JAMIE R Hawkins credits the UK Songwriting Contest with helping him launch his career after his debut entry bowled over the judges in the folk and acoustic category four years ago.

Now he is facing an anxious wait to find out if his latest entry this year will make it through to finals after his track Baxter’s Story made it through to the semi-finals.

Described as a cautionary tale to employers who mistreat their staff, the Swindon singer-songwriter is hoping the track – complete with video – will impress the judging panel. If so he is in with the chance of landing the top prize of working with legendary producer Stuart Epps, who has previously sat in the studio with the likes of Elton John, Oasis, Robbie Williams and George Harrison.

“I first entered in 2011 with a song I had just written when I started out song-writing,” he said. “Winning my category really gave me the confidence to push forward and star performing my songs to the public.”

Music had taken a back seat for Jamie, who found himself working in a warehouse in Exeter for a decade before he decided enough was enough and he decided to devote his life to making music, which has seen him become a familiar face on the gig circuit in Swindon and beyond.

He said: “It reached the point where I needed to make a few changes in my life, so I jacked that in and took the plunge. It was an opportunity for me to start afresh.

“It’s amazing doing what you love for a living - I am probably more skint now that I have ever been in my life. But I learned many years ago that money is not the route to happiness, and I consider myself to be very lucky to be doing I love doing.”

Four years on he is now working on a new EP and preparing for an eight-gig tour of Switzerland in March, which is taking his mind off the wait to hear whether he has made it to the finals.

Among the judging panel working their way through the entries are multi-platinum album songwriter Shelly Peikin who penned Christina Aguilera's What a Girl Wants, as well as Stuart Epps, eminent producer Kipper Eldridge, Hollywood producer Richard Niles and European Country Awards winner Lucie Diamond.

For more details visit www,jamierhawkins.com.