A STAGE-STRUCK teenager is packing his bags ready to take up a place at Paul McCartney's prestigious "Fame School".

John Hearne has always been a bit of a performer - even at the tender age of two - and his lifelong dream of becoming a star is one step nearer.

John, 18, of Whittaker Street, Blackburn, starts at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts on Monday.

And although his mum Lynn Cook will shed a few tears when he goes she delighted with his chance.

She said: "I am so proud of him, especially because it is such a hard place to get into.

"John has always wanted to perform - I had to buy him a microphone at the age of two because all he wanted to do was sing and entertain our friends and family."

John started performing in the youth section of Blackburn Gilbert and Sullivan Society when he was just eight years old.

His first public appearance was as one of the Lost Boys alongside 'Allo 'Allo's Arthur Bostrum in Peter Pan at King George's Hall. John, a former pupil at St Bede's and St Mary's College, progressed to the senior section of the Gilbert and Sullivan, and many more local drama groups.

He is also an accomplished singer and has performed in front of 3,000 people at the national finals in Birmingham, where he sang a compilation from Phantom of the Opera.

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