ACTOR and musician Tom Urie is to stand and perform on centre stage for the first time this week after dropping nearly 14 stones in weight.

The former River City star will sing in front of more than 1,000 people at Glasgow City Halls on Friday.

But he said he could only take part in the Glasgow Philharmonia’s sell-out Movies to Musicals show after losing weight.

Urie, who played “Big” Bob O’Hara in the BBC Scotland soap, recently revealed how he had undergone gastric surgery last year to help him lose weight.

Doctors had given him as little as five years to live, but he has since been given a “normal life expectancy”.

Now he is set to sing Beauty School Dropout – the song performed by crooner Frankie Avalon’s Teen Angel in the movie Grease.

Like Avalon, the new-look Urie will wear a gleaming white suit and be surrounded by a cast of young dancers. Urie, who will also sing Edelweiss from The Sound of Music, said it will be “a dream come true”.

He said: “I’ve been on stage many times but I’ve always been behind the piano in the past. It was partly as a security blanket because I felt comfortable behind a keyboard, but it was also a struggle to walk and get my breath when I was heavier.

“You’ve got to have your full lung capacity when you’re singing. Now, because of the weight loss, I’m a lot fitter. I’ve lost 13st and 8lb.”