AN Evening News competition winner will soon be showcasing her talents after winning a DJ competition.

Talia Kepinska, right, won the competition in Nightlife for DJ training worth £400, thanks to DJ Kingdom in Worcester.

The Worcester shop, which offers courses and equipment to budding DJs, is owned by Damien Deighan and former DJ of the Year Andy King.

It offered a free place to an Evening News reader for the 10-week course, run by the DJ Academy organisation.

Talia was suffering from the flu when I rang her but, despite her cold, she was full of enthusiasm for the course.

She is now gearing up to take part in a DJing showcase with the other 12 people on the course, on Sunday, October 26, at Bamboo nightclub, Worcester.

Talia says no matter how much experience DJs have, the course takes them back to the beginning to discard any bad habits.

"We did different things each week, and on week nine we had a small exam to see if we'd taken in what we'd learnt," she says.

"We learnt all sorts of things that had probably taken our tutors 20 years to find out, such as how to get on to record labels."

The DJ Academy, run by Andy King, started two years ago.

"Talia has been fantastic, she's been a great pupil," said Andy.

"She's so keen it's ridiculous and she hasn't paid me to say that!"

The course had been running on Tuesday evenings from 6.30pm to 10pm at The Arts Workshop, Sansome Walk, Worcester.

It taught beat mixing, music programming, marketing, promotions, gigs, tax and accounts, self-employment, how to find work, producing demo tapes and CDs, ticket design and dealing with management.

The course was also about the practicalities of DJing and how to market and promote yourself.

The tutors bought in records with loops and bars for the students to mix.

"It's been fab," says Talia, who says she would like to be a sound engineer.

Students on the course, which finished on Tuesday, came from as far as Kidderminster, Birmingham and Leominster.

Talia was sponsored £1,000 by a Liverpool company for two decks, a mixer, speakers, headphones and records. She has performed only at house parties before.

"It's my first nightclub gig and I'm nervous," she says.

The next 10-week DJ Academy course is set to start on Monday, September 22.

For more details about DJ Academy, or for tickets for the showcase, ring Andy on 01905 22551 or 07980 915424 or visit www.djacademy.org.uk