You'd imagine life was a bit of a headache for John Evans - especially on the days he balances a Mini car on his head!

The father-of-two holds 17 world records for balancing a variety of objects on his bonce, from house bricks (101 to be exact) to 225 pints of beer.

The headstrong champion, with a 24in neck, is coming to Oxford tomorrow to perform at Templars Square, in Cowley at 2.30pm. The brave balancer, who weighs 24st, will be tackling a completely new object when he arrives - the 14st Oxford Mail editor Chris Cowley!

John, who lives in Derbyshire, discovered he could balance heavy items when he was a teenage builder. "I had to carry the bricks to bricklayers on a hod and I discovered that if I used a piece of floorboard, I could stack 24 bricks on it instead of 12 - and I could carry them on my head," said John, who claims to have the world's strongest neck.

He balances cars on his head with ease and says he never feels even the slightest headache.

John balances cars and other items on his head with a piece of board and a forklift truck which lifts the item. Then he stands underneath it until he has the perfect balance and then lifts it off the prongs of the forklift for ten seconds, and sometimes longer when he really wants to impress the amazed audience. "The Mini weighs 350lb and I balance the whole thing on my head. I feel the strain and sometimes my body aches afterwards, but I don't do any weightlifting in preparation.

"I have balanced many people on my head before so Chris Cowley will just be a warm-up man. One of the worst things to balance are the beer kegs. They are very difficult and weigh 339lb but I balanced them for 20 seconds," said John.

He has tried all kinds of objects but he definitely has a favourite.

"I love balancing women on my head! I have done two with push-bikes before and it was fine. I've done 225 pints of beer without spilling a drop as well."

Tomorrow, John will attempt to break his record of 400 cans of drink - giving a new meaning to the word hangover.

"I'm hoping to balance 405 cans and I've never failed at anything I've said I'm going to do - I actually feel happy at the thought of breaking my record," he said

"My neighbours thought I was weird at first but I'm renowned for it now all over the world. I never get sick of doing this as one minute I'm driving a car and another I'm balancing one." And he's never had an accident in all his years of balancing heavy objects - now there's a weight off your mind, if not John's...

* What John has lifted:

95 milk crates on his head while in Ireland

101 house bricks (nearly 30st) while on the BBC National Lottery

One 'heavy Chevy' car for the BBC Children in Need show

One Mini Cooper car on the Fantastic Facts TV show

225 pints of beer for BBC Children in Need

400 cans of Coke in Singapore

11 beer kegs while in Hollywood

548 footballs in Leeds

Story date: Friday 19 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.