'I'm not angry at Simon Cowell'

Image source, (C) British Broadcasting Corporation

Image caption, Austin Drage says he's played with Rod Stewart and gigged with his own band
  • Author, Natalie Jamieson
  • Role, Newsbeat entertainment reporter

All this week on Newsbeat we'll be looking ahead to the new series of The X Factor and find out what happened to some of last year's losing finalists.

Austin Drage finished ninth out of 12 in last year's series, ending up in the bottom two against Rachel Hylton.

He says he's had a busy year since being voted out but hasn't heard from former mentor Simon Cowell. ________________________