzzing around doing tech stuff as we sang our piece twice.
“The team that edited our appearance on BGT Unseen did an excellent job.” They had us begin the event as Lancashire poster boys, then come on stage to old-timer backing music, emphasizing the joyful spirit of the play itself.
“The only thing they left out was the audience chanting ‘Press the gold, push the gold” while the judges were deliberating.”
Peter Beetham explained, “We didn’t get on stage for our real performance until early evening, so it was a long day. But we had fun filming extra material and talking to other artists in the meantime.
