FORMER Bishopshalt schoolboy and current Hillingdon resident Rajko Radovic shot to fame in 2007 when he appeared in the reality TV series Last Man Standing.

Engaging in everything from Zulu Stick Fighting in South Africa to Andean Ice Racing in Peru won him many fans but this is a man whose talents don't end purely with physical strength.

For the last two years he has been working on a debut album which was released this month to great acclaim and demonstrates he has a voice every inch as impressive as his endurance.

Poor As A Church Mouse, named in honour of the financial state of the members of his band, is the product of hours of hard work and the resulting 14 tracks are a transcendent experience akin to the style of Jeff Buckley and Nick Drake.

Rajko is a skilled musician and his voice infuses each track with a vulnerability which manages to be both heartbreakingly honest while at the same time devastatingly simple.

Please Please sets the tone perfectly; it is a haunting tale of unrequited love with a beautiful hopelessness about it which enriches and uplifts despite the sombre mood of the song.

At a launch party in Picadilly Circus earlier this month Rajko explained to his audience how many of the tracks came to be written and one of the most inspiring stories surrounds the song Monagri.

It was written while staying in a monastery in Limasol, Cyprus, where through his window Rajko observed a woodpecker attempting to peck through the glass. He was struck by the fact that the more successful it was, the more tragic the outcome would ultimately be as it would mean the bird's death.

Life Goes By is another song tinged with tragedy as it tells of a couple Rajko stayed with in a mountain cottage. The woman, Mary, was ill and the song chronicles the path of enduring love rather than new or broken love which many artists focus on.

He is joined on backing vocals by Katie Maddox who is possessed of a voice like an angel which she uses to full effect.

Other stand out tracks include The Way The Water Runs, which used to calm down Rajko's Last Man Standing rival Jason, and How Great Thou Art which is the only cover version on the album and is an English translation of the Swedish folk song made popular as a church hymn.

Fellow musicians Nik Ironside Wood (guitar) and Adrianne Wininsky (cello) are credited by Rajko as being people he could not have done without and their contribution to this introspective vision speaks for itself.

Quite simply it is a masterclass demonstrating the lost art of melding sincere lyrics with sympathetic melodies.

Fans will quite rightly demand a sequel. Find out more at www.rajkomusic.com.

Chris Longhurst