King of the hits!
The world’s best-selling compilation album series, Now That’s What I Call Music, is bringing its very own live show tour. HELEN BARNES caught up with DJ and presenter of the Leicester date, Mark Goodier
It’s an unusual concept, turning an album compilation series in to a tour – what can we expect?
Well, it’s a very trusted brand, people love it. The tour is celebrating the fact that people have been collecting the Now albums all their lives. It’s going to be a night of feel-good, a night of songs everybody knows and loves, performed live, with some anecdotes and stories along the way.
80s events are proving to be so successful at the moment..
Yes. There was a period when the 80s appeared to be very uncool. That’s completely changed – it’s seen as an amazing era now!
Are you expecting the audience to embrace the 80s costumes then?
I think you can wear whatever you like, (laughs) as long as you don’t expect me to be in 80s fancy dress! I’m sure people will and why not?
Who’s selected which songs will get played? Well, the people that compile the Now That’s What I Call Music albums are geniuses – it’s far from a simple job. It takes a lot of skill and they have decades of data as to which the biggest songs are. The ones we will play are undeniably the go-to songs of that era.
How come Gary (Davies) gets to present loads more of the tour than you?
(laughs) The honest truth is Gary does the Radio 2 show on a Friday night and he can’t take all of them off. He’s doing most of them, then I do one with him in London and then the Leicester one. I started at Radio 1 in 1988, but Gary was there all of the 80s, so I think he definitely the most appropriate host for that show and I’m just really happy to be doing the ones that I’m doing. He’s a lovely guy, an absolute charmer. Saying that, I’m really looking forward to the Leicester one as when I was at Radio 1 I used to come up and do loads of gigs at Leicester Uni, so it’s going to be nice being back in the East Midlands.
Do you watch each other’s DJ sets to ensure yours is different to say what Gary is doing, or Pat Sharp, etc?
No. All of us that have been doing it for a while will know what our go-to records are – there will be some common themes, but also songs we think work for us. So, in Pat’s case, for example, he will have Let’s All Chant, the record he did with Mick Brown, and there will be certain songs that Gary really championed on Radio 1 that he will want to play and knows work really well.
How are you since your stroke?
I’m a lot, lot better, thanks. It was three years ago now, but people that have had a stroke are never quite the same again. I sound OK, I look OK, but there’s things that I now need to work around, like fatigue and tiredness.
Has it affected what you will commit to work wise then?
Yes. It’s changed my life. I’ve cut down an awful lot. Certainly when I was at Radio 1 and during the new millennium’s first decade, I worked ridiculously hard. Lifestyle plays a massive part in strokes – if you put yourself under a lot of pressure, you have to be aware that there will be some health consequences. I can’t say enough how we go through life and don’t think about the body we live in – just one more piece of cake, thinking we will go for that walk later, etc. I walk four miles a day now and try to keep away from stress as much as possible.
I used to love listening to you doing the top 40 – did you know what the number one was before you got near to it?
Yes – we knew before the show but always wanted it to sound dramatic, so we would build it up and imply we didn’t know – which obviously worked then?! (laughs) I actually do a chart show now, Sunday 5pm on Greatest Hits Radio. Finally, which radio station do you listen to nowadays?
Well, as I work for Greatest Hits Radio, I listen lots to that station – as I enjoy music from the 70s, 80s and 90s – you can get Greatest Hits Radio in the East Midlands, everywhere in fact – you should have a listen…I think you’d like it!
■ Tickets for De Montfort Hall, Leicester, on Friday, November 15, demontforthall.co.uk, 0116 233 3111, £26.50-£42.50.