Osmonds mania as star mobbed at musical launch - and then sings in Crazy Horses finale

It was like going back to the 1970s as Osmonds mania hit Manchester at the city's Palace Theatre with the arrival of the new musical of the American boyband's life story. And with original Osmonds bandmate Jay Osmond hitting the red carpet, he was near-mobbed by fans eager to get a chat, a hug and a photo with the much-loved star.

Jay has written the new autobiographical musical sharing for the first time the journey of he and his brothers to worldwide super-stardom as The Osmonds. It follows the highs and lows of life with the band's biggest hits soundtracking it all, like Love Me For A Reason, Let Me In, Puppy Love and Crazy Horses.

And at the star-studded launch night in Manchester this week, fans got an even bigger treat when Jay jumped on stage at the finale to perform a jumping encore of Crazy Horses to the delight of the cheering audience. They had already delivered a standing ovation to the stars of the musical before the surprise reveal of Jay.

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The musical is here at Manchester's Palace Theatre all week. And Jay told the MEN the city has a special place in the history of the band.

When the brothers from Utah first arrived here in the 1970s there were scenes of fan mania in Manchester. Jay memorably recalls girls broke chairs at one venue in the city as they were so excited jumping up and down when their idols arrived on stage.

Jay said: "Manchester holds such a history for me and my family. We were here in 1971 when we first started and every year we'd come back. It holds a very special part in our lives and in fact there's a person in the play one of our fans, Wendy, and she's from Manchester."

Recalling the band's