Simon Cowell is looking for talent in Liverpool to form new boyband

The music mogul behind ITV’s The X Factor is on the hunt for a brand new boyband that could emulate the success of One Direction.

Simon Cowell announced earlier this year that he was on the hunt to find talent across the country to form a new boyband.

On Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 July, Simon will be holding auditions for the new boyband at Atlantic Pavilion in Royal Albert Dock.

You can apply on the website or simply turn up on the day.

If you can sing, are between the ages of 16-18, and think you have what it takes… then this opportunity could change your life.

Simon Cowell said he is “praying” he finds a group as talented as One Direction as he launched a UK-wide search for a new boyband.

Cowell said he wants to go “back to basics” with the search, in contrast to the auditions in front of large crowds on The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, but the process will be filmed for a potential future documentary series.

Simon Cowell said:

“I would pray to find a band as good as One Direction and to find the records as good as they made, there are so many factors involved to make a band successful all over the world.

“You can’t fake this, even though I’m the one going out to do the auditions, it really depends on the individuals. If you find the right people I’m not someone who says dress like this, say this, do this, it is just not my style and I never once did that with One Direction.”

He said One Direction were “lightning in a bottle” but he is hopeful a new group can emulate their success, saying the recent decline in UK artists breaking internationally is “shocking”

Simon added:

“Bands never knock on your front door, it’s never happened in my career, someone has to go out and put them together – and the truth is since One Direction there hasn’t been a successful UK boyband.

“The only way to do it is do what I used to do, go out and do it and audition and do it face to face and don’t have any pre-casting.

“In other words, don’t have people choose people in advance, it really is first come first served.

“You have to see a lot of people, the auditions are quick and you have to pray and hope enough people turn up and the right people turn up.

“If we are lucky enough to find the right people then there has never been a better time to be in a band right now.”

Asked why he was rejecting The X Factor format for the search, he said: “Because I wanted to show the process of what really, really happens when we do this.

“I’ve been in the music business for a long, long time and I’ve never seen anything that portrays what really, really happens when you go out and audition.

“You have to make an awful lot of decisions and a lot happens which we’ve never really showed. So I thought, apart from anything else, it will be really interesting to document the process and then hope also along the way that we get lucky enough to find the right people, because if we don’t get enough people turn up we are screwed.”

He will be joined for the auditions by people he trusts from his record label and TV company, who he believes “genuinely made a difference in One Direction’s career”.

He added: “I’m praying that this is going to work and even if it doesn’t work, at least I can say, ‘Well, I tried.’

“I’m really passionate about this. And I always always believed that there are gems out there waiting to be discovered.”

The search is being documented by a TV crew from Box To Box Films, the company behind Formula 1: Drive To Survive, and Cowell said he is “getting close” to announcing the format it will take.

Auditions are scheduled to take place in Liverpool on July 6 and 7.