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QUICK FACTS

BORN: 28/7/92

PARENTS: Kathryn and Graeme Browne

SIBLINGS: Callum, 13, and Victoria, 10

GREW UP: Winkfield, Berkshire

SCHOOLS: Cranbourne Primary, Charters Secondary School, Farnborough 6th Form College

The self-appointed frontman of the band, Joshua (‘Josh’) Cuthbert first found his voice when he auditioned for the part of Scrooge at Cranbourne Primary School in Winkfield, aged just 11.

Mum Kathryn later recalled the event for the Bracknell News, saying: ‘I had no idea he had a voice – we were blown away by him singing. We got him straight into Stagecoach in Bracknell, who told him to audition for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.’

Less than a year later he was performing in the magical car musical at the London Palladium as ‘George’, alongside Jason Donovan, Christopher Biggins and the late Stephen Gately of Boyzone, who played the child catcher. He had the role for an exhausting nine months!

Between 2003 and 2008, he attended Charters School in Ascot, Berkshire, near the Windsor home of HM the Queen. The school has a track record for producing some great entertainers, despite being a specialist sports and science college. Among those who have been a student is Chesney Hawkes, known for his number one hit, ‘The One And Only’.

As well as being a great singer and performer, Josh was also a fab footballer and played for Ascot United’s junior team. Martyn Parker, co-headteacher of Charters School, remembers him as someone who would liven up a classroom with his sense of humour.

Mr Parker has since told the Bracknell Forest Standard: ‘Josh is well remembered by staff and some pupils at Charters as a real character, who brought a smile to the face, could be a bit cheeky, but had a sparkle about him.’

In 2006, he joined his first band, Westend Boys – a five-piece that included his eventual manager, Blair Dreelan. (Blair also tried out as an X Factor contestant but wasn’t so successful.)

Eagle-eyed X Factor fans might have recognised Josh when he appeared in Triple J because as part of Westend Boys, he attempted to get into the 2007 X Factor finals. The group made it to Bootcamp, where they were sadly axed. Josh admits it may have cramped his style, having his mum chaperone him everywhere because he was still so young. He was only 15! The following year the band split up and went their separate ways.

Between 2008 and 2010, he attended Farnborough Sixth Form College but after tasting musical success he was determined to keep trying to break into the notoriously tough industry. In the year before he finished college, Josh was hard at work trying to find his next musical project.

He got together with another group of friends to form new band Boulevard. With him in the Ireland-based band were singers Ryan Davis and Andy Rice, along with Alistar Jay, who eventually joined Eli Prime – a band that later impressed the judges at the Manchester auditions of X Factor 2012.

By March 2011, Josh was supporting Boyzone on tour with Boulevard at a small series of gigs in Ireland, including the INEC, Kilarney, The Royal Theatre, Castlebar, and Belfast’s Odyssey. They also supported X Factor legends Jedward in Dundalk and at the time were being tipped as Boyzone’s replacements.

Singer Andy Rice told the Dundalk Argus at the time: ‘The band are currently working on an album. We’ve already recorded a few tracks so far and over the next couple of months, we hope to finish it off and then finalise a deal with a label.’

But things didn’t quite work out quite the way they’d all hoped, and Josh ended up spending five months selling mobile phones in Wokingham for the telecoms giant ‘3’. Later, he got a job as a new business executive for a computer firm called Tectrade. On his LinkedIn page, Josh described his skills as: ‘Communicational skills, Confidence, Customer Interaction, Building Relationships’.

Eventually though, he got back in touch with his old bandmate Blair Dreelan, who in the meantime had himself appeared on The X Factor, hitting the headlines when his girlfriend left him for 2010 winner Matt Cardle.

It was Blair who took Josh, JJ and Jaymi to The X Factor as Triple J, before they were disbanded and reformed as the band we now know and love: Union J.