Brett is flying solo

BEATS: BRETT Anderson may be best known for his chart topping work with Brit poppers Suede.

But the 42-year-old crooner is fast becoming a household name in his own right and he’s bringing his UK solo tour to Manchester’s Academy 3 on Monday.

Anderson was brought up on a council estate in West Sussex and spent his youth playing guitar for bands including The Pigs and Geoff.

In the late 1980s, he formed Suede with his girlfriend Justine Frischmann and mate Mat Osman.

The trio soon recruited Bernard Butler and drummer Simon Gilbert completed the line up.

Even before Suede’s first album appeared in stores, Anderson’s androgynous style and vague confessions about his sexuality stirred controversy in the British music press. In 1993, Suede hit number one on the UK charts with their self titled debut album.

Combining Morrissey’s homoerotic posturing with David Bowie’s glam theatrics, Anderson achieved instant fame in the UK.

Third album “Coming Up” proved to be the last high point as Anderson’s well-publicised problems with crack and heroin addiction put the band on hiatus in the late 1990s.

In 2004, after resolving their differences Anderson and Butler formed The Tears with Will Foster, Makoto Sakamoto and Nathan Fisher and released their debut album “Here Come The Tears” which was met with mixed critical and popular reactions.

Three years later, Anderson released his debut self-titled solo album and started to tour on his own. And the rest is history.