TOM Lowe is proof there is life after boybands.

Tom, from Mellor near Stockport, found fame at the tender age of 18 with boyband North and South who had their own BBC TV series, No Sweat, and a string of chart hits - including I'm A Man Not A Boy.

But when the group disbanded after two years, it looked like Tom's 15 minutes of fame were over.

Yet now, ten years on, Tom is a rising star in his new adopted home of Boston, Massachusetts - and has been asked to sing the American national anthem at a major baseball game this week.

It's a rare honour - as no other non-American has been asked to sing the Star Spangled Banner at such an event before.

Tomorrow night he'll perform in front of some 30,000 fans at Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox, who currently top the US Eastern baseball league and are heading for the World Series "play offs"- like the FA Cup of the baseball world.

Tom tells me: "It's a real honour. My mum and dad are flying over from Stockport to support me so it's shaping up to be an emotional night."

Bostonian

Tom has become an adopted Bostonian since he arrived there five years to study for his degree at the prestigious Harvard University. The former Manchester Grammar School pupil decided to belatedly return to his academic studies after three years in the West End singing in various productions after his boyband experience.

He graduated in East Asian Studies in 2005, and after that started to work with the Massachusetts tourist board, filming quirky travel shows. But he's always kept his musical interests alive - and when he played tourism bosses an acoustic version of the Star Spangled Banner that he had recorded - they loved it.

"They passed it on to the Red Sox who seemed to like it, and I think they liked the whole idea of an English singer making his home in Boston."

The Diary's Dianne Bourne is flying to Boston to see how Tom gets on, and you can read her blog from the US at www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk . Tweet