NEW music sensation Jamie Cullum had a packed Crudwell Village Hall in raptures when he performed in an unrehearsed concert with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra on Saturday.

The 23-year-old, who grew up in nearby Hullavington, was unable to practise with the young orchestra beforehand because a flight bringing him back into Gatwick had been delayed by fog.

He arrived at the concert with little time to spare, but he still managed to bring the house down by performing two five-song sets including dedicating a song to mystery lost love Laura, who he had once dated when he lived in the area.

Jamie, who signed a £1million album deal with Universal Records in May, had asked to sing at the fundraising concert after hearing the youth orchestra was due to play close to his former home.

The audience was told that in order to fulfil the gig he had forgone a second day's work with the BBC orchestra, with whom he had been performing on Guernsey.

But his flight back to Gatwick had been delayed and Jamie only arrived at the village hall after a dash along the M4 .

All he had time to do before taking to the stage was to go through the orchestra's repertoire and pick out the songs he wished to sing. He then presented the list of songs to the young musicians and together they went through their paces unrehearsed.

But despite the hiccups, fans of the youngster tipped for the top said he was the consummate performer.

Doreen French, 59, of Crudwell, saw Jamie for the first time and said he was fantastic.

"I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. He was very enthusiastic and everybody was captivated by his superb performance. The youth orchestra was superb, and they complemented each other very well."

Tony Thresher, the organiser of the concert which had sold out weeks earlier, said they were delighted with the event, but the earlier delays had them on tenterhooks. "Jamie was supposed to get back to Gatwick by 11am but because of fog did not get there until about 4pm and then jumped in a car," said Mr Thresher.

"The concert had actually started before he arrived and the support band were playing before he got there and there was no time to rehearse.

"People were gearing themselves up to hear them (Jamie and the youth orchestra) together and I had to make an announcement at 7pm before the support act started to say Jamie hadn't arrived. He didn't arrive until around 7.30pm."

Mr Thresher said they were delighted to welcome back the youth orchestra, and it was thanks to its musical director Bill Ashton that Jamie was there, too.

"Bill Ashton had been talking to Jamie and as he is quite local he said he would like th opportunity to come and join them," said Mr Thresher.

"It was very lucky that Jamie managed to come since he signed the record deal he could have been whisked off to New York.

"We were extremely delighted by it. It is the first time ever they have had the opportunity to play together I don't know whether they will be able to repeat that in the future."

The money raised from the gig went towards Crudwell Recreation Action Group, which has just completed building a multisports complex in the village. The scheme was the last wish of villager Rebecca Thomson, who died in March 2002 from a rare form of brain cancer.

Her husband Simon set up the group and it raised £45,000 in nine months so building could start in February.

Jamie is currently in the studio recording his next album as the follow up to the critically acclaimed Pointless Nostalgic released last year.

Sales of the record went through the roof after he made an appearance on The Parkinson Show on BBC1 last month with distributors struggling to keep up with demand.