Buster Bloodvessel, the frontman of 80s band Bad Manners, is seriously ill in hospital after collapsing on stage during a gig in Italy, it has emerged.

The singer, real name Douglas Trendle, 40, was taken ill during his trademark energetic show during a European tour on Wednesday night.

He was taken to hospital in Perugia, northern Italy, with a strangulated hernia.

Doctors have said he needs an operation urgently, but because of his size - he weighs some 30 stone - they are worried he might not survive surgery.

A spokesman for the singer said: "He is very worried and wants to come home but the doctors have said they must operate.

Unfortunately he is so big that any operation could be extremely dangerous."

Bloodvessel, whose band has had hits with Lip Up Fatty, Special Brew and Can Can, is married with two children, Charleigh, nine, and Trudi, six.

Bad Manners formed in 1979 and had a string of hits during the 1980s.

Bloodvessel, who once owned a hotel in Margate, Kent, called Fatty Towers recently appeared in a TV commercial mocking his poor financial state.