Tributes have been paid to Sixties pop star Freddie Garrity who died after being taken ill on a family holiday.

Garrity, aged 69, was the former lead singer with Fred-die and the Dreamers and enjoyed a string of international hits including I'm Telling You Now and You Were Made For Me during the group's heyday.

Garrity, who lived in Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, was on holiday with his wife Christine when he was taken to hospital in North Wales on Friday.

He had been suffering from emphysema for several years and had been unable to work since 2001.

A family friend, Eric St John-Foti, said: "He was so full of life, and full of jokes. He was exactly the same as he was on stage, he did not have two personas.

"It is a sad loss - Freddie was part of the 1960s and drew comparisons with the Beatles."

Born in Manchester, Garrity was the son of a coal miner and left school to become an apprentice in a turbine factory in Manchester, practising his guitar skills on the factory floor and at staff dances.

A fanatical Manchester United fan, in the early days he would do gigs for the beer money. But he stood out among a host of other bands in the burgeoning 1960s pop scene and his success mirrored that of his Merseybeat rivals.

Danny Betesh, who spotted Garrity's talent and became his agent for more than 40 years, said: "Even off stage he was a bundle of fun. He was part of a bunch of lads that really wanted to try and make it.

"Freddie was a very deter-mined man. They were very, very popular, in the 60s - it was The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers then Freddie and the Dreamers. They were household names."

Garrity, a former milkman, was famous not just for his music but as much for his humorous and zany approach to rock 'n' roll.

His wild and wacky antics on stage and television endeared him to millions of fans all over the world.

Formed in 1959 Freddie and the Dreamers, which also included Roy Crewsdon, Derek Quinn, Pete Birrell and Bernie Dwyer, had to wait almost five years for their first break.

After passing an audition for the BBC they were signed to Columbia Records (EMI).

Garrity's first single, a cover of the James Ray US chart hit If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody, gave him his first Top Ten success.

In 1965 Freddie and the Dreamers topped the US charts with I'm Telling You Now which went on to sell more than a million copies.

It was on an American television show shortly afterwards that Garrity was asked about his stage antics. "It's a dance," came the reply. "It's called the Freddie" - and a new dance sensation was spawned.

Within weeks the band was back in the charts with a song called Do The Freddie.

Garrity disbanded the original group in 1969 and concentrated on solo work, fronting the 70s TV series Little Big Time and was in much demand for pantomime and cabaret appearances.

But the band reformed in 1976 and hit the road once more, touring the globe for the next 25 years.

In 2001 he was returning from one such engagement in New York when he was taken seriously ill on the flight home and rushed to hospital on landing.

It was feared he had suffered a heart attack which eventually proved negative, but it was then that emphysema was discovered.

Garrity was married three times and has four children - a daughter by his first wife, Josie; a son and two daughters by his second wife, Deirdre.

His third wife, Christine, was at his bedside when he passed away at the Ysbyty Gwynedd hospital in Bangor, North Wales.