Tuesday 12 August

The day started at 8.30am when fellow Only Men Aloud member Aled picked me up for our drive to Porthcawl, we had a tuneful journey as we learnt the music for the Saturday's performance on Last Choir Standing on our way over in the car. We arrived at the church hall about an hour later both looking forward to our promised bacon sandwiches, which we were denied due to health and safety reasons! We had to settle for tea and biscuits before discussing the schedule and meeting some of the kids involved. Jenny Walker arrived and we had an amusing conversation about the fact we'd all chosen to wear hoodies this morning in our attempt to be “down with the kids”!

Writer Alan Harris discussed what we'd be doing with our different groups but felt it might be difficult to get life stories from 14 year olds as they were so young. We were going to use surfing images and footage to inspire them and to add character to their words. Paul the composer arrived about 10 minutes late thanks to the sat nav taking him the wrong way to the beach!

Once he was here we all got down to the business of the first music session. The kids learnt a little bit about opera music and surf music and how they could be used to depict different moods. I sang to them and I think they enjoyed it, most of them had never heard opera before so I was their first experience of it. We worked with percussion instruments and created a good groove which we recorded for the composition later.

At lunchtime I made tea and coffee for 12 wet surfers and ate too many biscuits while doing this – not very good for the “I'm on TV diet”!

In the afternoon I sang a solo and a duet with Jenny for the group before we started working on the music. I worked with three musicians, a bassist an acoustic guitarist and someone playing a tambourine. The kids wrote a poem in 20 minutes called “Setting Him Free” and we wrote a good song with a reggae surfing feel which we performed to the group and recorded it.

The day wraps up about 4.30pm and I head home for 20 minutes before leaving the house again to get to Last Choir Standing rehearsals at WMC. We're working on our routine for Saturday night which involves some difficult choreography. We all worked very hard until about 10.10pm but are rewarded with an after rehearsal drink at Bar Cwtch! I get home about 11.30pm feeling pretty exhausted.

Wednesday 13 August

Today I arrived at Porthcawl about 9.40am and the team discussed the order for the video and which songs will fit best with the visuals they have filmed. We now have poems for five songs written by the kids called, “Setting him free”, “Brigita Brown”, “6000th in the world”, “Time to fight” and “From bored to board”.

Unfortunately the weather is too bad today so the lifeguard told us we are unable to surf today. The kids are a bit disappointed about being stuck inside all day – it's amazing how young people aren't fazed by horrendous weather – but on the bright side this means we get all day to work on the music.

I lead a warm up with a group to get us started, we do some stretches and play some games. The kids then split into 3 groups and we work on the songs that we started yesterday. After about an hour, I'm pulled out of my group and given a wetsuit to put on for a photo shoot. It's damp and sandy and takes some time to get on but I manage it eventually! We head down to the beach, thankfully it has now stopped raining and brightened up a little. The pictures are great fun and involve some of the musicians, surfers and me. I'm then asked to put on a tuxedo jacket over my wetsuit and have some comedy shots taken. After the shoot I go back to work with the groups on the songs before we break for lunch.

At lunchtime a BBC camera crew arrive from Last Choir Standing to film me on the beach for the VT for Saturday's show. I'm filmed climbing over rocks and looking very thoughtful with Coney Beach as a back drop.

After lunch we all meet again in the church hall, we work on the songs with the musicians for a while then decide to cancel the session due to the weather – thankfully the weather forecast for tomorrow looks a lot better. Off to Cardiff now for more rehearsals for Last Choir Standing then it's back to the surf board tomorrow!