IT'S exactly five years to the day that Southampton's number one pop superstar Craig David had his first UK solo number one with Fill Me In. To celebrate What's On's looks back at the rise of one of the biggest stars in British music...

FIVE years ago Craig David was on the verge of history.

At just 18 he was only hours away from becoming the youngest ever-British male to land a solo number one.

Five years on and Craig is now one of the most successful pop stars in British music history with sales of over ten million albums and a cool £9m in the bank. And he hasn't even turned 24 yet!

Of course five years ago he was still living in Southampton's Holyrood Estate, a million miles away from the plush London pad he now calls home.

Craig had already tasted the sweet success of a top ten hit, but not on his own.

In December the previous year he guested on fellow Southampton music stars Artful Dodger's debut, Re-rewind the Crowd Say Bo Selecta, which sailed to number two and only just missed out on the Christmas top spot, beaten by Cliff Richard's Millennium Prayer.

By that point Craig was already in talks with the record label that would launch his career, Wildstar, and had also recorded most of the tracks for his debut album, Born to Do it at Artful Dodger's modest studio's near Ocean's Village.

Music writers hailed the album, which spawned four top ten hits including Craig's second, consecutive number one 7 Days, a masterpiece.

It went onto sell over seven million copies and top the charts in the UK and peak at number 11 in the States.

Later that year Craig was crowned Best UK Newcomer and R & B Act at the MOBO awards as well as winning the gong for Best UK Single with Fill Me In.

7 Days broke the US Top ten the following spring hailing the start of Craig's phenomenal success in the States - a feat yet to matched by any of Britain's other major league pop stars, including Robbie Williams.

In 2002 he released the hugely successful follow up to 2001's Fill Me In. Slicker Than Your Average shot to number four in the charts and included the hugely successful collaboration with Sting, Rise and Fall, which reached number two.

Over the last five years Craig has headlined at some of the biggest stadiums in the world, worked with superstars like Nelle and been linked with celebrity stunners Natalie Imbruglia, Charlize Theron and supermodel Roxy Ingram.

His eagerly anticipated new album is expected out in July and he's been rumoured to be close to signing a £15m record deal with a major US record label.

Not bad for a Southampton kid who began his career spinning decks on a pirate radio station when he was just 14!