The star will perform his biggest hits - chart-toppers like Caribbean Queen, When the Going Gets Tough and Get Outta My Dreams - plus songs from his new album at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong on June 22 as part of a national tour.

Getting a record deal wasn't a simple feat for Ocean, who said he spent a lot of time in the studio and giving his time for free as an "apprenticeship".

"I had the opportunity to learn my trade basically, so I was able to recognise certain things, and take advantage of it," he said.

"One day I wrote a song called Love Really Hurts Without You and ... I was fortunate enough to be in the right place and right time with the right sort of people who recognised the song was worth exploiting."

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Awards and accolades ensued, and the Trinidad-born artist soon found himself rubbing shoulders with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Duran Duran.

"People that you were seeing in TV that were almost untouchable, because they were part of something you wanted to be part of and suddenly you were there with them," Ocean recalled. "It's quite an amazing experience."

But he never got caught up in the fame or wild celebrity parties you hear of, mainly because the star's childhood was always a party.

"I grew up in parties, I grew up doing that sort of thing," Ocean recalled.

"When the immigrants started coming from Caribbean, and settling in England, I was part of that - they called it the 'wind rush'.

"We had to create our own excitement, so growing up as a kid the amount of different parties I've been to, parties don't really mean that much to me anymore."

Billy Ocean will perform in Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong and the Gold Coast this June. www.lennardpromotions.com.au

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