Stardom a step closer as songbirds make it to X-Factor boot camp

A TALENTED singing trio are a step further along their route to stardom after making it through to the second stage of television talent show The X-Factor.

Nichola Berryman, Laura Murch and Eloise Cole — also known as Killer Heels — are through to the show’s boot camp after auditioning before music mogul Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, singer Dannii Minogue and Girl’s Aloud’s Cheryl Cole.

Killer Heels, at the Party in the Gardens fundraising concert for Dream-A-Way at Bicton Gardens MATT MINSHULL EE090709_MM06_08
X Factor judges, from left, Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, Dannii Minogue and Louis Walsh

They got through the show’s opening auditions, the first of which was in April, and the qualifying auditions, which were held in front of a live audience of 2,000 people at Cardiff’s international arena earlier this month.

Nichola, a recruitment consultant from St Thomas, Exeter; Laura, 28, from Dawlish who works as an administrator at the city’s international school, and 25-year-old Torquay nurse, Eloise, sang songs including an Abba number in the qualifying audition.

Nichola, who is the lead singer, said: “We can’t disclose anything past this point — but it’s okay to say we got to boot camp.”

Speaking at the qualifying auditions, she said: “Getting this far has exceeded all our expectations and we have come up against tough opposition along the way.

“For us, this latest audition is our biggest break so far and we have our fingers crossed that we will be successful.

“Appearing before Simon Cowell and the panel of judges, which includes Dannii Minogue, is daunting, but we are confident we will do well.”

At the qualifying auditions, the girls sang Abba’s hit Give Me, Give Me, Give Me, a song by the Sugababes and Frankie Valli’s Beggin’.

The show is due to be broadcast later on this year.

The girls are also members of the group Limited Company, which has appeared at gigs throughout Devon.

Limited Company plays a wide range of music from the 1960s to the present day and covers songs ranging from Bryan Adams, Madonna, and Randy Crawford to Al Green and Michael Jackson.

Limited Company were on stage at a concert at Bicton Gardens, near Exmouth, earlier this month, to raise funds for the Exeter charity Dream-A-Way.

The organisation is the chosen charity of Exeter’s Lord Mayor John Winterbottom.