Alvin Stardust had the energy of someone 40 years younger when he performed at a charity show in Kent, according to a promoter.

The 70s star, who died yesterday, also took a budding young singer under his wing and encouraged her in her career.

Stardust was one of the performers at the Tower Theatre in Folkestone on January 29, 2012 for a gala charity night.

He was then 69 but organiser Andy Orfila remembers: “He was bouncing around the stage like a young man. He was brilliant. He had tons of energy.

“He was also really nice and friendly and he encouraged my daughter in her singing career when she was only starting out as a 16-year-old.”

Even after the show the rocker helped Abi Orfila in her school project on popular music of the 1960s and 1970s, sending her a video blog discussing his career and the ups and downs in the music business.

When the Folkestone teenager finally submitted the project to her school, St Edmund’s RC in Dover, she got a distinction.

Mr Orfila said: “My daughter is now a professional singer with her own band and he helped get her started.

"We were considering having Alvin play in Folkestone next year I had last spoken to him about a year ago so I was very sad and upset to hear that he had died..." - Promoter Andy Orfila

"We were considering having Alvin play in Folkestone next year I had last spoken to him about a year ago so I was very sad and upset to hear that he had died.”

Mr Orfila is friends with two other performers from that 2012 show, Chas & Dave pianist Chas Hodges and comedian and folk singer Richard Digance.

It was through them that Mr Orfila was able to contact Stardust to ask him to join the line-up.

It was announced today that Stardust died after recently being diagnosed with metastatic (spread) prostate cancer.

WIth the saddest irony he had come to perform in Folkestone in the wake of another star’s death from cancer, comedian Dave Lee.

The show was for the charity Dave Lee’s Happy Holidays for sick and disabled children and Lee was meant to attend it.

But he died on January 16, aged 64, after suffering pancreatic cancer.

Mr Orfila said: “We decided that the show should go on and use the show to honour Dave.”

Stardust had come to perform in East Kent six times in his last four years, more often than at any time in his 54-year career.

He had played at the Sandyacres sports and social club in Sandyhurst Lane, Ashford, on April 8,. 2011.

There he wowed the crowd with his own hits and covers of popular songs by Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and The Beatles.

He had also performed in Deal three times in his last years, in January 2011, January 2012 and April 2013.

His last show in East Kent, according to the website www.alvinstardust.co.uk, was at the Kings Theatre in Herne Bay on November 15, 2013.

Over the decades Stardust had performed in several other Kent towns such as Dartford, Chatham, Maidstone and Margate.

Stardust, who grew up in Nottinghamshire, was born Bernard Jewry and began his career in the 1960s with the stage name Shane Fenton.

Reinventing himself as Alvin Stardust his debut solo hit was My Coo Cha Choo, which reached number two in December 1973.

Although scoring several top 10 hits his only number one single was Jealous Mind in March 1974 and after a seven-year lull in major hits reached number four with Pretend in 1981.

Stardust was distinctive with his slim, towering figure, quiffed hair, sideburns, leather jacket and black gloves.

In the mid-1970s he had also joined the TV Green Cross Code road safety campaign, which had also used soccer legend Kevin Keegan and boxer Jo Bugner.

Stardust is particularly remembered in the advert where he notices two giggling pre-teen girls walking into the road without looking out for traffic.

Turning to the camera, he says: ”Just look at them.They must be crackers. A double decker bus could be right on top of them and they'd never even see it.”

Stardust then confronts the girls saying “you must be out of your tiny minds,” and then shows them how to cross the road safely.

He leaves a wife and four children.