BB FANS

I don't know, you wait all year for an England sporting hero to be unmasked as a secret pop star and suddenly two come along at once.
First we had Rugby World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio revealed as a choirboy who sang backing vocals on the Tina Turner Hit We Don't Need Another Hero.

Now Ashes star Freddie Flintoff is taking singing lessons, with one eye on releasing a record.

Freddie, currently playing for the World XI Down Under, is being coached by opera singer Jon Christos after the pair met at a charity ball last month.

Christos, who sang at the event, said: "He actually came up to me to congratulate me on my performance and we got chatting. We're both Manchester City footy fans and we just got on.

"I told him it should be me congratulating him on his success in winning the Ashes, but he said he would trade it all in to do what I do.

"I told him, 'You're the hero of the country right now - why would you want to do that?' But he's very passionate about singing, so I said let's get together. He's a big karaoke man and he loves crooning."

Freddie is well known for leading the sing-songs in the dressing room and even attempted a drunken version of Elvis Presley's Suspicious Minds during the England victory celebrations in Trafalgar Square.

Christos has ensured there will be no repeat performance, insisting the King will not be making an appearance when the pair meet up on Flintoff's return from Australia.

The singer, who is also a classically-trained musician, told the Daily Telegraph: "I will have prepared him a couple of tracks and we'll get to work.

"I promised Fred I would not give away what we're doing, but it's not Elvis. He had a couple of tracks in mind. All I can say is that they'll have a Rat Pack feel."

No-one else is involved in the project at present, but Christos could do worse than recruit Flintoff's fellow fast bowlers Steve Harmison, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard.

Freddie and the Seamers? It's almost a good name for a band.

Or even Freddie and the Steamers, based on their Ashes victory celebrations.

Dear God no....recollections of Gazza spring to mind

fog on the tyne is all mine, all mine
the fog on the tyne is all mine