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.

 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.