KENT rocker Ben Mills may have missed out on winning the X Factor but he still appears to have a successful music career ahead of him.

Minutes after he came off stage for the final time on Saturday he was told he had been signed to top record label Polydor.

The 26-year-old, from Nelson Road, Whitstable, is now working on his first album to be released in February before the X Factor tour, with another to follow in the spring.

Ben, who came third in the competition, said: “My dreams have come true. My head went straight into work mode when they told me and I wanted to go home and start writing instead of going to the party with everyone else.

“We have to move fast so we can use the X Factor band wagon to promote the album and they are working out my schedule at the moment. It’s really busy but it’s amazing. I really am living the dream.”

The first album will mostly be songs Ben performed during the show but he hopes there will be more opportunity with the second to showcase his own work.

And he is already getting used to performing live gigs as a solo artist instead of with his band as he has been used to in the past.

“I am doing loads of gigs and it’s fantastic,” he said. “It is so different to what I am used to. I am getting paid 10 times as much and I only have to do two or three songs. Now I get treated like royalty.

The long-haired star, who runs a marquee company with his sister, is working with former Westlife star Bryan McFadden’s tour manager and is getting used to the showbiz lifestyle.

He added: “I don’t think I will be going back to putting up marquees for a while.”

FULL STORY IN THE WHITSTABLE GAZETTE AND KENTISH GAZETTE