Peter Brocklehurst, who's amazing life story has featured on television and radio throughout Australia, has become a household name almost overnight.

A one-time rock singer, he took singing lessons at the age of 40, and his first CD of classical music reached Number 1 on the Australian charts. Now he has a published autobiography and a second CD on the way.

Known as the Singing Cobbler Peter is one of 8 children of an English migrant coalminer. He left school at the age of 14, sang in pub bands, smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, he nursed an ambition to be a really great singer. The dream took more than 20 years to be realised, but he made it, after bluffing his way into an audition for the Opera Course at the Victorian College of the Arts.

He has featured on ABC Television's Australian Story been the subject of newspaper feature articles and now is the most sought-after performer in Australia.

His appearance with the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir on December 5 will be his first live performance on a Melbourne concert stage.