Hairy Bikers get ready to hit the road
It’s been four years since the Hairy Bikers last took their enthusiasm on a nationwide tour, but now they’re back with a brand new show coming to both Nottingham and Leicester in 2019 where fans will get to spend an evening with the talented foodies – and
WHAT do you have planned for your 2019 live tour?
Dave Myers: “We’ve done two nationwide tours before with some degree of success. The last one I think must have been around 2014. It’s about time we did another really. We did the autobiography, which did really well. The Hairy Bikers started in 2004 so we’ve got quite a lot of water under the bridge now. We love the idea of doing ‘An evening with’ and making it really interactive with the audience.”
Si: “We’re going to use technology so it’s a symbiotic relationship between Dave and I on stage and the audience.”
Dave: “You get fed up of people having their phones out in the theatre. This time we’ll encourage them. What we’re hoping will happen is - we’re still figuring out how - we’ve got a stage man regulating stuff on stage, and there’ll be a screen. We have some clips to show if they’re relevant.
“He’ll be able to take any kind of Facebook or Twitter messages coming in and put them on the screen so we’ll be interactive with the audience. No night can be the same. Of course it wouldn’t be us if we didn’t do some cooking so one thing we did for the first two tours is we picked some people, maybe this time we’ll do it almost as a raffle.
“Pick people from the audience, take them up and we’ll feed them. What we’ve always done in the programmes is do a lot of recipes, so the programme is good value as it’s a recipe book as well. They can pick what they want us to cook.”
Is that scary or exciting?
Si: “It’s really exciting. It’s lovely because the whole evening is not only motivated by Dave and I but motivated by the audience and the fans that come to see us.”
Why are cookery shows and live tours like yours still so exciting for people?
Dave: “I think we’ve never been in a better place for food in this country. We celebrate food. We’ve never had this competitive thing, that’s not us. It’s getting round the table and enjoying it.
It’s part of our DNA. I think we’re unique in that respect.
Si: “What Dave and I’s whole thing is it’s really important for us to empower people to get into the kitchen. Fundamentally what we’re saying is if we can cook in a ditch in the middle of Patagonia you can do it in your fitted kitchen at home.”
What can we expect from the new cookbook Hairy Bikers Classics?
Si: “It’s been great fun to compile. It’s our ‘best of’ really.”
Dave: “But it’s not just the old stuff bandied together and stuck out there to make some money. We’ve picked the best and the recipes have been rewritten. Some of the recipes we know people (and we) love - but they’re 20 years old. We’ve come on a bit since then.”
Si: “Each book has a theme and there’s been some recipes that Dave and I wanted to include across our careers that hasn’t been relevant. This is a great opportunity to get all of those together. That’s been great fun.”
Dave: “Because we are a cosmopolitan country a lot of our British classics now come from around the world. It’s not all Madeira cake and mince. We were going to put a byline on the book: ‘British Classics: S*** you want to eat’ but they wouldn’t allow
that. That was the idea of that. We wanted every single recipe in the book to be something you wanted to make. It’s certainly not a diet book.”
Did you ever expect the Hairy Bikers to go on so long?
Si: “To be perfectly honest we’ve never thought about it. We just keep doing what we do. I’m doing it with my best mate.
“It’s really quite special going on tour and we look forward to it very much.”
Dave: “You get a lie-in every morning as well. It’s brilliant.”
Si: “You’re not available to do anything ele: ‘Oh, I’m on tour’.”
The Hairy Bikers will be bringing a night of cooking to Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall on March 17, 2019. Tickets cost £19.50 to £39.50 plus a booking fee from trch.co. uk. The duo will also take to the stage at Leicester De Montfort Hall on March 27. Available from demontforthall.co.uk, tickets cost between £21 and £41.