A BUS driver turned singing sensation said he drew his inspiration from growing up amid racial tensions in Burnley.

Dad-of-three Graham Cregg, 49, has just recorded his first track, Cultures, at a studio in Darwen.

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He now hopes its message will spread far and wide in a world he said is torn apart by social exclusion.

The Transdev driver, who travels all over East Lancashire behind the wheel of his bus, said: “I am not sure about the word peace because it is not a song about peace, but more about racism and gang culture.

“It is a story about what is happening on the streets everywhere.

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“I started writing it 20 years ago because where I come from, Burnley, the Asian people were one on side of the rec and white people were on the other.

“We were always told we could not go to the other side, but nowhere should be like that.

“Everybody should be able to get on together.

“We might have different coloured skin but we are all the same.”

Graham, who lives with his wife Karen, 38, and their children Kyle, 11, Kara, eight, and Keira, five, near the Intack bus depot in Blackburn, said he recently revised the lyrics and posted them online, where they received rave reviews.

So he penned a music track and visited Paul Stuart Davies’ studio in Percival Street, Darwen, when he put down vocals.

Graham said: “It is the first record I have ever done, and the first time I have ever sung in public. I want to do ten. I am hoping it does all right. Paul said what I should be doing is getting a demo together.

“I was going to walk into the radio station and see if they could play it.”

Although Graham said the track, which readers can listen to on the Lancashire Telegraph website, has been likened to Elvis Presley’s In The Ghetto, he denies there is a similarity.

He said: “It is a different song because this is happening all over the country and all over the world now. I want to stop that — not for me, but for my kids. They should be able to play out without fear of being beaten up or having their phones taken off them.”