A WAVENEY group has had the chance to perform in front of Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, David Walliams and Alesha Dixon after winning a public vote.

Five-piece vocal group The TestostaTones won the opportunity to sing live on stage as part of the popular ITV show Britain's Got Talent after being selected through YouTube.

The group were unknowingly entered into an online competition by Sarah Newson, the fianc�e of singer Richard Ainslie, 31, of Carlton Colville, and were delighted to find they had been put on a 24-act shortlist.

A public vote then took place and the top five acts were invited to Birmingham where they waited backstage before finding out that The TestostaTones had secured the most votes.

Singer Stephen Amer, 34, of Toft Monks, said: 'We were very pleased that not only did our friends and family respond to our emails asking them to get involved for us but that across the whole YouTube community the public decided we should be the act to go through and that the audience live on the day enjoyed it – clapping along and cheering.'

Together the five-piece Doo-Wop group, which also includes Stephen's brother Paul, 29, from Geldeston, Richard's brother Bim, 32, from Oulton, and Steve Clark, 28, of Lowestoft, were called forward to speak to presenters Ant and Dec before going out to perform in front of 2,000 people.

Simon Cowell asked the group what their goal is and where they had previously performed before stating he was 'not feeling great about this'.

The quintet started singing Get A Job by The Silhouettes, before the notorious judge asked them to sing something else. They then sang a cover Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf but were buzzed off.

Mr Amer said: 'It was really nice that we felt the public thought we should be the act that went through, it was just a shame Mr Cowell disagreed with them.'

He added that the sound of the buzzer on stage was deafening, but that the day had been a really nice experience, especially thanks to the audience's good reaction.

Television audiences will find out if they made it through to the next stage and stand a chance of performing at the Royal Variety Performance when the series is aired next month.

To view a video of their performance visit www.becclesandbungayjournal.co.uk