They had been queuing since eight in the morning, but the fact that Peter Andre was 45 minutes late to turn up to his signing session in Bedminster didn't seem to bother them at all.

At 5.45pm, almost 10 hours after best friends Trish Winne, 17, and Channelle Limb, 18, started their long vigil at the front of the queue yesterday, they were finally allowed into Asda as the musician, father, spurned husband and reality TV star finally arrived.

Behind City of Bristol College students Trish and Channelle were thousands of other fans, from the very young to the middle-aged, in a queue that stretched from the store's small entrance on East Street near the Family Practice, down East Street, then snaked back on itself virtually the entire length of New Charlotte Street.

"He's gert lush!" Channelle swooned, before security ushered her and Trish inside the Asda supermarket to meet the be-tanned Andre.

"I love him," Trish screamed over the din of excitable fans. "He's such a nice guy as well. Very down to earth. Good looking. And a good singer as well. It's definitely been worth the wait."

Inside the store, cameras and camera phones flashed and the decibel level hit record levels as Andre was ushered by three burly minders into a roped-off area where he met fans and signed copies of his new album Revelation.

Andre, 36, born in Harrow, north-west London, to Greek-Cypriot parents, was raised in Australia and shot to fame as a singer in the mid-90s. He was best known for the song Mysterious Girl, which reached number two in the UK singles chart.

After a period of obscurity, he returned to our screens in 2004 in the reality TV series I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, during which he met, fell in love with and subsequently married former glamour model Katie Price aka Jordan.

Numerous reality TV shows starring the couple followed, until they divorced earlier this month after a very public separation, reported in minute detail in the national media.

Andre seemed genuinely surprised by the huge number of people who had turned up in Bedminster to see him promote his new album.

The crowd waiting to see him rivalled the thousands who queued to see his now ex-wife when she appeared at WH Smith at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway, for a book signing in July.

Alongside the excitable fans, mostly teenage girls and schoolchildren, there were police officers, PCSOs, security guards and also bemused shoppers going about their business in the other aisles of the 13,500 sq ft store, sectioned off from the mayhem surrounding the pop star.

Andre said: "It's very rare for me to be speechless. But it's the best feeling being here.

"I want to spend as much time as I can, see as many people as possible. It's fun. It's worth it."

Asda spokesman Faizal Butt said: "It's been fantastic. We knew it was going to be busy but didn't expect this.

"All the customers are so pleased – we have never had so many people here as we have today.

"People seem to love Peter Andre."