SINGALONG superstar Kentaro Saito completes a memorable double today.

He graduates with a philosophy, politics and economics degree at York University, shortly after achieving his dream of crooning 100 different tunes on the karaoke.

After he was crowned York's karaoke king in a competition at the Victoria Vaults pub, Nunnery Lane, last September, Ken vowed to sing a century of songs. But completing the musical ton was almost as taxing as tackling his finals, he tells the Diary.

Karaoke Ken had to choose, rehearse and perform several new songs each week to keep on track.

A perfectionist, he insisted on high standards. "I only allowed myself one or two mistakes in one song. If I didn't get the words right, that didn't count because I wasn't happy with my performance."

Nevertheless, he achieved his ambition at the Vicky Vaults on Saturday, June 25. Song number 99 was Amarillo and then he hit the hundred with Wonderwall.

It would be misleading to say this record-breaking achievement signalled wild revelry. "I had one more pint than usual to celebrate," he revealed.

Now Ken is having a special T-shirt made to mark the feat, and has compiled a CD of his favourite backing tracks, to be titled The Very Best Of Karaoke Ken. This will include his favourite, The Proclaimer's 500 Miles.

He leaves York for his home city of Tokyo on August 22, so there is still a chance to catch him at the microphone. Later he hopes to return to England to train to become a teacher.

His specialist subjects would be history and citizenship. "Not music. I don't have any qualifications in music - apart from being the winner at karaoke."

TODAY is Bastille Day, so we checked in on Phillip Fowler to see if he was relaxing his French boycott.

For most of his life, Mr Fowler, of Woodthorpe, York, has avoided all things emanating from across the Channel. The last item he bought knowing its French origins was a Renault car 15 years ago, because the deal was irresistible. "It was a difficult beast to steer," he recalled.

Mr Fowler is not alone in taking this Francosceptic stance. "You talk to anybody my age. Nobody loves them," says the 75-year-old.

"They all say 'they're nice people when you get there' but when I ask what they have done for Britain over the past 200 years, nobody is able to give me an answer.

"In fact you could say 600 years, or even 1,000 years, going back to William the Conqueror."

Mr Fowler's antipathy can be traced to his father, who fought in the First World War and was less than impressed by the French war leaders. It was exacerbated by the actions of their successors in the 39-45 conflict, then de Gaulle's arrogance, and on into this century with President Jacques Chirac berating British food (before Paris so sadly lost the Olympics 2012 to London).

Doesn't Mr Fowler's self-imposed French embargo mean he misses out on delights such as their wine and cheese? "Yuck, yuck," he replies succinctly. "We buy Australian and American wine, never any French.

"I slipped up once. I bought a mixed case and, lo and behold, there were two bottles of French wine in there.

"I had to drink it through gritted teeth."

But will he alter his policy to mark Bastille Day, France's national holiday? Most certainly.

"I shall go from zero tolerance to minus one tolerance."

Updated: 10:55 Thursday, July 14, 2005