Dominic Kirwan

All he needs is for him to stand aside and he will be king of all he surveys. Well, the Irish easy listening scene anyway.

Dominic, who hails from Omagh on the Emerald Isle, performs a range of songs, including romantic ballads, country, rock 'n' roll and traditional Irish and Scottish songs.

Like Daniel, Dominic is a nice, well brought up boy who puts on a good, clean show and is favoured by women of the same generation as his mother.

But the one-time motor trade salesman admits he has to take a reality check when he returns home to his wife and four children after completing another tour.

"My lifestyle means I stay in hotels and have everything done for me," explains Dominic, who plays Ferneham Hall, Fareham on Wednesday.

"When I get back to my family, I have to learn to live their life again and not mine. Mine is very fickle, and it takes me a day or two to wind down again."

Dominic's life was turned upside-down when he was made redundant 16 years ago.

"I'd been working part-time with a band for ten years and doing all sorts of music. I looked at the life and thought 'You enjoy it, so take a chance'. Within a year I had a recording contract and was supporting Charley Pride."

Tours with Kenny Rogers and Tammy Wynette followed, and so did a lucrative full-time music career.

"It's a big, bad world out there and there are many people trying to do the same thing, but I think you work for your luck," says the softly-spoken Irishman.

Surprisingly, singing and performing were never his ambitions.

"I'd left school early and married young. I had no aspirations," he admits.

However, even at school his vocal talents were instantly recognised. "The teachers told my mother to look out for my voice," he says.

"Every time there was a concert show they had me up there doing my party piece."

Despite some undeniable similarities, Dominic doesn't encourage comparisons with Daniel O'Donnell.

"I don't like toput myself in any bracket. I may be Irish, but that's where the similarity with Daniel ends," he says.

Kirwan happily admits his music is "middle of the road" but blames the music industry for his relatively low profile.

"The kind of music I do is undervalued because of the way the music industry is going. To get on to the TV or radio you have to be either a boy singer or dance orientated," he says.

"I feel that the style of music that I and other people like to listen to is not being given to us because of preconceptions about it."

Dominic Kirwan is at Ferneham Hall, Fareham on Wednesday, 18 August. Performance: 8pm. Tickets: £13.

Box office: 01329 231942.