HOW will you be spending New Year’s Eve? For Darren Hayes, singer with Savage Garden, the plan’s straightforward.

He’ll be bringing in 2012 with hundreds of fans at a very special show in Manchester.

“I usually hate New Year’s Eve parties unless they are ones I’m giving,” he laughed.

“But this is great when you can come in and take over such a good venue.”

Darren will be hosting a special New Year’s Eve event at Manchester Academy.

He has previously held an event in London which was a major success.

“I love Manchester and the people there so to get the chance for such a special night there is brilliant.”

As well as support from Candle Thieves, Darren will perform a two-hour set with a full band before the DJs take over with a playlist which Darren himself has selected.

Everyone who buys a ticket for the event is being asked to vote for one of 30 songs from Darren’s back catalogue with the five most popular guaranteed to be performed on the night.

“There are one or two songs which, to be honest, I hope don’t get chosen but I’m not going to say which ones they are,” said Darren.

“But to be honest, I believe that as a performer I am in a privileged position and that those songs really belong to the fans and I am quite happy to sing whatever they want to hear.”

As part of the duo Savage Garden, Aussie Darren had a series of hits with singles such as Truly, Madly Deeply and I Want You. Following the duo’s break up in 2001 Darren has released four highly-acclaimed solo albums and achieved 26 million sales during his career.

The New Year’s Eve show is the culmination of a series of live dates in 2011 which have seen Darren more active than normala year in which Darren has both toured extensively and released a new album.

“I guess I’ve been prolific for me recently,” he laughed.

“But I’ve got my life in a good place and I’ll be taking a fw weeks off at the start of 2012 before looking at some more dates.”

Darren has oput a great deal of thought into the DJ set and he’s pretty happy with the results.

“There are one or two rare remixes from my own record collection plus quite a lot of Eighties’ pop.

“It’s certainly not going to be a drum and bass night.”

*Darren Hayes New Year’s Eve Party, Manchester Academy, Sunday, December 31. Details from www.seetickets.com