A PRODUCT of a musical family, Reece Bibby was first caught on film clutching his dad’s drumsticks at the age of three.

Struck by the musical bug, he joined Elite School of Music in Darwen, performing shows, learning to play the guitar and finding his voice.

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After winning a talent competition at his school, Hollins Technology College, the then-13-year-old Reece wasn’t allowed to compete again.

“They said, ‘no, you’ve got to give somebody else a chance,” he said.

Instead, he entered Britain’s Got Talent, but failed to make an impression.

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He said: “I don’t know if it was my age or whether there was just too many people like me.”

Refusing to give up on his dream, Reece began to play in local pubs, before performing on Blackpool’s North Pier and for local radio.

But the ambitious youngster wasn’t satisfied.

“I was thinking how long can I just be in this cycle of just doing pub gigs? I just wanted to do something different.”

Reece got his chance after being approached to take part in The X Factor.

Although he impressed judges, they thought he stood a better chance as part of a group.

They placed him alongside seven strangers, forcing Reece to quickly adapt and grow in confidence.

“Going in, I loved indie music and house, and people like Jake Bugg and Ed Sheeran.

“You have to adapt what you listen to. You can’t go in indie and then be performing Roar by Katy Perry. I accept different kinds of music more now but I still listen to what I love, like Stone Roses and Oasis.”

Being thrown into the band was an intimidating experience for Reece, who called his mum from boot camp to confess he was too shy to talk to his new bandmates.

But the public watched as the band grew together. Any nerves were soon displaced as Reece performed in front of thousands of screaming fans, and a TV audience of millions.

“This has been the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he said.

“If I hadn’t done it, I’d be in sixth form now, doing pub gigs at the weekend.”

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Although Stereo Kicks left the show at the quarter final stage, Reece is busy preparing to tour the UK early next year with The X Factor. What happens afterwards remains unclear.

He said: “We just have to hope we get signed. We’re working with our management and doing as many gigs as we can.

“We’re just concentrating on getting better.”

Reece plans to return to the classroom after a year off from sixth form at St Christopher’s, depending on what happens next.

“I need to do my education. I don’t want to have the mind of a 16-year-old,” he said. “I will definitely go back. Hopefully it will be next year. We’ll see how things pan out.”

And despite his new-found fame, Reece admits he is glad to be home.

Tucked away on a quiet Accrington street, his modest mid-terraced family home is almost anonymous from the outside.

Inside, a large real Christmas tree takes pride of place in the front room window.

A leather suite sits before a flat screen TV on the wall. It could be the lounge of any family.

He may have 120,000 fans on social media sites sending him messages round the clock - so many, in fact, that they were causing his phone to crash - but the close-knit Bibby family is keeping Reece’s feet firmly on the ground.

When he’s not in London, the former Great Harwood Rovers player can be found on the local rec having a kickabout with friends or taking younger sister Lexi to school.

He admits that he has to be careful how he now acts under the scrutiny of the media.

“There’s been a lot of negative press about us as a band because of stuff some of us have done in the past.

“You’ve definitely got to be careful what you say and what you do, because if you do anything wrong it’s going to get blown up and twisted.”

 

Amazing journey from schoolboy to heart-throb

  • When he was 14, Reece performed an impromptu gig for former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher as he filmed part of a video with his new band Beady Eye in Accrington
  • He's a former student of Darwen's Elite School of Music, run by Soul Train frontman Paul Stuart Davies
  • He sat his GCSEs at Hollins Technology College this year, getting two A*s, six As, three Bs and a C
  • Reece was one of the first musicians to take part in auditions for this year's Lancashire Telegraph-backed Reidy's Talent Contest in January
  • He wowed the X Factor judges with his rendition of Disclosure's Latch complete with guitar, although music mogul Simon Cowell asked him to ditch the guitar at future performances
  • Made history after being selected by the X Factor judges to join seven other male contestants to form Stereo Kicks, the largest boyband in the competition's history
  • Stereo Kicks were voted off the X Factor following a sing-off with fellow contestant Lauren Platt, but made it through far enough to be included in the line-up for next year's X Factor stadium tour