BRITISH pop sensation Craig David hits the world stage next week - and the back-drop to his sell-out tour has been made here in York.

Sharing the stage with the cheeky star is innovative media company KMA Interactive Media, based in Pavement.

With just "Seven Days" to go the company is jetting out to Paris this weekend to prepare for next Friday's opening show.

The backdrop to the stage show will be giant 45-foot screens which will project designs that will respond in time to Craig's live singing.

And the projections, which run throughout the show, are being hailed as a first within the music industry.

From their timber-framed office in the heart of York, Andy Molnar, marketing director, said: "The images will be of coloured lights and shapes which basically bop to the beats in the music. The images will also spell out Craig David but it's mostly shapes and white dots forming movements. We couldn't set the images before the show because Craig doesn't always stick to the same words - so they have to be produced live."

Craig David's soaring popularity and chart success is reinforced by his recent nominations for two Brit awards in the categories of Best British single and video for Seven Days as well as four more nominations for his album Born To Do It. This exceeds the previous record for nominations set by Blur in 1996.

Kit Monkman, creative director believes in the strength of the collaboration: "The project is hugely exciting, though also a little daunting. This is definitely not video, we are using computers to manipulate images in real time by analysing audio input.

"In rehearsals it has all gone smoothly. Live, at 45-foot it is going to look fantastic."

Updated: 10:31 Saturday, February 10, 2001