When Alvin rediscovered the guitar, called Peggy Sue, at his mum's house after she died, it led to his first solo tour since the 1970s.

He'll be in Worthing on September 6 but, unfortunately, Peggy Sue won't be accompanying him – the guitar has been insured for $2million and he wouldn't like to damage it.

"I wouldn't sell it. That's my teenage years and memories of my mum when she bought it for me," he said.

"I never stop working, doing gigs all over the world but they are usually big stadium gigs with five or six famous bands like Slade, Sweet and Suzi Quattro.

"I just thought, when you get to my age, you should be able to do a few things you want to do and, also, I found my first ever guitar.

"I thought I'd lost it. I'd not seen it for years and when my mum died I cleared her flat and put everything in the garage.

"I didn't feel like going through everything immediately and it took 18 months to two years before I thought I must do it.

"I found a couple of cases of old 45s of mine, some old reel to reel tapes from when I was a teenager and an old guitar case, all battered.

"It was all heading for the tip but I looked in the guitar case and there was an old guitar. I didn't recognise it at all and then I saw Buddy Holly's autograph. I hadn't seen it since the '60s.

"Back in 1958, I got on the bus in Mansfield, where I was brought up, and went to Doncaster to see Buddy Holly and the Crickets. I'd never been to a gig before. I took my guitar with me. I don't know why. Not many people had guitars in those days.

"Somehow I got backstage and met them and their manager said would I like an autograph but no-one had a piece of paper.

"In desperation, I said I had a pen and would they sign my guitar. Nobody did that kind of thing then.

"I took that guitar with me everywhere I went and got it signed. I went to see Eddie Cochrane and Bill Haley and toured with Billy Fury and Johnny Kidd. In 1961, I signed with EMI, the same label as The Beatles, and they are on there."

Other names are Marty Wilde, Joe Brown, Bobby Elliot, Dave Berry, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent and The Rolling Stones and he has taken the guitar to show to some of those big names.

The memories made Alvin think of touring all the great songs he grew up with, so the first half of the show is '50s rock 'n' roll, with blues and jazz thrown in. After the interval, out comes the smoke machine for some '70s and '80s rock.

"I'm having a ball doing some of the theatres I went to when I first started – like Worthing where I visited in the '60s with Billy Fury and Joe Brown," said Alvin. "I went to Yarmouth, where I did my first gig, with Marty Wilde, when I was trying to find an audience.

"I'll be there to meet people, too. I've met so many lovely people – fans have become friends. Managers never used to let me do that. It was always straight back to the hotel and don't mix with people."

Born Bernard Jewry, Alvin was given Peggy Sue at the age of 12 or 13. "The reason I started to play guitar was I was a big fan of Roy Rogers – the original singing cowboy," he said. "He was a teen idol."

His first break came when there was a band playing at the local palais dance hall and they let him sing a couple of songs with them.

"One day their singer, Johnny, was going to rehearse and was taken into hospital. Three days later he died.

"The band had sent a tape to the BBC to see if they could get a broadcast and a couple of months after he died the BBC came back and said yes.

"Johnny's mum and dad came round to ask me to do the broadcast and asked me to use the name Johnny had chosen – Shane Fenton."

At the end of the '60s the band "fizzled out" and Alvin was playing pubs and clubs. He was managed by Hal Carter, who knew Peter Shelley.

Shelley had written the song Coo Ca Choo and asked Alvin to perform it and that was when the more contemporary name of Alvin Stardust came about "to get plays on Radio One".

"I couldn't imagine anyone buying Coo Ca Choo by Alvin Stardust – how wrong I was," he said.

Alvin has not looked back since, with hits including Rainin in my Heart, Jealous Mind, I Feel Like Buddy Holly and Red Dress.

He is also well respected in the theatre world, playing West End and national theatre tours ranging from Jesus in Godspell and Uriah Heep in David Copperfield to the Marquis of Queensbury in Oscar Wilde.

You may remember him playing Captain Hook in panto in Worthing a few years ago, which led to parts in The Phantom of the Opera and being the childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

He has written books and been on TV and would like to "be a baddie in a big film – a cowby film".

Alvin is at the Pavilion Theatre on September 6 at 7.45pm. Tickets are £14.50 or £16 from the box office on 01903 206206 or www.worthingtheatres.co.uk

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