RISING singing star Chris Underwood, winner of last year's Starry Eyes talent contest in Trowbridge, has had his hopes for super stardom crushed by the infamously nasty judging panel from TV's Pop Idol.

Chris, 20, made it through three rounds of auditions for the next series of the show before judges sent him packing on Wednesday.

The singer was invited to the London auditions after flying through the first round last Tuesday.

Chris said: "There were about 2,000 people there and I was really surprised how down to earth everyone was."

After his audition, the judges congratulated him on his performance and invited him back to face the Pop Idol panel.

But after a nervous performance of Daniel Bedingfield's song Gotta Get Thru This, Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman, Dr Fox and Nicki Chapman sent him packing.

Chris said: "They were really harsh and rude to me.

"They said it looked like my eyes were going to pop out of my head when I was singing, and because I work in a bakery, the only dough I could expect to be handling was not the money the winner of Pop Idol would get, but bread dough.

"I asked them where I went wrong, but they just said "by walking in the door"."

Last year's Pop Idol contest had 14 million fans gripped to their televisions and made history with the biggest ever telephone vote.

Chris, who is determined to continue with his singing career, had been getting tips for his audition from popstar girlfriend MiMi, 16, who sang live on national TV as a finalist in the Song for Europe competition, and has been working on her first album.

MiMi, a pupil at Matravers School, Westbury, made it to the last round of the contest before losing out in her bid to represent the UK to Eurovision flops, Jemini.

Chris said: "We have been going out for nearly a year, and actually met through a singing contest we were both competing in. She thinks it's great I went for Pop Idol and tells me it's good to have some competition."