AMONG those who auditioned for this year's X Factor was 17-year-old singer Katie Smith from King's Stanley, who reached the final 25 out of 70,000 applicants.

Katie, who won Stroud’s very own S Factor and Cirencester’s Got Talent last year, made it to the last day of the seven day long X Factor boot camp, which finished on Saturday, July 24.

After singing three times in front of a producer, the Stroud High School pupil was allowed to audition in front of the judges and audience in Cardiff.

But because regular judge Dannii Minogue has just had a baby in Australia, singer Pixie Lott filled in for her alongside usual judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole.

"It was just before Cheryl got malaria and I didn’t know who would be there instead of Dannii but weirdly I had prepared Use Somebody by Pixie Lott.

"I was worried that it would seem cheesy singing her own song back to her but she was really nice and said that she would like to duet with me."

Out of thousands who auditioned, 70 contestants were put into four categories - girls, boys, groups and over 25s.

However, at the last minute Simon decided to change the final category to over 28s, which meant that a lot of talented people joined Katie in the girls' group.

"Simon said to us that some of us would have gone through to the judges’ houses if it hadn’t been for the changes," said Katie.

"That meant a lot coming from him as I would have liked to have had him as my mentor. I am gutted that I didn’t get through but some of the contestants took it a lot more seriously than me."

Katie did, however, hit the headlines inadvertently following claims of rowdy behaviour by some of the other contestants.

police had to be called at 1.30am on the last night to the Premier Inn in Wembley in north London where the boot camp contestants were staying "The reports in the media were really exaggerated," said Katie.

"The police came and told us to get to bed as people were being really noisy.

"Some of the contestants ran away from them by using the lifts but none of the rooms were smashed up as reported.

"The whole X Factor experience was a good one. It was really stressful and harrowing but all in all a great week.

"I got to hang around with people who are louder than me, which takes some doing."

"I may do it again. It is encouraging that I got into the last 25 so I could do better next year."

But for now it is home to Stroud and back to school in September.