WHILE Paul Evans' school friends kicked a football around the streets, the exciting life of his other pals in the travelling funfair meant his childhood was spent in a very different world.

From an early age, his love of entertainment grew and Mr Evans knew a nine-to-five existence was not for him, even before he left King James 1 Grammar School, in Bishop Auckland, and took his first job in a garage.

After leaving that job, a disparaging remark made about his home town, Shildon, spurred the teenager into action and to worldwide success with acclaimed punk band Angelic Upstarts.

Twelve years later, by 1990, he had travelled the globe, played at venues such as London's Hippodrome and headlined the Marquee rock club with his own band, Warfare.

But he gave up the music business and, the following year, he and wife Lucy Ann bought their first funfair ride, setting up P & LA Evans Family Funfairs. They never looked back.

Mr Evans is one of only a small number of people to be both a member of the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain and the entertainment union Equity.

Having bought a toy ride in 1991, the Evans now own an Alice in Wonderland cup and saucer ride and a Funtasia fun house, with which they travel across the region to a range of festivals and events.

"On leaving school, even though academically there was nothing lacking, I just wanted to fulfil some kind of art form," said Mr Evans, 39.

"When I was at the garage, I got to thinking to myself, 'if you are given 65 years on this planet, for argument's sake, and you are going to spend 40 years in a job you hate and 20 years asleep, you have got five years doing what you enjoy', which is absolutely absurd. It went against everything I was about."

Shildon was in decline, with the town's main employer, the railway works, on the verge of closure, and feelings were low.

Mr Evans was running discos, but wanted more. A capable drummer, he found himself spurred into action during a visit to the pub.

"We were watching television and I said 'I can do what he's doing quite easily', and this chap said, 'you will never make it, you live in Shildon'. I just thought to myself what a ridiculous comment it was to make.

"I think you can do whatever you really want to if you have a mind to do it. That week, I moved to London."

There, he played with various bands, leading to his time with Angelic Upstarts.

"I went to the US with them and did Europe, knocked about the world a bit, did various gigs and then came home and formed my own band," he said.

"I played professionally for 12 years and made 16 LPs. It just goes to show the man in the pub was speaking a load of rubbish."

Nine of those albums were with Warfare, which was based in Shildon.

"Anybody can achieve success if they put their minds to it," said Mr Evans. "Everything I have undertaken has been extremely hard work. I must point that out to anybody, especially if they want to make rock 'n' roll records. It isn't easy."

l Anybody interested in booking the funfair can telephone 07836 350507.