My touring days are over says 70s heart throb Essex
HE has been playing to hordes of adoring female fans since finding fame in the early Seventies.
Then his twinkly blue eyes, cheeky grin and tousled black hair made David Essex the perfect pop pin-up adorning thousands of teenagers’ bedroom walls.
But now, after more than 40 years on the road, the singer has revealed that at the age of 69 he is to retire from touring. In news that will leave his loyal fans distraught, he says his upcoming 21-date tour will be his last.
Essex, who topped the charts with selfpenned hits such as Rock On, Gonna Make You A Star and Hold Me Close, made the announcement yesterday at the Henley Literary Festival. Speaking at the event, which is sponsored by the Daily Mail, he said: ‘This will be my last tour. I think I’ve done it. There’s only so many times you can sing Rock On and Hold Me Close, and the reason I’m doing it is to say “thank you” really more than personal gain.
‘To say thank you for people being interested in me and my music over the years. It will be fun and it will be emotional.’
Essex was born David Cook, son of an East End docker and an Irish traveller. After an unsuccessful stint in a pop band and minor acting parts, in 1971 he landed the lead role in the musical Godspell.
In 1973 he starred in the film That’ll Be The Day and had his first hit with Rock On. Over the next two years he had two No 1 singles and appeared in a sequel film, Stardust. In 1978 he was back in a West End stage role, as Che in the original production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s hit musical Evita.
His last smash hit was A Winter’s Tale, in 1982, but Essex has also appeared on TV, in the Eighties sitcom The River and in 2011 as Eddie Moon in East-Enders.
A father of five, he is married to his third wife, actress Susan Hallam-Wright, who is 26 years his junior. She gave birth to their son Sonny in June 2014.
Essex was at Henley to promote his first novel, Faded Glory. About a washed-up boxer, it draws on his experiences growing up in the East End. He said: ‘The book is a homage to where I came from and my parents and that kind of reality and truth that coming from a workingclass, lower working-class background can give you. When I became David Essex, I still held on to the fact that what I do is not more important than what anybody else does – and there was a certain amount of luck to my life.’
David Essex’s I’ll Be Missing You tour takes in Glasgow’s King’s Theatre on Sunday, November 13.