SINGER Tom Pearce has made it through to the finals of a major music competition.

The 19-year-old from Sandridge beat off stiff competition from thousands of other artists in first rounds of Live and Unsigned UK and is now set to perform in July’s final at the IndigO2 at the O2 in London.

Some of the biggest names in the music industry will be present, including Noddy Holder, Radio One’s Greg James and RnB star Shola Ama.

The acts, which range from all genres of singers to rappers, will be battling it out for a range of prizes including an all expenses paid trip to India to perform at the biggest music festival in Asia, a trip to Italy to perform at a festival there, a slot on the main stage at the Hellfire Festival, state-of-the-art equipment, front cover features in music magazines, clothing and music master classes.

The overall winner will secure equipment, coverage and promotion, as well as a recording and management contract with Future Music to get the chance to release their own single and develop a clothing line.

Tom, who lives on a farm off of Tower Hill Lane, only discovered his voice at a kareoke bar in 2008 and his friends encouraged him to enter the X Factor, in which he narrowly missed out on a chance to perform for the celebrity judges after making it through to the last 10 per cent of auditionees.

He was told that he needed a bit more experience and went on the record a few tracks and perform a number of gigs before blowing away the judges in Open Mic UK and then doing the same in the huge Live and Unsigned UK competition.

But he is needs as much support as possible at the final on July 10 and is urging people to buy tickets by visiting www.liveandunsigned.uk.com

For more information about Tom and to hear some of his tracks visit www.myspace.com/tompearce01