A talent for singing took Journal employee Claire Gallagher into the final stages of auditions for TV stardom in Popstars - The Rivals. Lorelei Reddin gets the dish on Geri, Pete et al

Journal advertising rep Claire Gallagher had a taste of the fame game when she sang to judges Geri Halliwell, Pete Waterman and Louis Walsh as part of TV's Popstars - The Rivals.

Our city centre advertising sales representative travelled to the London auditions at Wembley Conference Centre to take part in the latest talent show to hit ITV1.

21-year-old Scot Claire, who lives in Amesbury, used to sing chart hits in a band at weddings and birthdays in Scotland and just missed out on a place in Celtic group the Alice Band when they were formed.

She has a musical family and an aunt who sang in the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland in the 70s.

Since moving to Salisbury two years ago Claire has also auditioned for Pop Idol.

This time around she had to send a demo CD before receiving an invitation to the auditions.

She then queued for an hour with other pop wannabes, had her photograph taken and sang to three managers before making it through to perform Runaway by The Corrs in front of former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, Pete Waterman - the man behind Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley and Westlife manager Louis Walsh.

Claire said: "I still don't know to this day exactly why I decided to go for it. But it was a fantastic day - there was a great atmosphere and I met so many nice people in the queue from all over the place, we were all chatting because we were all in the same boat."