Star of stage and screen, Jess Conrad OBE, has returned to the town where his glittering career began – Aberystwyth.

The popular performer who emerged in the 1960s with hit records, cult movies, successful stage shows and guest appearances on dozens of top TV shows spent a summer season in the seaside town in the late 1950s, performing in a variety of plays - and attracting the attention of the police!

Born Gerald James in Brixton, South East London, Jess won The X Factor of its day, the Oh-Boy! show.

The teen idol had a lucrative contract with Decca and his hit records included Mystery Girl, Cherry Pie and Hey Little Girl in your Powder Blue.

Roles in film and TV followed and, in his heyday, Jess played the London Palladium and went on tour around the globe with fellow British and American rock ‘n’ roll and pop stars of the day including Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Brenda Lee, Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Joe Brown, Eden Kane and Johnny Kidd.

But 83-year-old Jess has never forgotten where his career began, as he explained: “It was back in 1957 at the Little Theatre in Aberystwyth. I had a joyous time there and it’s been on my bucket list to go back. When I heard that my good friend John Lyons was appearing in Aberystwyth Arts Centre’s production of Oliver! this summer, I decided to visit both him and the town.”

Jess spent two days exploring Aberystwyth, and the Cambrian News was there to capture his return.

He revisited a number of his old haunts including the site of the former Little Theatre.

“I couldn’t find out where the theatre had been,” said Jess. “It took a lot of detective work but eventually I found out that it was where the Premier Inn car park is now.”

According to the Theatres Trust website, the site of the Little Theatre was originally a swimming pool.

It was “built in 1880 as one of two public swimming baths in Bath Street,” the online entry reads.

“During the Second World War the ladies’ bath was covered over and used first as a NAAFI, later as an emergency school for evacuated children from London. The building was converted to a theatre in 1946, serving weekly repertory companies until 1959, with a final repertory season in 1960. The theatre was then converted to cinema in 1961. It was demolished in 1976.”

As well as visiting the theatre site, Jess went to see his old house at the end of the prom, the site of a café he used to frequent which now forms the front of the Premier Inn, and the Pier and Ceredigion Museum which used to be cinemas when Jess lived there.

Finally, and appropriately, given that Jess performed a summer season of theatre in the town, the ’60s icon went to see this year’s Arts Centre summer show, Oliver!

See this week’s south papers for the full feature, available in shops and as a digital edition now