SLIDESHOW: X Factor singer takes the cake at homecoming

The 25-year-old singer was mobbed by well-wishers at a private party at city centre bar The Study Room.

Footage from the get-together aired on The X Factor spin-off show The Xtra Factor on Sunday.

Paul was presented with a chocolate fudge cake to congratulate him for doing our district proud on the TV talent show, then signed autographs and posed for photos. Then after the party on Thursday, he went off on tour at the weekend, performing gigs all over the country including at the St Helens Christmas Lights switch-on and a show at G.A.Y. nightclub in London.

The former Ripley school pupil earlier spoke exclusively to The Visitor from his home, where he spent a relaxing few days after being voted off the show on November 9.

The shy Lancastrian said coming back to the house in Bowerham he shares with mum Bev, dad Dave, sister Charlotte and his beloved Scottie dog Casper has been quite a change from the past few months of TV fame.

He said: “It’s good to be back but weird, because when you’re there you’re surrounded by hundreds of people every hour of the day and then you come back here and it’s quiet.

“But the support I’ve had from my family is amazing. They came down to London every single weekend, and it costs a lot of money to stay over two nights and the travel. Not a lot of families did it every weekend. I’ve missed Casper. He’s 10, but he looks a lot younger, doesn’t he? When I sing and I’m rehearsing in the house, he sings along.”

Born and bred in Lancaster, Paul went to primary school at Moorside. After leaving Ripley St Thomas school at 16 he went to Lancaster and Morecambe College on an apprenticeship, hoping to become a welder and fabricator like his dad. But then he won a singing competition and never looked back.

“I went to the class and they were handing out apprenticeships, I handed it back and said I’m going to leave, I’m going to be a singer. I did gigs from 17.”

Paul also revealed he first auditioned for The X Factor aged 16 and didn’t even get to the TV stages. “I got through the first round, then got into the second round and I was singing ‘Lately’ by Stevie Wonder. I remember clearly, I sang one word and (the woman in the audition room) told me to get out!” Paul also said he has no regrets about the way he acted on The X Factor.

“If I’d have changed I would have been annoyed with myself, if I’d pranced around and stuff. You don’t have to go out there and do cartwheels. You have to be yourself as a person.”