WHEN Mel C turned up for carol singing at Tintern Abby last Christmas, she looked nothing like the artist formerly known as Sporty Spice.

Scouser Melanie Chisholm, 31, recently made Catbrook her home with millionaire property developer boyfriend Tom Starr.

They live in a house called The Grove, which they bought from a family who had lived there for 75 years.

It's got six bedrooms, three reception rooms, four bathrooms, is set 750 feet above sea level and cost £1m.

But Mel hasn't come to Gwent to lounge around - she's already teamed up with famous Welsh producer Greg Haver (Manics, Furries, Catatonia) to record an album.

It's called Beautiful Intentions. It's rocking anthems are a million miles from carol singing, and it is humbly released on her own Red Girl Records.

The label is inspired by Mel's love of Liverpool Football Club and her tendency to blush easily.

She says that the label has put her in charge of her own destiny but Beautiful Intentions comes at the dog end of a very quiet year for Mel in which her career has essentially been on hold.

With Mel out of the limelight for so long it would be easy for the public to forget how she came by the cash to buy a swanky pad in South Wales.

On her own she's sold nearly three million albums and had a string of top five and top ten singles.

And with the Spice Girls she has co-written 11 UK No 1 singles which is more than any other female artist in chart history.

Next week Mel continues on a UK tour which takes her and her band to the Fleece and Firkin pub in Bristol on Monday.