A MUSIC entrepreneur who has rubbed shoulders with international pop producers will be giving opportunities to teenagers from throughout the North.

Adam Chetter, 21, who put Popstars: The Rivals top ten finalist Chris Park on the road to stardom, is being helped in his latest venture with grants from the Princes Trust and Northern Arts.

He already boasts an impressive CV, after having liaised with pop producers who have penned tracks for Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys.

He has also organised support artistes for BRIT award winning band A1's spring tour and has had his acts support the likes of Geri Helliwell, Blue and Liberty X.

Adam will be holding a series of live music audition shows at comprehensive schools and colleges in the region.

The shows, entitled talentSTAR: The Live Auditions, will see up to 22 acts from each school take to the stage and the audience will vote to see which performers go into a finale show. The winning performer will receive a host of prizes including a website, a day in the recording studios in Stockton and a photoshoot.

Adam, from Stanley, who graduated from Sunderland University, said: "When people come to audition they want to perform but sometimes they never fulfil their potential in front of a panel of three people. So what better way than to audition performers in front of an audience of up to 400 people.

"To have the Princes Trust and Northern Arts on my side is such a huge bonus." The shows are being run in conjunction with the talentSTAR website - www.talentstar.co.uk - which Adam launched in February.

Adam said it had so far seen over half a million people from almost every country in the world log on to get free music advice, industry contacts and news about up and coming bands.

He added: "The success of talentSTAR has outweighed my expectations. It's such a thrill to see that some of the world's biggest record labels use it as a resource for talent spotting."

Adam helped form the band X-Pose, of which Chris Park was a member. The singer is in the last ten boys battling to win a place in Pete Waterman's boyband in the ITV series Popstars: the Rival.