X Factor 3 Preview - Ben Mills

Ben Mills
Manager – Sharon Osbourne
Odds – 6/4 (Outright), 1/8 (25 & Over Winner)

Ben Mills is 26 years old, from Kent and is the director of his own marquee company which he has done for the last four years. His claim to fame is he once put up a marquee for Jools Holland. He is the overwhelming bookmakers favourite for this year's competition, but can he last the course?

Ben is very accomplished musically and is able to play both the guitar and the piano. He has been singing for the past 20 years and performs in pubs and clubs around where he lives.

However, he was not always a good singer. He describes listening back to himself when he was younger and claims he had "the worst voice in the world" but had encouragement from his family and friend. He does not recall the exact point in which he made the transition from being a really awful singer to being a good one but thinks it was in his "early 20s".

He comes from a musical background with his grandfather a former church organist and his mother a guitarist. Ben attended the Academy Of Contemporary Music which was a guitar school and he received a diploma. He was taught by people who have worked in the music industry and his guitar teacher, Bruce Dickinson, used to be in Iron Maiden and later a band called Little Angels who had a hit with "Woman Kind"

Ben hasn't sung professionally but he played keyboard for a tribute band called the LA Doors which toured Europe and played in front of crowds of eight thousand people. He describes his proudest achievement was playing at the Guildford Folk and Blues Festival before attending music college. At the age of 17 he was asked to open the festival on both days with just an acoustic guitar in front of 18,000 people.

Ben auditioned in London and sang Sam Cook's "Bring It Home To Me" and Simon Cowell thought he sounded like a young Joe Cocker, who, incidentally, Ben names as one of his musical influences along with Tom Waits, Rod Stewart and David Bowie.

One the first day of bootcamp Ben sang "Hey Jude"' by The Beatles and on the second performed Rod Stewart's "Maggie May". Judge Adrian Williams felt it was a predictable choice of song while Mark Hudson thought he could offer something different to the competition.

Sharon Osbourne was amazed by the power of Ben's voice and thought it would be easily recognisable should his song be played on the radio.