I’ve always thought music is magic
IT’S SHOWTIME! JASON DONOVAN TELLS MARION McMULLEN ABOUT SPRINKLING A TOUCH OF MUSICALS MAGIC OVER HIS NEW TOUR
Are you happy to be back on the road again with the Even More Good Reasons tour?
I’m ecstatic the tour is finally under way. We’ve had to reschedule the dates a number of times, so to be actually making plans at last is really exciting. I literally can’t wait to get on the road again.
My wife can’t wait for me to get on the road again either.
Having lived through two productions, one as a producer (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), one as a performer (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), in recent months I’m really aware of how difficult it has been for the live sector.
I was always positive that once things started to move towards a sense of what we knew before, that people would naturally want to share in that experience of a live show once again.
It has been overwhelming and emotional to see people celebrating life.
I’d like to think that live shows are a bit of therapy out of the last 18 months.
What can audiences expect?
Something that is both nostalgic and just a b***dy good night out. I’m also going to add songs from some of the musicals I’ve been part of in more recent years.
I’ve resisted performing songs from shows until now, but it seems like it’s the time to get every gem out of the song box.
I’ve always thought that music is magic. There is nothing like that emotional connection of delivering a song on stage and watching an audience respond to that moment.
This is what we all need right now.
How do you keep in shape for such a big tour?
It is about keeping focussed, keeping fit, having a clear mind and not going out and getting hammered on a decent red wine on week nights.
I try to go to the gym a lot, try to ride and try to walk rather than take public transport. I also steam and look after my voice – it’s at the heart of what I do. It is important to treat your body as an instrument. I’m not 23 or 24 or even 33 or 34. I’m 53. I think the older you get the harder you have to work at these things. You do what you can.
Your career began in the 1980s. Is there a lot of nostalgia for that decade?
I think nostalgia is very current at the moment. Through Twitter, Instagram and Facebook you can look back very easily.
Before had to get into the loft and dig out Just Seventeen and Smash Hits magazines and dust off the record player, which usually didn’t work, or find an old cassette player.
Now you just press a button and you are there. People are interested in the era. I think the 80s was unique in popular culture. It was the birth of MTV and worlds collided a lot.
Following on from the success of Neighbours, I was lucky that I had my first musical success during an era when pop music was so alive.
Mullets, double denim and Jive Bunny aside, I was and am, a massive fan of the 80s.
I look back at those times with such affection and sometimes have to pinch myself to think that I was able to play a massive part in forming popular culture at the time.
How do you feel about your daughter Jemma appearing in Neighbours?
(Smiles) She’s smashing it. She’d done a couple of other jobs prior to Neighbours, like Mr Stink for the BBC, and she had experience.
Neighbours is the icing on the cake in a way. She’s always harboured a desire to act and you create your own luck. She went to Australia and did a couple of auditions and Neighbours wanted her. She’s really embraced the work. I think she’s learned a lot and been very brave having to move to Australia.
The tour is named after your debut album 10 Good Reasons. What is it like singing those 80s songs again?
If I had to sing Too Many Broken Hearts for the rest of my life every single night, then that would not be very satisfying, but once every four years or so is a different matter and I absolutely love that.
Analysing them they are great pop songs.
I anticipate doing more acting and producing and I appeared with Johnny Vegas in the TV movie Dial M For Middlesbrough, which I loved as well, but for the moment I’m concentrating on the tour.
Jason plays Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on December 2 before joining the cast of Christmas panto Goldilocks at Birmingham Hippodrome.
I was lucky that I had my first success during an era (the 1980s )when pop music was so alive