Ref. 12516/2THE football phenomenon known as the Geordie Dancer arrived in Pewsey on Tuesday night. Even football stars like Beckham or Owen could not have wooed bigger crowds to the Moonies Fun Bar in the High Street.

The popular village pub, run by district councillor Jerry Kunkler, was packed and people had to be turned away at the door.

The reason they were there was to see a 33-year-old Newcastle supermarket shelf filler who has become a superstar.

The Geordie Dancer is Sainsbury's worker David Johnson, who lives just outside Newcastle in the village of Witton Gilbert. The trip to Wiltshire was the firs time he has ever been out of Newcastle.

For the past 18 months he has been entertaining Newcastle United pre-match fans who gather in The Vault pub near St James's Park.

He came to the attention of Sky Sports' Soccer AM programme and they ran a contest for pubs to win an appearance by the Geordie Dancer.

Unbeknown to Mr Kunkler, one of his regulars, close friend Mike Lisle an ex patriot Geordie who has lived in Pewsey for ten years called the TV station and entered the name of the Moonies in the competition.

Mr Lisle said no-one had a greater surprise than he did when the name of the Pewsey pub was drawn as the lucky winner.

On Tuesday about 130 people crowded into the pub to watch the Geordie Dancer go through his disco routine.

Encouraged by the eardrum shattering shouts of "Geordie, Geordie" that drowned out the disco amplifier, the gyrating Newcastle bachelor bopped away in his own inimitable high-kicking style.

In the Newcastle pub he has become famous for his high kick that reaches an air conditioning unit on the ceiling. He admits he can only manage the high kick with his right leg because if he tries it with his left he falls over.

There is no air conditioning unit on the low ceilings of the Pewsey pub so one of the Geordie Dancer's aides held a football at ceiling height for him to kick to cheers from the crowd.

He told the Gazette that he became a part-time disco dancer at The Vault by accident. He said: "I was standing in the bar where they were having a disco dancing contest and the DJ was trying to get people to take part. He came over to me and asked me to have a go and that was how it started."

A Soccer AM camera crew filmed his antics at the Moonies for this Saturday's edition of Soccer AM on Sky Sports 1.

The Geordie Dancer's performance in Pewsey on Tuesday was the beginning of a nationwide tour of pubs for the Saturday sports programme.

He said: "I had never heard of Pewsey before but it's certainly a fun place going by the crowd in here tonight."

Customers at the Moonies are more used to seeing the female pole dancers who give regular shows in the village pub.

But they could not get enough of the Geordie Dancer on Tuesday and every time he left the stage in the bar there were shouts for his return.