THE boy won Bridport’s Got Talent, the student sang with Sir Paul McCartney and now the man is poised to record his first EP.

Douglas Dare, now 22, has been back in his home town for the Spirit of Bridport festival to see the premiere of Dorset by Night – for which he composed the music.

It was in 2007 when the young Beaminster School pupil impressed the BGT judges, almost as much as he impressed the ex-Beatle when they performed together at the end of his course at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

Now Douglas is working as an events co-ordinator selecting the programme of music events for an East London venue.

But he is always keen to support his home town and when filmmaker, Stephen Banks approached him after seeing his locally shot music video for his song London’s Rose he was more than happy to get involved.

Douglas said: “Stephen told me about his idea for the film and asked whether I would like to compose the music.

“He was after a local composer and I’m very proud of where I’m from and would love to involve Dorset in my work as much as I can.

“I’m really looking forward to hearing people’s reaction to the film as the direction of the piece is completely different to my song-writing style and not only that, it’s a stunning piece of photography.”

Since leaving university Douglas has been gigging regularly and making an impact online.

He said: “After uploading my music video for my song London's Rose I had so many emails from people from all over, even a young girl from Missouri USA called London Rose.

“Among fans of the song I also was approached by music manager, David Taylor, current manager of Rough Trade Records’ British Sea Power, who is now working with me closely on finding the right producer to record my first EP.

“The best news came last month when I was awarded the Emerging Excellence Award by the Musician’s Benevolent Fund.

“My lecturers advised me to send my music to the charity and I was lucky enough to be picked out of hundreds of other young musicians, all of whom are in the early stages of their career.

“The award will fund my first EP which will include three songs and should be completed late this year.

“Demos are already available to download on iTunes or to stream on Spotify.”

Douglas is just back from the Isle of Wight where he was playing at the Ventnor fringe festival, co-organised by Becky Boucherat from Weymouth.

Douglas is now looking for the best place to record and Bridport is top of his list.

He added: “There are so many great, artistic people in Bridport and it’s no wonder when you look around you.

“Stephen Banks demonstrates that only too well.”

You can get a flavour of his music on facebook.com/douglasdaremusic, at youtube .com/user/dougiedare or at douglasdare.com