‘I wasn’t terribly comfortable in my skin in the 80s’

Thirty five years after their debut single We Close Our Eyes hit the top five, Go West are coming to Leicester. HELEN BARNES talked to singer Peter Cox

We are very excited that you’re coming to De Montfort Hall – it’s been a couple of years since we last saw you in the East Midlands. I guess this will be pretty different to that as it’s just you and Paul Young?

Yes, very different. We are in discussions at the moment about the content, so I can’t tell you the details of the show yet; Paul will be singing his hits and we will be doing the Go West ones, but other than that, you will have to wait and see, as will I!

Are you and Paul Young good friends then? I don’t know Paul really well, but there were a lot of singers whose work I enjoyed when we finally had our success in the mid-80s, so Paul would have been one of those. We both share a love of Motown. He’s a real musicologist and knows his music way back into history much better than I do – and obviously he recorded Wherever I Lay My Hat, which was originally recorded by Marvin Gaye, so we certainly have several influences in common.

When you tour with just one other artist like this, does it matter who’s on first – do you toss a coin?

Good question. I think if you’re on a bill with a load of other artists and you’re opening the show and people are still coming in, that’s not an ideal spot, for obvious reasons, but again, if you’re on last, then that’s often a poisoned chalice, with people thinking “I’d better get my car out of the car park, I’m going to work tomorrow”, or whatever – you don’t necessarily have people’s full attention then, either. It’s tricky – at a festival I think the best spot would be around 8pm, so that you’re not the headline but you do have the benefit of the lights and people hopefully still have some energy left to enjoy what you’re doing. That didn’t answer your question about the tour with Paul though, did it?

If you could pick one Paul Young song to add to your set, what would it be?

I’m not going to pick my favourite. Because of the energy of the song, I’d say Tear Your Playhouse Down – as it would be fun to watch our bass player tackling that fretless bassline!

And what about a song of yours that you’d like to hear Paul sing?

Oh, I don’t know… maybe Goodnight Girl? I think that would suit Paul’s voice.

2020 is a huge year for Go West. Apart from the 10-date tour with Paul Young, what else have you planned?

Well, we are doing 35 varied shows