An English teacher at a Droylsden school has authored the definitive guide to the career of one of Britain’s most loved entertainers.

Sebastian Lassandro, 29, has penned Tommy Steele: A Life in the Spotlight, which takes a look at the star’s varied career.

He’s managed to fit the mammoth task of writing and researching the book around his day job as an English teacher at Laurus Ryecroft High School.

Sir Tommy, as he is now known after he was knighted last year, was the UK’s original Rock and Roll star, first hitting the charts in 1957 with his number one single ‘Singing the Blues’. From there, he became a true variety star, featuring in movies and TV shows, before becoming a sculptor and in later life an author.

Seb first saw Sir Tommy in action more than a decade ago in a theatre production, before slowly discovering more and more of his work and becoming a close friend of the star.

“I started off as a fan,” he said.

“Sixty-five years in show businesses doesn’t happen everyday and with Tom being such a great entertainer I wanted to put his story on paper.

“With my archive collection, with him and with other fans that have shared things with me I’ve managed to tell his whole story from day one to today including all the films, all the songs and all the stage productions that he’s been in and all the fantastic people he’s worked alongside.”

Seb first put together an outline of Tom’s career, before taking it to him for approval. With Tom having already written his own autobiography covering his childhood, Seb picked up where he left off by chronicling his long and storied career.

Pictured: Seb, right, with our very own Tameside Radio's Ian Cheeseman. 

He explained: “It’s not really a personal biography, it focusses on the incredible body of work that he’s done that no one has looked at before.

“I think he was happy with that and he said to me ‘you know more about my career than I do so you’re the person to do it.’ That was quite nice.

“His career really diversified and he’s tried to keep relevant. He certainly sought relevance so he’s gone from rock and roll, which he introduced to England but only spent three years as a rock and roller before he went down different avenues like musical theatre, pantomime.

“He’s done painting, he was a county level squash champion, he’s got sculptures in Liverpool and Twickenham - he’s had such a wonderful career and he really is the original greatest showman.”

Many regard Tommy Steele as the original rock and roll star, with Seb describing him as ‘Tommy-mania before Beatle-mania.’

He said: “We all think of the crazy fans of Beatlemania in the 60s, but when Tommy was performing in Sweden in 1957 he had to have police cordons and he was knocked unconscious. People tried to rip his hair out in Dundee.

“I think because he moved away from rock and roll and Cliff Richard took his place in the early days, lots of his stories and just how massive he was has been forgotten. Hopefully I can rectify that a bit with some of the research that I’ve done.”

Seb’s book ‘Tommy Steele: A Life in the Spotlight’ is published by Font Hill Media and will be available in bookshops and online from May 20.

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