And on Monday he was driven around Cardiff Bay in a speedboat before singing a medley of James Bond songs to the Mermaid Quay Festival crowds.

The reason for 19-year-old Paul Rothwell's new-found fame is that he is a member of the Only Men Aloud choir, which is taking part in the BBC1 talent series Last Choir Standing and will be competing in the finals on Saturday.

A music student at Cardiff University, Paul, who is from Warwick, normally spends his summer holidays dressed as a medieval knight at Warwick Castle, but this year he stayed in Wales to rehearse with the choir and travel to London to perform on the shows.

He said: "It's the most amazing thing that I have ever been involved with.

"The adrenalin is keeping me awake at the moment and the feeling you get when you are on the stage together and knowing the audience is enjoying it as much as we are.

"It was quite surreal standing on the stage in London with thousands
of people in front of me and an orchestra and rock band behind and all that was going through my head was 'don't forget the choreography' - we had only learned it that morning."

Paul says the popularity of the programme has "not quite hit home", but he had a taste of it back in Cardiff.

He said: "It was just an amazing experience.

"Everyone was cheering us and when we walked off into the crowd there were hundreds of people wanting to have their photograph taken with us."

The former Warwick School pupil was given the opportunity to join Only Men Aloud by its director Tim Rhys-Evans at the end of term after he sang with the Welsh National Youth Opera.

Life since then has consisted of long, daily rehearsals as the 19-
strong group learn between four and five new songs and choreography
for each week's show.

And their efforts have seen them win through 14 rounds of judging by opera star Russell Watson, actress, singer and West End star Sharon Clarke and choral conductor and director Suzi Digby.

Paul said: "We all get on really well, have a good rapport when performing together and seem to be the housewives' choice.

"It's getting very tense now and we need to pull out all the stops on
Saturday.

"We also need as many people as possible to vote for us as it's down
to the public vote, not the judges' any more."

If the choir wins they will signed up to a record label and record an album.

Paul sang with St Mary's church choir for eight years and says he could never turn his back on the choir where such "a huge part" of himself was formed.

He is also looking forward to "a good catch up " with friends and
family back in Warwick after the final show.