I left my hod in San Francisco...

BUILDING SITE LABOURER TURNED SINGING SENSATION RELEASES BOOK ON CROONING AND HIS HERO TONY BENNETT

- NEAL KEELING

A FORMER hod carrier whose amazing singing voice led him to perform in Las Vegas and New York has published a book about the 'art of crooning!

Wayne Devlin's musical education started and finished with the Great American Songbook and that country's finest interpreters of the genre Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

Wayne, from Davyhulme, Trafford, learned from the best via his dad's record collection.

It took him all the way to the Flamingo and Golden Nugget casinos in Las Vegas, and to New York.

The voice that inspired him most was Tony Bennett's and he finally met the star after his performance at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

In 2021, Wayne sang for 24 hours in an Italian restaurant in Urmston. The inspiration for the 'swing-athon' was Bennett revealing at the time he had been living with Alzheimer's for four years. It raised £9,000 for the Alzheimer's Society.

He has raised an astonishing £750,000 over 15 years for a variety of charities. His efforts have earned him the British Citizen Award (BCAA) for Services to the Arts. Now Wayne, 48, has published a book, The Crooner: The Art Of Crooning And The Timeless Legacy of Tony Bennett.

"As I was growing up, everybody was listening to the likes of David Bowie and Dire Straits, but I didn't have any records like that. All we had in the house was my dad Pat's record collection, which was Tony Bennett, Matt Munro, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole.

"I was the youngest, so while my brother and sister were out going to gigsm I was stuck in the house listening to the likes of Perry Como.