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JAMES Edwards was dubbed the choir boy' when he worked as a waiter at the Arches cafes on Southend seafront.

Little did they know that one day he would become an acclaimed tenor, performing at the Royal Opera House and prime venues across Europe.

Now the renowned opera singer is set to return to his home town for the Last Night of the Spring Proms at the Cliffs Pavilion, belting out old favourites including Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem and Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turandot.

"They asked if I was free and I said of course I'll do it in Essex I'm from round there," he said. "Normally they provide a hotel but I will be staying at my mums, which is in Daws Heath in Thundersley."

James's talent was recognised at a young age while he was still a pupil at Chalkwell Hall Infants School. He took part in his first audition at just seven years old and was snapped up by the St Paul's Cathedral Choir School, where he was a boarder.

By the time he was nine years old he was performing with top singers including Kiri Te Kanawa in front of 5,000 people and even had a bit-part in Eighties TV show Bergerac.

"Keep your eyes peeled on UK TV Gold and you should see me," he laughed. "I think I was in a church where someone got murdered and I was singing and doing a spot of acting."

James, 33, now speaks fluent French, Italian and German and is able to sing in Russian, Czech and Polish.

He said: "I like the challenge of it because it's very hard, the languages and the voice I sing, which is tenor, is the hardest voice to sing. It doesn't exist it's something you have to work on and do athletically. You wouldn't get out of bed and sing tenor, you've got to train because the notes are high. It takes ten years to train."

He now has a tall physique which gives him an imposing stage presence, something he believes is the result of intense training.

"I read somewhere if you do it from such a young age it alters your DNA and your body grows to accomodate it," he said. "From singing I've now got a huge rib cage, which is not necessarily genetic, it opened up because I need to use my lungs."

James's day to day life involves jet-setting around the world and late-night performances, recently singing Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at the Royal Albert Hall.

But it all really took off in 2002 when he made his debut with the Royal Opera at Covent Garden as an Apprentice Die Meistersinger - learning the ins and outs of the profession. And taking to one of the most prestigious stages in the world.

"It was absolutely scary," he said. "I went back to the dressing room and had to go to the loo it was that bad. When the curtain came up, my God. Now after that experience I don't get so scared anymore, but the stakes get higher and higher."

Although Pavarotti sang right up until his Seventies, James realises this career may not last forever and has started to take a City and Guilds in plumbing - a trade which could not be further removed from his current job.

"It's a back-up plan so that if I ever choose I don't want to get on aeroplanes or If I have an accident with my voice or choose I don't want to do it anymore I can do something else," he said. "I've never done anything normal for a living and got my hands dirty. If nothing else comes of it I can fix my friends' boilers.

"It isn't brain surgery what I do. I turn up and I sing some songs and then I go home so it's not always very brain taxing and I can't always see what I've done because whatever I've done doesn't exist anymore, unless it's recorded.

"But if I fix someone's boiler I can say your boiler is now working and there it is. There's no arguing about that, no one can say I don't like that boiler, it's not how I like that boiler to be."

James now lives in Crystal Palace and has two young children Annabel, 8, and Alex, four months, so touring takes its toll. But he still has an intense passion for the music shared by its close-knit group of dedicated fans - even though the art form may not be accessible to all.

"I'm not sure in our lives these days we have time to spend two weeks swotting opera because so much pressure one earning a living life is so fast internet," he explained. "I think if you're retired and you want to do it as a hobby it's great but if you're working 9 to 5 it's a tall order."

But accessibility is never a problem with Last Night of the Spring Proms, which is brimfull of tunes which promise to make you go home whistling.

"I like the music," said James. "If it brings enjoyment to people that's very important. I do it every single day so I have to remember for the people coming to see the show it could be their big night out of the year they've paid money for their ticket, gone to restaurant and want to be entertained. It has to be a special evening for them."

The light-hearted evening offers a welcome change of pace for James as the audience can sing along and show their enjoyment. But his ultimate ambition is to play Verdi's Otello before he retires.

"Not now, give it 20 years," he said. "I think it's the greatest opera ever, it's a great character - it's Shakespeare's Othello - very complicated man who deals with killing his wife. It's the most amazing and difficult music. If I sung that well I'd retire, I'd do the plumbing full-time."

7:39pm Saturday 5th April 2008

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