EXPECT busker Nick Bold to get a few more pennies in his guitar case this year.

For music biz insiders tell us he could well be on his way to the top after wowing a studio audience on Stars In Their Eyes.

Shoppers in Bolton may recognise Nick - he's the talented guy who stands in Deansgate belting out tune after tune.

Show producers say they were blown away by his similarity to the pop legend ex-Beatle George Harrison.

Viewers of the ITV1 show will see the full-time busker on February 7.

Nick tells us it would have been on sooner but presenter Matthew Kelly was arrested over an allegation that he sexually abused a boy in the 1970s and the programme was postponed. Mr Kelly was later cleared and the show has been dusted off.

Nick said: "When I was told they were pulling the programme, I was gutted because I thought it would never end up on television and my chance had gone."

The idea for George Harrison came when two women approached him in Manchester and said he looked like the star.

He applied for Stars In Their Eyes with 30,000 other hopefuls and found himself in a pool of 300 wannabes and then the last 50.

Nick, who was born in Bolton but now lives in Bury, said: "George Harrison was my first guitar hero and his death saddened me.

"I was proud to get up there and be him for the day. It took about an hour in make-up but then the transformation was complete."

Nick, who will sing My Sweet Lord, began playing the guitar 20 years ago and now busks full time in Bolton, Manchester, York and Chester, keeping proper accounts of his takings.

And most days he plays acoustic based rock outside Bolton's Burtons store.