JUST a year ago Merrill Osmond made his first solo visit to Merseyside, slightly concerned about the reaction. He need not have worried.

At the Southport Theatre the singer was besieged by fans who crowded the front of the stage and surrounded him every time he took a walk round the audience.

It wasn't bad for a white-haired, bearded man of 51 who has spent more recent years off the stage in executive roles.

By the end of that tour a new British tour had been arranged and Merrill is back, this time at the Philharmonic Hall on March 21.

"It was all very surprising to me," he says.. "That reaction at Southport was what I had everywhere. I had to return because there was such a groundswell wanting me back."

One of the leading voices in The Osmonds - it's his lead vocal on most of the hits - he admits that if someone had told him two years ago that he would be touring successfully again, he would have thought they were mad.

Once the Osmonds stopped touring as a regular act, Merrill went into television production and stage productions. "I also had my own record company and a satellite company," he says..

"So I have been there and done it all."

He realised the fans still wanted to see him after his website began attracting huge numbers. "Yes, well I get around a million hits a week. It's incredible."

He has been in the business around 48 years now - "I started at the age of three!" - and suggests he's getting ready to "hang up my jacket".

As well as working he has raised six children, run charity campaigns and taken up painting, his art competent enough to earn him an exhibition in Holland during the tour. "It's mainly oils but in Holland I will be exhibiting lithographs," he says.

"This could be the wind-up tour," he confirms.. "After this, I want to slow down. After all, I have put 48 years into showbusiness, starting in Disneyland and then several years on television with the Andy Williams Show.

"I have had a great time and some wonderful years and this tour is my way of saying thanks."

He will be performing most of the Osmonds hits in his new show, doing some unplugged numbers and including a devotional number, Are You Up There, I Believe.

More unusually, he will be raising money for the Tsunami Relief Fund. "I am bringing over some footage of the disaster that has never been seen on the media before. I will be showing that and singing, He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother."

That, of course, will be just one element of his show. "I'm going to rock," he promises. And the beard will be staying. "I have had that since I was a teenager. It's a bit greyer now but it scares my kids if I take it off."

* Merrill Osmond is at the Philharmonic Hall, March 21
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