IT takes a lot of courage, not to mention guts, for any singer to attempt to pay homage to a legend like Frank Sinatra by not only singing his greatest songs but also attempting to sound like him.

But one man who takes this all in his stride - and has been doing so for many years - is Oldham's own Laurie Ash, and his homework on Sinatras style of singing and stage presentation has proved to be highly intensive indeed.

In short, no British singer could arguably have been better equipped than Laurie to present last night's celebration in honour of Francis Albert's much-publicised 80th birthday tomorrow.

Opening with "Let's Face the Music and Dance", backed by the 17-piece Mark Gillbanks Orchestra. Laurie's well-planned programme was a parochial tribute full of good intent in honour of the man who was, reputedly, responsible for the birth of the bobby-soxer movement back in the 1940s, when his career started with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

With consummate ease, Laurie took his audience on a singing narrative through those formative years and then on to the start of Sinatra's solo path in the 1950s, with those magical and highly-rewarding partnerships with the great Nelson Riddle and Billy May naturally highlighted.

These, of course, were the two leader/arrangers who were responsible for so much of his success, via recordings such as "Learnin' the Blues", "Come Fly With Me" and "Brazil".

Although there were one or two nervous moments, when the band looked as if it was about to fall in reaching the heights required by some of the more demanding and ethereal scores of Riddle and May, it more than made up for it with backings for Laurie's other numbers as he continued to follow Sinatra's sojourn across the subsequent decades.

The most notable was "The Best Is Yet To Come", an extremely difficult vocal number that was born of the Count Basle/Neal Hefti era of big-band swing, and what could have been a possible landmine in view of the awkward yet necessary key changes.

Thankfully, this particular obstacle was overcome in style and without any problems, enabling this highly- entertaining tribute to close on a high of "Summer Wind", "Let Me Try Again", "New York, New York" (naturally) and "My Way".
T.P.