A Wimbish teenager has clinched the Christmas #1 spot.

Last week, the Reporter ran a campaign to encourage readers to cast their votes for singer-songwriter Tom Roddis’ ‘No Apology’, in Cambridge Radio 105FM’s Unsigned Chart.

The Year Eight student had entered the chart at the top a few weeks ago, but last week was keen to climb back from #2 for the Christmas hot spot, which was announced last night (Wednesday).

“I would really like to be number one – it would be pretty cool over Christmas,” Tom told the Reporter last Thursday.

“The song is about an argument, when the other person gets the wrong end of the stick. It’s about having to walk away and not holding a grudge,” Tom said.

The chart consists of five tracks by different, unsigned artists, with a sixth introduced each week, and votes from members of the public ensuring five remain and one artist leaving the charts.

“It was quite weird hearing my song on the radio,” said Tom, who attends the Perse School in Cambridge.

Tom, who has a ten-year-old brother, Will, started playing the guitar when he was about nine. After he was invited to play at the Grand Arcade in Cambridge, there was “a domino effect”, he told the Reporter.

“I started to go busking in Cambridge, and entered into a busking competition, where strangers voted for their favourite singer.

“I won that, and then performed at Cambridge’s Big Weekend, supporting Hot Chocolate,” he said.

Tom enjoys music from Ed Sheeran, The Script and Passenger, but increasingly writes his own songs.

“I just play around with some chords, get the melody, then add the lyrics. The chords I find reasonably easy – the lyrics come a bit less naturally to me.”

Despite his young age, Tom has played a number of gigs in the last year, including performances at the NMG awards in October this year, and has also played at Strawberry Fair and the Cambridge Corn Exchange, with a gig at the Cambridge Junction Fiver night on January 30.

He may be the next big thing, but Tom doesn’t want to be just any star.

“I don’t want to be like the new Justin Bieber, I’d like to be a bit more understated,” he said.

Cambridge 105FM is the community-owned radio station for the city of Cambridge, a not-for-profit organisation, run by volunteers.

You can hear ‘No Apology’ and find out more about Tom by going to facebook.com/TomRoddisMusic.