The Mend are a singing group who reached the Final as the wildcard act in Series 6 of Britain's Got Talent, after originally being voted out in the Semi-Finals. The members of the group are Kris Evans, Dean Kelly, Jay Kontzle and Craig Worsley. The group had been gigging anywhere at charity events, gigs, schools, and clubs however auditioned for BGT as they wanted to be known and show everyone what they could do despite their pasts.
Each of the band members were from a council estate, and people in their location were in debt and swung to crime despite the fact it were not what they had wanted to do. The group members had done stuff they regretted in the past, and all had problems at home and strived to achieve playing music until their problems were sorted out.
In their audition, they performed '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay' by Otis Redding. Alesha described the group's performance as 'fantastic', adding the fact that she 'loved the harmonies' and that the 'rapping was wicked'. Simon added his belief that the group possessed 'great chemistry'.
In the Semi-Finals, they performed both '(I Just) Died in Your Arms' by Cutting Crew and 'Written in the Stars' by Tinie Tempah, as the group blended the rap portions of the latter song with the former song. Amanda remarked 'I loved your energy', with David adding 'It was sick [and] it was fierce'. They were sent home after the Judges Vote reverted back to the Public Vote as they came 3rd in this vote.
The group returned to the Final as a wildcard and became the shows first ever wildcard act. In the Final, they performed 'Without You' from the Musical Ghost, accompanied by several backing dancers. Alesha remarked 'You are the full package, you look great, your incredible rappers [and] I love your vocals', with Simon adding 'What I like about you guys is your current, but your not too cool for school'. The group concluded the competition in 7th place overall.
Before BGT[]
The quartet originally auditioned for The X Factor in 2011 but failed to get any further than bootcamp, due to having a management deal at the time.
After BGT[]
The Mend were one of the supporting acts for Little Mix on their 2013 DNA tour, with the other two supporting acts being ReConnected, & Loveable Rogues. They released their debut single "Where Were You" on March 24th 2013. The single reached #67 in the Official Singles Chart. In July 2013, they embarked on their first headline tour, performing in Birmingham, London and Manchester. Their next single was "Oxygen" and by September 2013 they were in the studio recording their debut album.
It was announced that The Mend were back in the studios recording their next debut album between 2015 and 2016, yet by this point had renamed themselves Race The Horizon.
Between 2017 and 2018 Jay Kontzle worked as a teaching assistant, it was somewhere in between this point that he auditioned for the role of Billy Fletcher in ITV soap opera Emmerdale, later getting casted for the role. In December 2018 Kontzle began playing the role of Billy Fletcher in Emmerdale.
In December 2020, Jay competed upon 'The Big Soap Quiz Coronation St V Emmerdale' as part of the Emmerdale team.
In December 2022, Jay competed upon 'Britain Get Singing' in support of ITV's mental health campaign 'Britain Get Talking' alongside Olivia Bromley, Lisa Riley, Mark Charnock, Daisy Campbell, Lawrence Robb, and Bradley Johnson as a part of the Emmerdale team.