A REDBRIDGE choir is still hoping to hit the high notes despite narrowly missing out on TV glory.

The Revelation Gospel Choir, headed by musical director Nick Bowers-Broadbent of the Aldersbrook Estate, Wanstead, was pipped to the post on Saturday in the grand final of the BBC talent show Last Choir Standing.

They had survived in the competition since July and beaten off competition from hundreds of other singing groups across the country, including handbag-weilding housewives from Cheshire and a gay men’s choir from Brighton.

The public vote in the final show saw Revelation take a respectable third place behind Cardiff’s Only Men Aloud choir and Ysgol Glaneathwy of North Wales.

But Mr Bowers-Broadbent said the choir’s journey was not yet over.

He added: “We will almost definitely be doing a CD and we are looking at securing some sort of management or record deal.

“I think out of the choirs in the final we are the most commercial in terms of size are marketability, but we are not only looking at the commercial ventures as we will be looking at the ministry side of it too.

“We are also interested in doing work in the community and running educational workshops.”

The group was first set up as a sixth form choir at St Bonaventure’s School in Forest Gate ten years ago, but has since evolved into a close-knit community choir containing two sets of siblings and a married couple from Redbridge.

Saturday’s show saw the group receive positive comments from the celebrity judges, including tenor singer Russell Watson, who said the group’s performance of disco classic Ain’t No Stopping Us Now was, “one of the best of the series.”

The group had already made appearences in the BBC’s Silent Witness and as backing singers on ITV’s X-Factor, but they say they are not letting success go to their heads.

Mr Bowers-Broadbent added: “I always knew that Only Men Aloud would win from the beginning but we just wanted to make sure that we sung well and enjoyed ourselves.

“The fact that the two top choirs were Welsh was quite fitting as in Wales singing is as important as rugby.

“It’s a good thing for young people to do and I think the fact that we are a young, East End, black choir, breaks the stereotypes that says all young people are interested in are guns and knives.

“I hope it will encourage more people to get involved.”