LIVE and Unsigned, the UK’s biggest music competition for unsigned bands and singers, is returning in the New Year and is coming to London.

The competition travels the country in a bid to find the UK’s next break-through recording artist and, of course, the ultimate unsigned act, with the overall winner being offered a two year management and recording contract.

Open to all genres, Live and Unsigned promotes and supports all types of musicians – from rock and heavy metal to indie, pop and R and B.

This year’s auditions are set to kick off in January and one man who knows all about the rock and roll world of music is eagerly awaiting its return.

Former Sex Pistols manager and notoriously outspoken Malcolm McLaren is returning to the Live and Unsigned Judging Panel next year, hoping to find that diamond in the rough who could be polished into the UK’s next big thing.

Describing his time on this year's panel, McLaren says there are vast differences in acts today and warns of the dangers of imitating someone else’s craft.

He said: “Two words sum up today’s culture - authenticity and, well, karaoke.

"Most artists spend their lives trying to authenticate today’s karaoke culture, but you have to be a magician to do that.

"Karaoke is mouthing other people’s songs. It is life by proxy, liberated by hindsight and unencumbered by the messy process of creativity.

"Everything and everyone in a karaoke world is for sale, and so successful are its TV shows – Pop Idol, The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent – that I am racing to judge a talent contest, Live and Unsigned.

"I am on a mission: I have this undeniable thirst for something authentic.”