A FORMER rock star is holding a musical extravaganza this Saturday, in the form of a mini Glastonbury in the beer garden of his own pub.

Max Bacon, from the Farmer's Arms, in Middlewich Road, Rudheath, used to be affectionately known as the singing milkman during his round in Northwich, but he rose to stardom with supergroup GTR.

Max, now aged 45, started his career as lead singer with hard rock band Nightwing, along with guitarist Alec Johnson, who will be performing with his new band at the festival.

Afterwards he joined Bronz, another rock band and supported Hawkwind on tour, rising to the dizzy heights of playing in front of 30,000 fans at the Wrexham Rock Festival on the same bill as metal gods Motorhead.

More success was yet to come when he joined GTR with guitar heroes Steve Howe and Steve Hackett, formerly of Yes and Genesis.

GTR enjoyed massive success in the USA, clocking up album sales of a million and having a top ten hit with The Higher You Climb, which had widespread airplay on MTV.

Sadly, GTR split up when the two guitarists had an argument, but Max then entered ITV's New Faces as a solo artist, reaching the grand final.

Max is now content to run his pub - but he's bringing some rock and roll spirit to a usually tame Northwich with his first ever music festival.

And he will swap hard rock for soul music when he tops the bill with his band Pick Up The Pieces.

When asked about the change of genre, Max said: "I can sing anything really, I'm in a 10-piece soul band now simply because it's something I fancied doing."

He added: "It's going to be the best day out in Northwich for music lovers in years."

Predictably, the festival met some opposition from Rudheath residents because of noise levels meaning the last band Genie will be moved indoors at 9.30pm.

Max said: "I understand their reservations, but considering it's a one off, and I was due to finish at 10.30pm I don't see the problem."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.