HE blew Britain’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan away, Simon Cowell described him as a “huge talent”, while Amanda Holden simply said “stunning”.

Now sax man Julian Smith is kicking off his latest mini-tour in Great Bromley.

It’s more than 20 years since he graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire, going on to play bassoon in various pit orchestras for musicals and shows. He became hooked on the sax after hearing Kenny G for the first time in 1993 and built a band around himself.

One of his numbers featured on the multi-platinum compilation album Classic Chillout, which led to more tracks being commissioned.

After six years of limited success, he decided to take the reality TV route and entered Britain’s Got Talent in 2009.

His soprano sax playing wowed TV audiences and earned him third place in the show behind dance act Diversity and bookies’ favourite Susan Boyle. Julian had 700,000 public phone votes and millions of Youtube hits online.

After the show, he released Chilled to the Sax under the stage name Joolz Gianni, recorded with classical stars, including Julian Lloyd Webber and performed for Prince Charles at Clarence House as well as being invited to play for the prime minister.

He has performed on national television with Chris Rea, M People, and soul singer Dina Carroll.

Julian will appear at St George’s Church on Friday, September 13, at 7.30pm. Tickets are £12 (families £30) on 01206 230688 or theticketsellers.co.uk