Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); December 18, 2000

He is the undisputed star of the London stage, playing to packed houses every night, bringing audiences to their feet with his portrayal of the tragic Phantom Of The Opera.

Yet when he steps out of the stage door, having removed the mask and make-up which disguises him so effectively, no-one gives Scott Davies a second glance as he vanishes into the night to catch the last train home.

"I suppose you could call me the phantom Phantom," laughs the 37-year-old from Milngavie, near Glasgow, who has been playing the lead role in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical at Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End since November 1999.

"I'm hardly ever recognised by the people who wait outside the stage door after a performance. I see them glance at their programmes and point at the picture of me, but I'm not the kind of person to say: 'I'm think I'm the man you're looking for ...'

"We Scots just don't do that kind of thing. By the time they've realised who I am, I've disappeared.

"Recently though, a group of Japanese ladies all recognised me at once and I was nearly knocked over in the crush. It was mad."

Sitting on a red velvet couch in his cosy dressing room before a show, with actress wife Lucy and 10-week-old baby Jack, Scott looks remarkably relaxed for a man who is about to go out and give a high-octane performance to 1300 people.

It's a punishing schedule, with eight shows a week, every week of the year, but he obviously thrives on playing the lead in the hottest ticket in town.

After 10 years, Phantom, which once starred Michael Crawford, is still packing in the audiences, even on a Monday night when all the other theatres around are half empty.

It helps that Lucy, 26, who is from Norwich, knows the business.

The couple met when they were both performing in Cats in the West End back in 1994 and Lucy is currently on maternity leave from her part as Meg Giry, the friend of the Phantom's love interest Christine, the role made famous by Sarah Brightman.

The couple married in 1997 after Scott dramatically proposed to Lucy at the top of the Empire State Building in New York. "Lucy's favourite film at the time was Sleepless In Seattle," says Scott. "So I thought she'd appreciate it if I asked her to marry me there.

"Once we were at the top though, I couldn't believe the number of people around. But I'd bought the ring and was determined to do it, so I kind of half-curtsied in the crush and asked her."

Lucy chips in: "My heart started racing and I said 'yes' immediately. It was really romantic. I knew from the very first day I met him that I wanted to marry him."

Scott is clearly besotted by his new son, Jack, and his arrival is all the more poignant given that his own father, Leonard, a former violinist with the Scottish National Orchestra Chorus, tragically died of cancer on his son's official first night as Phantom in April 1998.

"I had been given the role in the touring version of Phantom and our first venue was Plymouth," Scott recalls.

"I did the dress rehearsal on a Saturday and then got a call to say dad was really ill. I rushed up to see him in Glasgow and I'm so glad I did. He was a professional musician himself and he was desperate for me to go back for the first night on the Wednesday.

"In our business, you have to make a lot of sacrifices so I went back and then the news came that he had died. I went out there that night and did the show for my dad and in a funny way it helped me.

"Luckily, he actually got to see me play the role of Phantom. He and my mum came down to London on a weekend when I understudied it and I feel it was fate he saw me perform.

"Fate intervened, too, when I was able to spend more time with my mother when the show came on tour to Edinburgh in 1999."

IT'S all a far cry from his days at Douglas Academy in Milngavie, when Scott's music teacher suggested he might want to cut down the number of violin pieces he was playing for his music O-Grade and include a singing piece.

"Dad had started to teach me the violin," Scott explains. "We used to argue like cat and dog because I thought I knew it all and I didn't.

"I don't think my music teacher thought very much of my violin playing, but when she heard me sing, she suggested I have voice training. I'd never considered it, but she was most insistent I give it a go so I ended up having singing lessons for two or three years after leaving school.

"A voice needs a couple of years to mature, so I meanwhile tried to think about what I'd do with myself. I never seriously thought I'd make it at singing. Dad was amazed. He always knew I had a loud voice but he didn't think of it being a singing voice."

While he tried to figure out what he wanted to do with his life, Scott worked for his mother, Shelagh Davies, founder and former owner of one of Scotland's top modelling agencies, Model Team.

The two made a good team but in 1982, still unsure he would ever earn a living as a singer, Scott gained a place to train as an opera singer at RSAMD in Glasgow.

More or less the minute he left in 1986, he walked straight into work in the West End musical Brigadoon.

Since then, he has been in constant employment, appearing in Cats, Carousel and Chess, among others.

He has even had small parts in the Scottish actors' staple diet of Taggart and High Road. With his contract in Phantom secure until next July, Scott is keen to expand on the success he's had in the role.

"I'd like to do another show, although I never tire of Phantom," he says. "There are very few parts to match it in musical theatre. I'd like to travel the world and this would be a great way to see it. There aren't many jobs which give you all your afternoons off.

"I love it though. When I worked with my mum, who was a well-known businesswoman, I'd say: 'One day people will say, that's Scott Davies mum, instead of, that's Shelagh Davies' son'.

"I went back to Milngavie when I was touring up here and did a special concert in the church. Now, when mum goes down the street, people will say, 'there's the Phantom's mum'."

And what does his mum Shelagh have to say about her son's success?

"Well, Len and I were amazed when the music teacher said Scott had a voice.

"We knew he had a loud voice, because when he played football in the field behind our house you could always here him above all the others, but we never imagined he would turn out to be a professional musician. I'm very proud of him."