A CAREER in Las Vegas could be beckoning for Bournemouth’s Frank Sinatra tribute artist Anthony Adams – despite missing out on the chance on TV talent show The One and Only earlier this year.

The former frozen food delivery driver was runner-up on the Graham Norton-hosted BBC talent search in February, losing out to Dusty Springfield tribute Katie Setterfield whose prize was a three month stint at The Imperial Palace, Las Vegas in The Legends show and £300,000 prize money.

But now Anthony could be presenting his own show, Sinatra – The Vegas Years, at the same venue in the New Year.

He was due to road-test the new show at Centre Stage, Westbourne, on New Year’s Eve and bookers from the Imperial Palace were to travel from Vegas to check it out. But the £50 a head production with six-piece band and dinner has been postponed until April 4 and moved to Wimborne’s Tivoli Theatre. Anthony has said he will take the show over to Vegas to showcase it there.

It might seem like taking coals to Newcastle but Anthony seems to have a unique appeal. The show is quite different to any other Sinatra tribute show in that it focuses on Sinatra’s years in Vegas at the Sands Hotel from 1961 to 1966 and his time at Caesar’s Palace from 1978 to 1982.

While recalling some of Sinatra’s greatest performances Anthony will include much of the dialogue Frank was known to have used. He will also recount some of his own experiences on the TV reality show that saw him competing against tributes ranging from Tom Jones to Rod Stewart in Jan-uary and February this year.

Despite narrowly missing out on The One and Only top prize Anthony says he has had a phenomenal year.

He spent four months working with The Rat Pack Espania, mostly in Madrid and Barcelona, and touring Crete, Cyprus and the Canary Islands.

There have been several local gigs including a sensational one-night show at the Pavilion Theatre. “Since I came back I’ve been concentrating on this show and was contacted by the producers at the Imperial Palace in Vegas after they heard about my plans on the internet,” he says.

“I got a phone call from someone speaking in an American accent and thought it was a wind-up – I’ve got a friend whose good at doing accents.

“If the show does go ahead they plan to throw a lot of money at it.

“The production costs would be huge with a full 16-piece orchestra and possibly a Barbara Streisand tribute, to come on in the middle.”

The Vegas Years has been written by local bandleader and arranger Steve Hayes. It features some of Sinatra’s more unusual songs, but also includes big hits like New York, New York and My Way.

Anthony tells me his experiences this year have led to him being more particular about his appearance.

“Now I get really fussy. I have to have a ring on my little finger like Frank, the shiny shoes, the fake tan and the immaculate suits. After I had done one show at the Theatre Royal in Windsor someone wrote and said you had a button undone on your jacket, Frank would never have done that! The fans are fussier than the artists themselves. People will come up and chat to me about Frank and they know more about him than I do.

“I’m therefore always reading books about Frank because I want to do a good job and find I have lots of time waiting around at airports travelling to do shows. In fact I’ve started collecting books and memorabilia. You never stop learning.”

As for the day job, would he ever go back to a normal existence?

“I couldn’t go back. I once followed one of my mates driving the delivery van just to see where he would go!”