Sixties pop idol Wayne Fontana is coming back to Notts – for the first time since he finished a six-month stretch in Nottingham Prison. ANDY SMART spoke to him

"PRISON was the most horrible experience of my life," says Wayne Fontana – real name Glyn Geoffrey Ellis – who had top ten hits in 1964 and 1965 with Um, Um, Um, Um, Um and Game of Love.

He was jailed in 2007 for setting fire to a bailiff's car, the culmination of a long-running battle over a bankruptcy order against him.

"I got beaten up in the yard after I spotted some drugs in a sock which had been thrown over the wall.

"When I reported it, I was attacked by six inmates. They kicked me in the head and I had the top of my ear ripped off. I was warned to keep quiet."

Fontana says his struggle to overturn the bankruptcy order and clear his name has forced him to quit Britain for a new life in Spain, where he now lives on the Costa Blanca.

"I just love it here," he told me from his home in the coastal resort of La Zenia.

"I am 63, semi-retired and working three pubs a week."

But the singer, forever linked with his backing group The Mindbenders, still makes working trips back to England and will be making two local appearances next week.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think, all those years ago, I would still be in the business. It's like John Lennon once said, we thought we would have a couple of years and then get a proper job.

"But I don't miss the 60s. I am having more fun now, I enjoy it more. Back then you didn't know if you were a good singer or a bad one because of all the screaming. I remember Lennon saying he once sang Three Blind Mice in Shea Stadium and no-one noticed."

Fontana begins his brief Nottingham tour on Thursday when he appears with local rock and roll favourite Vince Eager at the Grange in Radcliffe-on-Trent.

Radcliffe resident Eager said: "I saw him recently and he has introduced comedy into his act. He is brilliant. He will be doing eight or nine songs but also chatting with the audience – and he has a lot of stories to tell."

Fontana has been touring with The Searchers, The Merseybeats and John Walker, in the Solid Silver Sixties Show, playing major venues across the country, including Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall.

But when old mate Vince invited him to join his forthcoming Thursday night gig in Radcliffe's local hall, the singer took no persuading.

In its first five years, the Grange Hall has played host to an array of events. Dramatic plays, flower shows, weddings, Christmas bazaars, dances, lectures being just a few to be held there.

The one thing Eager believed was missing were variety shows featuring household names. For the past five years, Vince has appeared with his band Rockola at the Grange every Christmas for a dance and feels that, having talked to many of the regulars, they would like to see more familiar names at the venue during the year.

On Thursday Vince plans to give them what they have asked for.

Vince said: "I hadn't seen Wayne for over 40 years and I was amazed at his performance.

"He was brilliant and by far the most entertaining act on the bill.

"I don't think I could have chosen a stronger and more popular artist for what I hope will be the first of many big names to appear in Radcliffe-on-Trent."

Supporting Wayne will be Rockola, ex-Merseybeat guitarist Trevor Leeson and award-winning comedienne A Jay.

Tickets are priced at £12.50 and are available from the Grange box office on 0115 933 5808, VIP Promotions on 0115 933 3009, or the National Dry Cleaners, Radcliffe-on-Trent.

Doors open at 7.15pm and curtain up is at 8pm.

Next Friday, Wayne Fontana will appear in Long Eaton at the West Gate Suite, Chicago Sports Bar from 7.45pm to 11.45pm.

For more information, call 0115 972 4662 or visit the website www.chicagosportsbar.co.uk.