The Young Ones – and the young at heart – queued in Broad Street yesterday as Cliff-mania came to town.

Sir Cliff Richard was at Woolworths to sign copies of his brand new autobiography My Life, My Way and lucky fans who had applied for issue-only wristbands got to meet the British icon.

Around 500 fans from Reading and further afield – many wearing their very own Cliff T-shirts, bags and earrings – braved the temperamental weather to meet the star.

First in the queue were John and Lorraine Witt, who had travelled from Bristol to fulfil a life-long ambition of meeting the Peter Pan of Pop. Cliff-mad Mrs Witt, 53, has been a fan for 45 years, written to him on several occasions and kitted her house out with plates, mugs, DVDs, CDs, posters and other memorabilia.

Mr Witt, 64, is just as big a fan as his wife and said he did not mind her devotion to her idol.

He said: “She wants to swap me for Cliff and I don’t mind. He’s got more money than I have.”

Sixty-year-old Pam Hathorn, from Tilehurst, was back in Broad Street to meet Sir Cliff four years after he was in town to sign copies of a DVD.

She said: “I’m here to see him as closely as possible. On the stage it’s not quite the same. You can see him face to face here.

“I’ve been to every concert he’s done in England for the past five decades. I have done 50 years, the same as him. I admire his faith because I’m a Christian as well.

“To be able to stand that long as well in this business is admirable.

“He’s stayed an all-round entertainer in a precarious business.”

Woodley mum Janet James, 63, brought a programme from a Cliff concert at the London Palladium the last time she met him – 38 years ago. “I’ve been a fan for 50 years,” she said. “He’s an icon for this country. He’s very popular and a good all-rounder.”

The release of his new autobiography celebrates 50 years in the business, including some 145 singles.

Sir Cliff is hoping his latest single Thank You for a Lifetime – out on Monday will take him to number one again.

He told the Evening Post: “I don’t know if I’m going to ever stop. But what I would like to be though is a little more choosy and do one concert every couple of years instead of every year.

"But I don’t want to retire.”

Recalling highlights of his career, he said: “Nothing’s going to beat that first recording session, that first record or that first number one Living Doll.

“There are so many highlights. I’ve been a very lucky man.”

This is the first time there has ever been a wide-ranging book about Sir Cliff’s life and has been written by the man himself.

He added: “The main surprise is it’s all about me and I wrote it and therefore anything that’s here is what I feel and think. It’s not someone else’s speculation about me. It’s what I actually feel and think about certain things.”

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