DJ Gary is set to bring ‘80s banger after 80s banger’ to city
MUSICAL YOUTH TO JOIN HIM FOR GIG AT ACADEMY
IT sometimes feels like the further the 1980s drift into the past, the more they are everywhere.
This past week, Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac and Judas Priest were all in the UK album Top 10.
Another sign the 80s are still big is the success of DJ Gary Davies’s Sounds of the 80s Live Tour, which is coming to Leicester’s O2 Academy next month.
Once again, Gary is taking his BBC Radio 2 show on the road, visiting 10 venues in England, Scotland and Wales this year to big – and energetic – audiences.
When we spoke to him on Friday, he said that after his set at the Radio 2 in the Park event in Leicester last summer he was looking forward to returning to the city.
He told the Mercury: “The tour’s been amazing – it’s fantastic.
“It’s just a massive 80s party. You get in and don’t stop dancing for three hours.
“We have all the features we have on the Saturday night radio show and my dancers, Gary’s Gang, are phenomenal.
“They do their Master Mix performances, recreating scenes from 80s films like Ghostbusters and Dirty Dancing and, for the Leicester show, we’ve got Musical Youth as well, and they’re brilliant.”
For anyone who does not remember, reggae band Musical Youth, from Birmingham, topped charts all over the world in 1982 with Pass the Dutchie. At that point they were aged from 11 to 16.
For Gary, who began on BBC Radio 1 in 1982, the decade is a golden era for music.
He said: “There are so many unbelievable songs from the 80s, so the show is 80s banger after 80s banger.
“It was such an iconic era and I don’t think there’s another decade like it.
As well as the pop, there were great rock songs by bands like Queen, Aerosmith, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, soul songs from Prince, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, and then all the Stock Aitken and Waterman acts like Kylie, Jason Donovan and Rick Astley.
“It was very special for me with my years at Radio 1 and Top of the Pops.”
The 66-year-old said his shows attracted people of all ages – but that everyone kept dancing throughout.
He said: “People who were around in the 80s can still dance for hours.
“They’re not that old. And 80s music has proven to be timeless so even people only born 10 or 20 years ago have grown up with 80s music.
“It’s all over TV, in movies and is still played on radio stations. We have a lot of younger people who come to the shows and love it. “Every show has been different but it has been a really party atmosphere every time. The three hours just fly by.”
So far, the 2024 tour has taken Gary to York, Bristol and Cambridge. The Leicester date, at the O2 Academy in University Road, will be on Friday, April 19.
He is looking forward to playing for a Leicester crowd again. He said: “Radio 2 in the Park last summer was great.
“I did the morning show from the festival, was on the main stage before Tears for Fears – which was incredible – and then did the Radio 2 DJ Tent, too.
“The crowds were huge and both days were sold out.”
After the O2 Academy, the 2024 tour continues until November, going to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Scarborough, Coventry, then Guildford before finishing off in Cardiff.
Will there be another tour next year? Gary said: “As long as people want to come out and party, we’ll keep doing it.”
The show kicks off at 7pm. Tickets cost from £19.80 plus booking fees. For tickets, visit:
As long as people want to come out and party, we’ll keep doing it
Gary Davies, who will be at O2 Academy next month