YET another chart-topping star has signed up to perform in Suffolk this summer. Hot on the heels of announcements that McFly, Madness, Ian Brown, Ronan Keating, Will Young, Brian McFadden, Jools Holland, the Beautiful South and REM are all to play outdoor concerts in the county in 2005, comes the news that Daniel Bedingfield is also on his way.

YET another chart-topping star has signed up to perform in Suffolk this summer.

Hot on the heels of announcements that McFly, Madness, Ian Brown, Ronan Keating, Will Young, Brian McFadden, Jools Holland, the Beautiful South and REM are all to play outdoor concerts in the county in 2005, comes the news that Daniel Bedingfield is also on his way.

The singer, who is currently on a tour of the UK promoting his new album Second First Impression, will perform in Thetford Forest on July 15. Tickets for the concert go on sale on Friday.

Daniel is no stranger to Suffolk. His last national tour stopped off at the Regent in December 2003, a date that sold out in less than two hours of going on sale.

Since then he has survived a near fatal car crash, penned a second album of songs and seen his sister Natasha also make her mark on British music. And coming inches within death is something that has clearly impacted him as an artist and person.

"Before the accident it seemed as if whatever I was doing I was five steps ahead of myself," Daniel said of the January 2004 crash in New Zealand which left his with a metal frame bolted into his skull for three months.

"It was hard to keep my head above water but now…well now I'm just really enjoying life. I have a sense - which I know some people only experience far later in life - that I know who I am. And I'm comfortable."

Daniel first burst on to the music scene in December 2001 when his debut single Gotta Get Thru This stormed into the charts at number one. It was followed by an album of the same name which spawned a total of six singles, including three number ones and five top ten hits, and sold 1.7 million copies in the UK alone.

Now he is back with album number two, Second First Impression, and ready to bare his soul even more.

"There's stuff in my music that I'd literally never tell my closest friend and yet somehow it just feels right to put it into song and tell the entire planet," Daniel said.

"For me it's an almost spiritual experience. Most music these days has lost its power. Music has lost its force, its meaning, its direction. I wasn't going to let that happen to me."

n Daniel Bedingfield will be at High Lodge, in Thetford Forest, on July 15. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday priced £24 (plus booking fee).

Weblinks: www.danielbedingfield.com

www.forestry.gov.uk/music