David Essex

October 2012

I’VE not locked the door on EastEnders but I’ve kind of shut it.

I enjoyed doing the show. It was fast and furious, and it worked a treat as I think the viewing figures were at a ten-year high when Eddie (Moon) was in it.

But I have lots of other things to do.

I’m in and out of the studio at the moment doing some film music for Traveller, which comes out next year. It’s about a boy who is half gypsy and he’s trying to work out where he belongs in life.

I’ve a cameo role in it as a character called Blackberry, who is the gypsy patriarch. But they asked me to do the music as well.

They’re working on the post production now so it should be in the cinemas hopefully next year.

It’s a very powerful script and very positive from a gypsy traveller point of view, which is nice. There is some bare knuckle fighting in it but it’s more of a spiritual journey.

And it was shot with real travellers so it’s very authentic.

What I’m really looking forward to is getting back on the road with the band. It’s three years since we’ve toured.

Since then we’ve had All The Fun Of The Fair which was a great success. I’ve been working on the Traveller film and doing EastEnders, so it will be nice to get back to where I started, with a band up on stage.

We’re going to do something a little bit different this time. We’re going to have a big old film screen at the back which will have relevant images of what we are playing on stage. There’ll be clips of films and photographs. So it is kind of the story of my career.

All The Fun Of The Fair came to Nottingham earlier this year and it did feature my music but it was a story. It wasn’t autobiographical. This is purely a concert tour.

Am I ready? I hope so. Sex, drugs and rock n roll is page one of the rule book for going on the road. I think I’m on page two now.

Once the tour finishes, I’ll put my feet up over Christmas and we’ll see what happens next year.

I should probably put more energy into film-making. It’s an area I’ve not really explored as much as I’d have liked. Obviously I did That’ll Be The Day, Stardust and Silver Dream Racer and they were successful but there was a pressure for me to go to Hollywood after them and I didn’t particularly want to.

Even though Rock On has been No. 1 twice there, I’ve always been very English, my family are here and everything I’ve been doing has been based locally really.

What’s brilliant for me is being able to work in different mediums, as a writer, as an actor and as a singer. It’s perfect.

You don’t get bored or complacent and I think that probably radiates to an audience and they don’t get complacent about the things you are doing.

That’s probably the essence of longevity.

David Essex appears at the Royal Concert Hall on Monday, October 29. Ticket are £27.50 and £29.50 from the venue, call 0115 989 5555 or go towww.trch.co.uk.