A FORMER soldier is part of an Army band hoping to steal the Christmas number one.

Drummer and former music teacher Simon Pavitt, 27, is one of the six members of Firing Blanks, who are hoping to take the charts by storm with their charity single, Rockin’ at Christmas, in aid of the Royal British Legion and the National Foundation for Youth Music.

The song, which was recorded with the help of Abbey Road Studios, is set to feature on national television and is already available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify.

Mr Pavitt, who used to teach music to Basildon pupils, said: “Our aim is to get into the Top 40, we want to reach as many people as possible, the bigger the audience, the more money we raise for these great charities. We are not making a penny off it.

“It would mean the world to me, it really, really would mean the world to me.

“We have done this all off our own backs, we recorded it in a Portakabin and got all our gear together, plugged it in and hoped for the best. We pulled in a favour to get it digitally mastered and make it sound a bit more professional.

“We were really chuffed to get Abbey Road supporting us on it.

We got in touch with them and told them our story and the engineer was really excited to get involved.”

Dad-of-one Mr Pavitt grew up in Stanford-Le-Hope and attended Hassenbrook Academy before joining the Army at the age of 16.

He served for six years as an aircraft technician in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, including a two-anda- half year tour of Northern Ireland. After leaving the Army he returned to Basildon where he taught music to pupils in the area, including the De La Salle School and the Basildon Academies.

He rejoined the Ministry of Defence as a civil servant in 2012 and was stationed in Reading where he formed the Arborfield Garrison Live Music Club in a bid to bring together soldiers and staff and stop them feeling isolated while they were away from home.

The Firing Blanks were born out of the music club, and currently includes five serving soldiers, who are based at the garrison.

Mr Pavitt regularly returns to Basildon to see his son Lucas, five, and his family.

The band began writing the Christmas single while sitting in the departure lounge at Heathrow Airport as they waited to fly out to Cyprus and perform in front of 4,000 people for Armed Forces Day.

For more information, visit firingblanks.co.uk