IRISH singer Tommy Carey’s idol will always be American singer-songwriter Gene Pitney and he brings his tribute show to Malvern’s Forum Theatre later this month.

Carey, who was Ireland’s number one cabaret entertainer, regularly performed in Dublin’s booming dance halls, sing-along bars and late night clubs in he 1970s and often played to packed houses.

His Music of Gene Pitney Show was hugely popular - especially with the two having uncannily similar voices and his career peaked in 1980 when, at the ill-fated Stardust Club, he drew 1,200 people to his most successful Pitney celebration. The club was ravaged by a fire in 1981 which claimed the lives of more than 40 people.

With a career in show business spanning over 40 years Carey is happy to say he is still as busy as ever, still performing Pitney’s hits and stresses how grateful he is to the American singing star.

“All the success I have enjoyed is owed to my idol”.

Gene Pitney had numerous big hits both in this county and America at the height of his career, and he also wrote the early 1960s hits such as Rubber Ball, recorded by Bobby Vee and Hello Mary Lou for Ricky Nelson.

After an absence of 15 years Pitney’s last hit in the UK charts came in 1989 when he and Soft Cell singer Marc Almond teamed up to record a duet version of Something’s Gotten Hold of my Heart, which had been a UK number five for Pitney back in 1967.

Carey’s current UK tour will take him to Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on Wednesday, September 16, which is the city where Pitney died in April 2006 having been found collapsed by his tour manager in a Hilton Hotel room.

Pitney’s final show at the same venue had earned him a standing ovation.

The show at Malvern is on Friday, September 25.