'X Factor's' Lloyd deluged with fan mail

'X Factor' reject Lloyd Daniels said today he has been deluged with fan mail - and has even found the time to reply personally to some lucky fans.

The 16-year-old singer from Wales just missed out on reaching the semi-final of the ITV1 singing competition after being booted out of the competition last night.

He said he was sad to leave but that he hoped for a bright future and admitted he would probably be “mobbed” by fans in the street, even after leaving.

Speaking about the fans who have been gathering outside the contestants’ north London house, he said: “It’s mad, but it’s lovely. You walk out of the house and they’re screaming your name and they want their photograph with you and they want you to sign autographs and I’m like ’I can’t get it all in, I need to get in the car’.”

He continued: “I could get used to it, I’m loving it but I think I could go places on my own, I probably would get mobbed but having all those people supporting me is just amazing so I wouldn’t mind going out there on my own.”

On the fan mail, Daniels said: “I’ve had a bit of strange fan mail but it’s quite funny.... love letters, a lot of phone numbers. I’ve actually called three people on withheld... These are the people that keep sending stuff in so I thought I’d say thank you back.”

But it seems the fans were too starstruck to converse with their idol.

“They didn’t say much to be honest, they were just screaming down the phone,” he said.

Daniels had left school before joining 'The X Factor' and was working as a waiter, but he has hopes for a brighter future.

He said: “Singing is all I want to do... performing to all those people, you’re in the studio and there’s a camera and you don’t know how many people are watching at home. It’s so enjoyable you don’t want to go back.

“I don’t want to go back to waitering!”

He does, however, hope to return to his hometown of Treharris in Wales but is currently based in London.

“I’ll go back whenever I have a gig down there.

“I’m missing it a bit, I miss my one-year-old brother – he’s the cutest thing in the world.”

Daniels also brushed off any suggestion that his mentor Cheryl Cole gave rival contestant Joe McElderry preferential treatment, saying the only difficulty he had with her was understanding her Newcastle accent.

He said: “I didn’t think she backed him more than she backed me, Joe was note perfect, every judge seemed to like Joe which they didn’t with me, there’s a lot of support for Joe.”

He added that Cole had already been in touch with him today.

He said: “She texted me this morning to say ’morning, I hope everything’s ok and not too crazy.’ She’s been great.

“She’s someone to look up to, I had the best mentor.

“I had a bit of trouble with the accent but that was it – it was hilarious.”

Judge Louis Walsh had criticised Daniels several times during the competition, but Daniels said it did not bother him.

“I thought he was repeating himself every week but a lot of it flew over my head. As long as I took it on board and came back fighting,” he said.

Daniels also claimed he had not read any press reports about him, saying: “Why would I do that? No not at all, I’ve ignored it, most of it’s not true anyway.”

He is now backing McElderry to win the competition, because he is the last one left in Cole’s ’Boys’ category.

He said: “Hopefully he can do it for Team Cole as one of us has to do it and there’s only him left.”