WHEN one of the biggest names in pop announced he was playing a New Year’s Eve, show in Oxford, surprise rapidly turned to excitement and a frenzied race for tickets.

Gary Barlow has a huge and dedicated following, and tickets for his end of year show at the New Theatre sold out in minutes.

One of the Take That star’s biggest fans, however, won’t be squeezed into a seat at the George street venue... she’ll be on stage with him.

Nell Bryden will open the show for the Ivor Novello-award winning artist and then join him for his headline set.

The singer-songwriter is not alone in falling for the boyish charms of the 41 year-old X Factor judge. But unlike most of his millions of fans, until recently she had no idea who he was.

“It’s incredible but also quite weird because as an American I never saw X Factor and only knew a couple of Take That songs; it was all about the backstreet Boys for me, so I’m not bowled over by the celebrity thing.

“Gary is really gracious, though. We have become good friends through doing these shows and he’s really a nice, loveable guy who treats people with respect and makes everyone feel at home.”

So how did a New Yorker come to be touring with the 50 million record-selling, Cheshire-born artist.

“He heard my song Sirons on the radio,” she says. “He fell in love and Tweeted about it. Then he played it on the X Factor. After that I got an email asking me to do a whole tour with him. I was really delighted.”

Among the duets Nell will perform with Gary for this, his hometown show (he reportedly owns a house in West Oxfordshire) are a cover of Fairytale of New York and the Take That song Like I Never Loved You At All.

It’s not the first time Nell has sung with a big name. She regularly performs with Jools Holland, has been on tour with Chris Rea and guitar legend Duane Eddy, and last month played the Royal Albert Hall twice in the same week.

After years of playing small shows to a handful of curious onlookers, she feels vindicated.

“It’s all very different to what I’ve done before,” she confesses. “When I started out I would drag myself, my suitcase and guitar across town and one person would show up. No one knew who I was. I always knew that one day I’d get through those days and it would be a joy. And it is.

“My career has grown organically. It’s been about music and not about who I know. It’s very refreshing. People are prepared to pay a lot to support a big act. It’s a seedy side of the industry. An artist will routinely be charged £10,000 for 10 shows. I can’t tell you any names, but it happens and is widely spread. But the opposite has happened here.”

Playing about 150 shows a year (down from 250), Nell’s journey has been a long and eventful one, punctuated with twists and turns.

The daughter of a painter and opera singer she estimates having travelled 300,000 miles to play 1,400 shows over the past seven years.

She has recorded in Nashville, New Orleans, her native Big Apple, and, for her latest album Shake The Tree, her adopted second home, London.

"A lot of the songs are about starting over, about rebirth and rebuilding,” she says. "And finding my way home... wherever that is.

“I come out of a rootsy Americana country tradition, which for me is naturally melancholic. Though I’m not a melancholy person; I’m quite cheerful. I just get it out of myself with my music.

“Lyrically I’m more attracted to the scars you get in life rather than singing about everything being okay and the sun shining.”

A classically-trained musician, she aimed to become an opera singer like her mother, a soprano who sang at Carnegie Hall.

Hitting the road, she picked up a guitar while living in Australia, and before becoming a regular in the bars of Boston, then the Deep South.

Gigs in Europe followed, but it was while playing the South by South West festival in Texas that she lined up the most unusual dates of her career: being invited by a US Army colonel to travel out to Iraq and entertain the troops. She went twice.

“It was about putting politics aside,” she explains. “I wasn’t endorsing the war but recognising the human element. Those people were out there doing a job under a tremendous amount of stress and it was nice for them to take a break and hear songs that reminded them of people back home.”

She travelled around by helicopter to bases around the country, occasionally coming under fire from insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

“I wasn’t famous at all,” she says. “But it was more about connecting personally.

“I’ve had a very interesting life. My dad says there are two different people in life: those who wait for whatever happens, and those who shake the tree and make things happen - which is how I got the title for my album.

The record marked a turning point in her life, for while recording it she lost her hair to stress-induced alopecia. Initially keeping her condition a secret, she has now embraced her new appearance and thrown away her wig.

“I realised it was either going to be the worst or best thing that ever happened to me,” she says.

“It was very stressful playing in a wig as I felt I was hiding something. But you’ve got to be who you are. I find it liberating and people have been very reassuring. After all, there is something intrinsically attractive about people who are what they are.

“Women, especially, spend so long saying ‘I wish I could change my personal appearance’ rather than focusing on what makes them unique.

“I have faith it will grow back, but in a weird way this makes me stick out. How many women do you see out there with shaven heads?”

For now, though, she has the matter of December 31 to look forward to.

“It’s great to be in this kind of situation and to be able to win people over,” she says. “Gary’s fans have a way of spreading the news... and a lot of them are ladies. Certainly the tenor of the screams is pretty high-pitched. And when I’m up there, I know every girl in the place is so jealous.”

  • Nell Bryden supports Gary Barlow at the New Theatre, Oxford, on New Year’s Eve. Tickets have sold out. Album Shake the Tree is out now.