A GROUP of hopefuls from across the Carlisle area have begun a journey that could very well end in musical superstardom.

More than a dozen people gathered at Trinity School on Thursday to take the first step in auditioning to appear on primetime ITV show The Voice, organised in collaboration with Cumbria Music Education Hub.

Waiting nervously in the corridors of the school’s music department, each potential contestant went one-by-one in front of the show’s producers for a chance to impress enough to proceed to the next round of auditions.

Some were more nervous than others, with one or two having decided to give it a go just a few hours before.

One of those deciding last-minute was 28-year-old Rachael Walsh.

“I don’t sing as much as I used to because when you get a bit older, life gets in the way. But you’ve got to go for opportunities when they come around,” she said.

Slightly more nervous was 18-year-old Louisiana Swailes, who said: “It would mean everything to me, to go through to the next round. It’s always been my dream to do this.”

Ashlea Batey, 23, who runs the Turbo Juice bar on Castle Street in Carlisle performed a song for the producers written by herself when she was 15.

“I largely stopped writing and singing when I had my first child, and it was only when I started picking it up again recently that I realised how much a part of me it is,” said Ashlea, who has two daughters - Rain, four, and Luna, two.

“I’m usually writing a song every day.”

Seventeen-year-old Frankie Bradley said she was glad of the chance to take part in The Voice because of the positive message it carries: “It sends a message to the music industry that it doesn’t matter what you look like, but that you have talent.

“That should speak for itself.”