THE stars shone brightly in Burnley this weekend as 15 young people took to the stage to perform as their pop and rock heroes.

Youngsters from Burnley, Padiham, Brierfield, Nelson and Colne competed at Burnley Mechanics in the grand final of Brunshaw Action Group's Stars in their Eyes contest. The event was the culmination of months of auditions involving hundreds of contestants in the five towns.

And the judges had a tough choice to make between the look and sound-alikes of Avril Lavigne, Petula Clark, and Michelle McManus.

But it was 13-year-old Ashley Rebanks, from Earby, who impressed them the most with his performance as flamboyant rocker Meatloaf.

The Park High School pupil, who was the only boy to get through to the final, said he was a fan of Meatloaf.

He said: "I like his songs and he has a really strong voice. I saw him in concert in Manchester."

Ashley, of Tysley Grove, said he had enjoyed taking part in the contest. Runners-up were Zoe Kershaw, as Eva Cassidy, and Stevie Brooks, as Mariah Carey.

For the final performance 35 youngsters who had taken part in the heats of the competition joined the finalists on stage to sing We Go Together from the musical Grease.

Michael Bailey, from Brunshaw Action Group, said the competition had been a great success.

He said: "This has been a real team effort. We had more than 25 volunteers involved last night, this included the police community beat manager for Brunshaw.

"A big thank you has to go to the Mechanics Theatre - not only did they let us have the theatre for free but their staff were brilliant."