DOZENS of budding superstars attempted to hit the right notes at Colchester’s X Factor auditions.

The primetime ITV show’s producers have set off on a tour of the UK, hoping to find the country’s undiscovered singing talent and yesterday they arrived in Colchester’s Culver Street.

Singers lined vying for a chance to sing before the famous judges including 79-year-old ex-serviceman Charles Williams, who performed a rousing rendition of Al Jolson’s You Made Me Love You.

He said: “I settled in Colchester after I left the Army. I absolutely love it here.

“I have been a singer since I was eight-years-old when I won a competition at Butlins in Skegness. I have sung in a lot of competitions.

“I got to the semi-finals of the British karaoke competition.

“I have got a lot of experience with singing in front of people. If you have got a talent you want to show it.

“I am going in to win, at my age you cannot wait around.”

Colchester mum Katie Cook, 27, was encouraged to go along to the auditions by her six-year-old son Logan.

She said: “He really wanted me to come along and try. He asked if he could come with me.

“I have been through hard times and singing has really helped me.

“I stopped singing for a while after I lost my daughter and there are certain songs which helped me keep going.”

Katie sang In the Arms of an Angel by Sarah McLachlan, one of the songs which helped her through her darkest moments.

Jemma Page, 21, works at the Delphi Diesel Systems factory in Sudbury where she lives, but said her real passion is music.

She said: “I have always sang on the side and I studied musical theatre at West Suffolk College.

“I’m performing Show Me Heaven, the Nathan James version.

“I prefer his version of the song and I think it suits my voice a lot better than the original.”

Baz Williamson, 41, from Rowhedge, works as a camp instructor on Mersea Island during the summer and a sheet metal engineer during the off-season, but he dreams of being a performer.

He said: “Singing is a passion of mine.

“I have sung for the kids before at the summer camps and they were impressed, although I am not sure how easily impressed they are.”

Yvette Bonsu, 20, a psychology student at the Brunel University who lives in Colchester, came back just to attend the audition.

She said: “Singing has been a dream of mine since I was young.

“I am a songwriter as well but because of my circumstances I haven’t been able to do it as much as I would like.

“I was bullied when I was younger so I did have the confidence for a career in singing.

“Now I have come out my shell because of music.”