BASINGSTOKE boy band Concept have made it through to the next stage of The X Factor after surviving the nail-biting boot camp stage of the show.

The five lads – Karim Newton, Matt Goodenough, Scott Dicks, Nathan Gittens and Ben Selley, who is the cousin of One Direction star Harry Styles, are all former pupils of Queen Mary’s College, in Basingstoke.

As previously reported by The Gazette, the band wowed X Factor judges Simon Cowell, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, Louis Walsh and Mel B, with their rendition of Labrinth’s Earthquake and later earned a place at the boot camp stage of the competition after all four judges agreed they should go through to the next round.

After hearing the boy band’s performance of Snow Patrol’s hit Run, which was aired on last night’s show, judge Cheryl Fernandez-Versini told Concept: “I think you have just made Louis’s job a lot harder than he was expecting.”

And Louis Walsh, who has been assigned the task of mentoring the groups in this year’s competition, agreed with Cheryl, adding: “Boys, it was your best prformance yet. The problem is I have six seats gone.”

However, after leaving the five boys in suspense, Louis gave the Basingstoke boy band a place in his top six, swapping them with girl duo Blonde Electric before changing his mind and instead asking the new girl group formed for the competition to leave.

The news means that the band, who have been together for three-and-a-half years, will now fight for a place on the live finals show in a bid to become the 2014 X Factor winner.

To watch the judges' houses episodes of The X Factor, tune in to ITV One on Saturday and Sunday from 8pm.