FROM magicians and dancers to singers as young as 11, a popular event showed that Southampton’s got plenty of talent.

Inspired by the popular talent show Britain’s Got Talent, the Southampton’s Got Talent show saw dozens of hopefuls perform on stage in front of an audience of hundreds yesterday (Sun, Aug 30).

And talent scouts from the television show that’s fronted by Simon Cowell and Hampshire actress Amanda Holden were also at the event to check out the county’s best new talent.

The competition, formerly Millbrook’s Got Talent, had its own panel of judges made up of Olympic medal-winning swimmer Peter Waterfield, Aaron Gilbert from Southampton band The Delays, talent scout Mandy Driver and Steve Rutherford, singer with city act The Hi Watts.

They and the audience of hundreds enjoyed a broad variety of talent on the stage at the Saints pub in Millbrook, from dancer Poppin Ron to 13-year-old singer Olivia Harber and 12-year-old Ryan Granger, who performed Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud on his ukelele.

Hayd’n  Copperthwaite from Owslebury performed Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come while magician Andy Goddard-Crawley amazed the audience with his magic trick, where he “swallowed” 20 pins but they then reappeared seconds later on a piece of thread he also put down his throat.

In the end Falah Hussain – better known as Poppin’ Ron – was voted as the winner of the competition, winning a prize of £1,000 and the chance to reappear on Britain’s Got Talent again.

He made it all of the way through to the semi-final of the 2013 competition only to miss out on an appearance in the final.

Pub landlord and event organiser Eugene McManus told the Daily Echo: “I believe the standard was very high and probably the strongest we have had in the five years we have run the event.”