Stafford has the 'S' Factor

The Stafford Factor is the brainchild of Stafford Rangers Football Club directors Reg Bates and Rod Woodward and will start in the New Year.

Auditions will be held in the Rangers social club in front of the football ground on Marston Road. The club is catering for a response running into thousands of applicants.

The winning singer or band will earn a £5,000 cash prize, plus a holiday and recording session.

Lightning of TV's Gladiators will be one of the judges and Derek Holt of Climax Blues Band fame one of the musical mentors.

The whole thing will be filmed and DVD's sold. It all looks likely to be an ingenious cash boost for Rangers, as they look to the future following a cash crisis that nearly shut the club last season.

Woodward, a former professional heavyweight boxer from Rowley Grove in the Forebridge area of the town, will be the S Factor's very own Simon Cowell and with good cause.

He had to have a lung removed when he was 26 and nearly died.

He couldn't work for 18 months while he had double the dose of chemotherapy, but fought back to make a name for himself as one of the most popular figures in the town.

He is now one of the two bosses behind the security firm Mayflower Control, which has a staff of 76.

A website will be set up shortly so people can enter the talent competition. It costs £10 to enter but be warned, competition could be stiff. You must be 16 and over to be eligible.

Bates, who lives on the Eccleshall Road in Stafford, left school with no qualifications but now runs his own county-wide drainage business.

He is the calm brain behind the operation and dubs Woodward "Mr Grumpy."

The winning singer or group will be backed towards securing a major recording contract. Closing date for entries will be September 30.