Robbie Williams once famously tried to go from singing pop to singing swing and wasn't overly successful, unlike former Strangers frontman Paul Roberts.

The singer, who voiced the punk band for 16 years until 2006, plays the part of Frank Sinatra at Fairfield Halls next Wednesday when celebration of swing show Strictly Swing comes to town.

"You have to be able to make the transition as a singer and I think I have done that and just want to succeed in it," says Roberts.

"It is great music to sing and I grew up in a house full of Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, my father was a bit of an aficionado.

"it's a genre of music that I don't think has ever diminished.

"It is quality and people have kept it alive like Tony Bennett and Michael Buble.

"Bennett started after the war and is still going strong today and Buble is a young buck and a great performer.

"Robbie Williams famously had a go too so it has never gone away and it is something different.

"The show is a lot of great songs and there's a story too with Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby in a New York bar together.

"It's a bit of a laugh and we all get on really well."

Roberts, who has also written four albums with his band Soulsec and is planning on taking his Great American Songbook show on tour, released five albums with The Stranglers before leaving amicably four years ago.

"I had a lot of great times with The Stranglers but it was time to call it a day and I didn't want to continue in doing rock in that kind of way," he said.

"I toured the world and was on television and radio all over the world with them and went to a lot of interesting places and met a lot of interesting people.

"They were great times but I had to stop.

"Something like that lasting that long is quite successful."

Strictly Swing, Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, June 16, 7.45pm, £15.50. Call 020 8688 9291 or visit fairfield.co.uk.