A 21-year-old musician from East Lancashire along with his fellow band members, is preparing to go on tour with one of the world's biggest girl groups.
Vocal and instrumental boyband, Since September, consisting of Patrick Ralphson, 21, from Trawden, Jacob Fowler, 21, Matthew Nolan, 22, and Harry Holles, 23, were the winning band on last autumn's BBC1 Saturday night show, Little Mix: The Search.
The band won the coveted prize of supporting Little Mix in their upcoming stadium tour, however, what should have been a dream come true has resulted in months of hard work and lessons in resilience for the lads.
With the tour postponed until April 2022, and with the music industry heavily impacted by the pandemic, life for Since September has been far from plain-sailing as the newly-formed band had to adapt to life in lockdown, writing tunes over Zoom while waiting in anticipation to play their biggest shows to date.
But with help from songwriters, including Roy Stride, from Scouting for Girls, they kept working hard until restrictions allowed them to finally get into the studio.
Patrick gave up his university education, Harry his job, Matthew left Ireland and they all moved to London, where Jacob was based, to live together so they could spend their days writing songs, rehearsing together, playing music and keeping their fan-base entertained.
Patrick said: "On the surface it looked like we were just waiting an extra nine months to claim our prize, but the reality of it is that we've been given time to become a unit as a band, forge an identity and create our own sound.
"This will be massive for the tour, as we will have more gig experience behind us by the time it comes around, and our live act will be unforgettable.
"Writing songs over Zoom was hard at first but we got into the swing of it very quickly, and now that we live together it's become far easier."
In May this year the BBC commissioned a three-part web series for their YouTube channel, 'Since September: The Empty Seats Tour', where the band played at some iconic venues, but in front of empty seats rather than sold out crowds.
And on August 6 they released their first single, Let it Go, which was streamed more than 50,000 times in its first week, and reached number 15 in the UK iTunes charts (No.3 in Ireland and No.2 in Chile).
The band now have some upcoming live gigs taking place in Nottingham on September 8, London on September 13 and Manchester on September 14.
The gigs are a chance to the see the boys in their first live performances since the TV show and before they support the world's biggest girl band on their arena tour next year.
Tickets are priced around £10 - £15. For more information visit: ticketmaster.co.uk
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