PROUD new dad Lee Mead, who won the nation – and ladies’ – hearts when he won talent show Any Dream Will Do, is coming to The Anvil on June 13 as part of his first solo concert tour.

It’s been three years since he donned a multi-coloured coat having won the BBC talent contest and Lee Mead is busier than ever.

He has just started a nine-month contract in West End musical Wicked, and has now embarked on his first solo concert tour, all the while adjusting to fatherhood, having had a baby girl with wife Denise van Outen at the beginning of May.

But chatting about the tour he is nothing but enthusiastic. “It’s pretty manic but a very exciting time,” he said.

“The concert tour is going to be great fun. I’ve got my own band together, they are all great musicians, and I’m going to do songs from my first and second albums and a few covers and numbers from musicals.”

He added: “I’m more excited than nervous. It’s a new venture, a brand new thing and I feel pretty confident.

“It’s great doing shows and plays but having the chance to go out and be myself and talk to the audience is very different.”

It will be his first trip to Basingstoke and he will be accompanied by special guest Niamh Perry, the new star of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom follow-up Love Never Dies.

Mead said: “She’s got such a lovely voice, a real contemporary sound, a pretty tone and sweet voice. We’re doing a couple of duets and she’ll do three or four songs as well, so it’s lovely to have her on board.”

When he is not performing he is back home getting to know his new baby.

He said: “It’s all new, same as for any parent, so I’m just adjusting to everything. It’s lovely, so special waking up each day and seeing this little face.

“And I am around during the day times which is great.”

Mead, who is originally from Southend-on-Sea, said he is keen to do more straight acting roles. He spent three months on an acting course at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York last year.

In January he was at Theatre Royal Windsor starring in an Oscar Wilde play.

He said: “The course paid off, I came back and did this Oscar Wilde play [Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, adapted for the stage from an Oscar Wilde short story], and I’d like to do some TV and film in future.”

Tickets to see Lee Mead cost £27.50 and can be booked by calling 01256 844244 or online at anvilarts. org.uk.