First two songwriters make it through to final of All About The Song

After appearing as the Unexpected Star on Michael McIntyre’s Saturday night BBC1 show, he has now made it to the final of the All About The Song contest.

He was joint winner of the first heat at The Edge of The Wedge last night, along with John Bradley.

They both now advance to the final, which takes place at The Wedgewood Rooms on Sunday, June 26.

Aaron, 31, from Southsea, said: ‘I entered this weeks ago before all this other stuff happened. I’ve been meaning to do something on my own for a while and there are a lot of things I want to show people.

‘I’ve mostly been in bands up to now, but change is good and I’m enjoying doing my own thing.’

It was John’s first time playing to an audience in 20 years – and two of his old friends from his hometown of Coventry came down to support him for the night.

‘I’ve had some changes in my circumstances recently,’ said the 55-year-old from Southsea.

‘I hadn’t written anything in ages and ages, so I started writing again and I’ve written about 40 songs in the past year and posted them online on Soundcloud as Pompeyjazz.

‘When I saw about this competition, I thought ‘‘why not give it a go?’’’

The competition is part of the annual Portsmouth Festivities and is backed by The News. The next heat is on June 13.