Just A Quickie with... Alistair Griffin, former York busker, Fame Academy runner-up and 2004 chart star from Castleton, Whitby, who plays the Grand Opera House, York, on Tuesday.

You have just finished touring Germany with The Bee Gees' Robin Gibb, who championed your songwriting on Fame Academy. How did that go?

"It went well, really well. It kind of exceeded my expectations. I sang A Lover's Prayer with him and an orchestra - the Frankfurt New Philharmonic - and singing with an orchestra was something I hadn't done before, because they're so expensive, and the sound was just fantastic. Hearing those Bee Gees songs like Staying Alive with an orchestra was amazing... and A Lover's Prayer actually!"

Will there be an Alistair Griffin single for the Christmas market?

"No there are no plans for anything before Christmas over here but I did record a new song last week in West London. David Jones, the chairman of Next, invited me to record a CD that will be given to 1,600 guests at a Martin Johnson benefit event on November 20. They're trying to raise a million pounds on the night.

"I'll be performing on the night; Lionel Richie is playing, Madness and Wet Wet Wet, I think. We'll be in Battersea Park and some of the band I'm playing with that night are in Robbie Williams's band: the drummer and the horn section."

Is there anything unusual looming in your diary?

"I used to play tennis for North Yorkshire, and when I was young I entered the Cliff Richard Search For A Star event. Anyway, I've been asked to play at the Cliff Richard Tennis Classic on December 18, in front of 10,000 people at the Birmingham National Indoor Arena. I'll be playing tennis first and then playing with a band. That'll be a nice little Christmas thing... for charity.

"I haven't played in ages. I've been playing cricket, though not a lot this year, just twice, but I did play for the Bunburys. Sir Viv Richards was there; Trevor McDonald bought me a beer; all sorts of cricketers came along, Alec Stewart, Allan Lamb, Mike Gatting. He came up and said, 'Ah, Alistair, lovely voice, can't believe you didn't win'. Dermot Reeve thrashed my guitar, playing Red Hot Chili Peppers songs."

What have you discovered in your year of pop fame?

"Pop stars are really quite ordinary these days. You meet them and you think... uh ...they're people desperate to be Jimi Hendrix or Keith Moon. What's the point in that?

"Then you meet someone like Boris Becker: a real talent. I've tried to play football and tennis and I wasn't good enough, so when you see someone who really can do it, like Becker hitting the precise spot time after time, that's skill."

What has been your most memorable encounter so far?

"I switched on the Middlesbrough Christmas lights with Brian Clough last year. My dad always says he was the best striker he'd ever seen. He was such a funny guy to meet, saying 'Stand up straight' beforehand and then saying afterwards 'I thought you were going to be crap, but you weren't'. When the announcer called him 'Cloughie', he grabbed him by the balls and said 'My name is Mr Clough to you'. An amazing man."

What lies in store for you?

"Around Christmas I'll be recording the end credits music song for a new film called These Foolish Things, which stars Lauren Bacall, Joss Ackland, Julie Christie and Andrew Lincoln. It's set in the Thirties and it's going to be the next big period movie, with the premiere at Cannes next year.

"I'll be recording a new album in the New Year. At the moment I don't have a record contract, so it'll be done with the German guys who run a subsidiary to Sony."

Did you just say you don't have a record contract, after a year when you had a Top Ten single, Bring It On, and good reviews for your debut album?

"It's all so precarious and all so changeable. It all will happen for me next year but it's like... if only people knew what it was really like in this business. It's mind-bogglingly frustrating."

Alistair Griffin, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday, 7.30pm. Tickets: £15, £10; ring 0870 606 3595.

Updated: 16:14 Thursday, November 11, 2004