The Hawkstone Farmers Choir, the first choir to win Britain's Got Talent, celebrated their historic victory on Saturday with a boozy night at a Hammersmith pub. Their founder, Jeremy Clarkson, footed the bill, and BGT judge Amanda Holden and runners-up Celestial joined the festivities.
Choir members Flo Dawes and her mother Ali, from Gloucestershire, shared details of the celebration with the Mirror. Flo said: 'It was amazing, we were all together, with Celestial, too. They're so lovely. Jeremy was there, Amanda - we got our own speaker and we were singing our own songs and doing karaoke as well, we just had the most amazing time.'
Ali noted that both Amanda and Jeremy were emotional during the celebrations. 'She's always loved us, and just been really supportive. And Jeremy. They were both quite teary. Us, there were no tears left in us I don't think! Everybody was just crying and laughing. It was joyous.'
Fellow choir member Andy Owens, a farmer, described the moment they won as 'mindblowing'. He added: 'Three lives are lost a week in our industry, so there was a lot of responsibility, the stakes felt very high. I was just in floods of tears.' Of the celebrations, he said: 'Jeremy very kindly footed the bill for all the drinks. As you can imagine, a whole load of farmers and their families and free beer go very well together! So yes a lot was drunk and a lot of us didn't go to bed till 4, 5am on Sunday.'
The choir won the £250,000 prize and a spot at the Royal Variety Performance in front of the King. Flo said of the prospect: 'My gosh, it's going to be amazing because he's such an advocate for farming and for rural people.'
