LIVE24SEVEN // Interviews
If you include Progress Live [with Take That], this is going to be your sixth stadium tour, which is a pretty massive feat to be able to achieve. Do you now feel at home performing to such large crowds or is there still an element of awe to it? Oh definitely an element of awe, that never stops. It never becomes ‘Oh yeah, I’m playing a stadium tonight’. It’s always, for me - I can’t speak for other acts - but it’s overwhelming and terrifying and I take being the conduit to people’s good times very seriously and there’s an awful lot of them! So yes, you never stop being in awe of the situation.
You released ‘The Heavy Entertainment Show’ at the tail end of last year and I think you previously stated that it was written in mind to be performed live. Is there a track of the new album that you’re looking forward to being able to translate to a stadium setting? Yes definitely - ‘Mixed Signals’ which is the song that The Killers wrote, gratefully they gave it to me, so I’m looking forward to singing it in a stadium. I’m looking forward to singing ‘Party like a Russian’ - in Russia! That’ll quite be a moment.
In a stadium setting you have the ability to create massive stage productions - how involved are you in that process? I didn’t want to impose on Jim from the start too much Well, you have a few ideas and then you employ someone who’s incredibly creative to enlarge your ideas and that’s what I done with Es Devlin, who is producing the stadium tour as we speak which is incredible.
Then you’ll be taking the tour all across the UK and Europe. Yes, not just Europe – everywhere! Maybe South America too, I’m sure we’ll be in Australia - everywhere apart from North America.
Now, incredibly it was 20 years ago this year when you released your debut solo album. Considering where you’re at now, do you find it hard to connect on a personal level with some of your older tracks? As you’re in a different headspace, and a different point of your life now. Yeah, but you know, with live stuff I always take the stance that I’m not there to be entertained, and people want to hear the stuff that they’re most familiar with. So it doesn’t matter how I feel about it.
A lot of your tracks have almost taken on a life of their own because they’ve become like a soundtrack of fans’ lives. First dance at a wedding or a song that reminds them of a particular occasion, so when fans come and see you live do you take that into consideration because those are the songs the fans want to hear? I take that into consideration yes, because I’m the vocal point of attention and it feels disastrous when you lose the energy of 80,000 people. I’m a big believer in giving them what they want, because I know what I want as an audience member. If I go to somebody’s show and I don’t know 3 songs in a row, I’m bored. I go to somebody’s show and I don’t know 4 songs in a row, I want to go home! I know what I want, even with big, big heritage named artists, I’ve been to gigs and gone ‘I’m really bo red’. I know what is demanded of me and I can’t wait to do that.
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You’ve got such an avid fan base and they do keep coming back to see you again because of the fact they know that when they go to your shows they’re just going to have a party and a fantastic time. It would appear so! You know, it’s very difficult to have an objective view of what you do. I get on and I fanny about to my best abilities! And they enjoy themselves and they come back and they want to watch me do it again.
So what’s your favourite track to perform live would you say? ‘Angels’ because it’s the last one! Also the adrenaline of Let Me Entertain You... it's like I'm saying 'Coming, Ready or Not!' for me and for the audience.
Now for this tour you’re having Erasure join you on all the dates, what made you decide you want to bring them on the road? Because they’re incredible! And they’ve got so many hits and I’m a fan of them - I can’t believe they said yes.
Do you reckon they’re going come out onstage and join you on any songs like Olly Murs did? We haven’t come up with the idea, I’d love them to, I don’t know what they’d do yet though. We haven’t come up with the idea and we haven’t asked them, but there will be an idea and I will ask them!
As a solo artist I don’t think that you’ve played a headline sta- dium show in Coventry or Southampton before. What made you want to put these dates in to your tour cycle and are you looking forward to visiting those cities in particular?
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