A SINGER in one of the world's most famous folk groups went back to his roots for a special Preston show.

Ken Nicol, a member of Steeleye Span, performed for the first time in front of an audience in the Harris Folk Club, Preston, 35 years ago -- now part of the University of Central Lancashire's main Foster building.

So when Ken, now 51, decided to go back to university to take a degree in contemporary music, he wanted to take his final exam in the same place he started his career!

Ken, of Tag Lane, Ingol, said: "I came up with the idea of doing it in the same place. It was the very same spot that I did my first performance in. It's like completing a full circle.

"If I am as successful as I was when I played that first piece of mine I will be very happy. I remember it going very well!"

University chiefs were happy to oblige, and staff from the external liaison department have agreed to clear out for the day.

A spokesman said: "The request for Ken to take his exam in the external liaison team's office was obviously unusual but we are supportive of all our students, so staff were quite happy to move out for a while.

"It meant a great deal for him to take the exam in the fist place he'd ever performed."

Ken has been a folk musician all his life, but is now facing the challenges of any Preston student, with a dissertation to write and nerve-wracking exams.

But not every student can look forward to touring the world with Steeleye Span just a few months after finishing their degree.

Three months into his studying he was contacting by the band, and offered the job as guitarist. In February he will head out on the European leg of the tour, then off to Australia and New Zealand, with a stop in the UK in April.

But Ken says his double life is well worth the effort, though, and may even take a masters degree from the back of the band's tour bus next year, studying in hotel rooms!

When he decided to dust off his exercise books for university, Ken was put straight into the third and final year of the course because of his experience.

He said: "There was a dissertation I had to write. That was about stage fright and anxiety. I have many friends I can talk to about something like that!

"Everybody hopes for a first class degree, don't they. I was put straight in on the third year -- I wanted to do the masters and they said you have to do at least one year of this first.

"If I come out with a 2:1 just from one year of study I think I will be happy about that. The main thing is that I learn something from it."