Josh leaves the 
X-Factor with a smile

Josh (19) who can be seen most days busking at Bow Street has proved that he is good enough to compete in the contest and is happy to reapply for next year’s competition.

He successfully competed against 90,000 others and got to the boot camp round where he and two others played Adele’s Set Fire to the Rain.

But the disappointment of not getting through to the next round has left a positive impression with his family proud of his achievements.

His father Dennis put Josh through to the competition unknown to him - Josh only found out a week before the first audition in April.

He travelled to the NECC Arena in Glasgow where he sang in a pod in front of the producers.

When he was called back the following day he sang Little Lion by Mumford and Sons and High Hopes by Kodaline in front of the panel of judges at the Hilton in Glasgow.

Josh who was joined by ten members of his family, spent from 7.30am until 8.30 waiting to perform.

“By that stage my voice had gone a little and I could feel it,” he said.

“I knew that I was not as good as I should have been but I got a lot of positive feedback from the judges. They asked me for a bit more of a range of songs so I played High Hopes.”

Gary described the performance as being ‘really excited’ by what he had heard and his singing as ‘beautiful.’ When he walked back to his family he was met by an excited group.

“I walked up this really long corridor and tried to play it cool,” said Josh. “They were all sitting waiting and when I told them they were all jumping up and down.”

The next round he had to play in front of 4,000 people in Wembley early in July. He chose Snuff by Slipknot.

“I found singing in front of the judges more nerve wrecking,” he said. “When I was up on stage I felt more at home and in control.”

Again he was complemented. Louis Walsh said that he was a ‘bit of dark horse’ and that he was a ‘great interpreter of music,’ Gary Barlow said that he was again a ‘beautiful audition’ while Sharon Osbourne was impressed by his own twist on the song. Nicole Scherzinger gave him a compliment that he would never forget. She told him that she would never forget him.

Delighted that he got as far as the bootcamp round he has now returned home to study Business and Economics at Jordandsown. He won a talent competition at Cookstown and has plans to continue gigging at Chester and Belfast.

But anyone who wants to hear Josh can do so at Bow Street most days.