A KEIGHLEY school teacher and former EMF band frontman said he was delighted to have been given the chance to return to Glastonbury and perform.

Music teacher James Atkin, who works at Holy Family Catholic School, was invited to one of the festival's opening parties last Thursday night.

He sang two EMF songs – Unbelievable and Children – both tracks from the band's first album, Schubert Dip.

He performed in a marquee on the Stonebridge stage, and his wife, Rachael, and two young children were also able to attend to see him sing.

"Glastonbury is the highlight of a musician's career, and I've played there before, but not for 20 years," he said. "The call to go back there just came out of the blue, so it was like a dream come true for me.

"When we got there, we had a massive journey just to get onto the site. We were queuing for six hours.

"But all that was forgotten by the time we got in because it's such an amazing event and there is so much going on. We could have stayed another week!"

He thanked Holy Family School for being supportive and enabling him to attend the festival.

Mr Atkin has topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, enjoyed platinum-selling album success, received an Ivor Novello nomination for his songwriting and toured all over the world.

He will shortly be releasing his second solo album, called The Party Faithful, which comes out on July 8. Visit pledgemusic.com/projects/james-atkin to pre-order.