Alvin Stardust

May 2010

NEXT week Alvin Stardust will be releasing an album of hits. Nothing unusual in that you might think.

But the collection, called I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, will be released on a major label. Added to that, there’ll be TV advertising to promote it. And a full on tour of UK theatres.

It’s the latest revival of the Notts hitmaker who has already experienced quite a few over the years.

“I had the success in the sixties touring with the rock n rollers, then in the seventies with the black leather,” says the Mansfield raised musician.

“When that was over I figured that was going to be it. But then in the eighties Pete Waterman gave me Pretend and I signed to Stiff Records.”

Next up in the regeneration of Alvin Stardust came a few year later when Mike Batt gave him the song I Feel Like Buddy Holly. He signed to Chrysalis where he became their top selling male singles artist. Further hits included I Won't Run Away and So Near To Christmas.

By the late nineties Alvin, 67, had moved in to musical theatre. The plum role was as the Child Catcher in West End smash Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

“I really enjoyed the theatre but I missed the music and I wanted to get back to it,” he says.

Not that he believed that in his sixties he was going to crack the charts again. Or so he thought.

“About six months ago I had a phone call from Universal saying they wanted me to do an album,” says Alvin, whose Notts accent is still evident despite having lived out of the county for decades.

“I thought it was a spoof to start with. I then thought they meant the plan was to just re-release the greatest hits. So I said ‘sure, go ahead’. But they said ‘no, we want you to write some new songs and record three covers for it’”.

The result is a best of album with a twist. As well as three new songs and three new covers, Alvin has re-recorded all of his old hits.

He admits: “I don’t like it when artists re-record hits. I like them to sound exactly as they did. But when we play the hits on stage we always do them exactly as they were. So, we tried recording them in the studio in one take and they sounded great. Exactly as before but with a rockier fell.”

To sit alongside the revived hits of Pretend, My Coo- Ca- Choo, I Feel Like Buddy Holly and Jealous Mind are covers of Joan Jett’s I Love Rock N Roll and Duffy’s Mercy.

“My daughter suggested those. She’s nine. I thought she was going to suggest doing a Miley Cyrus song,” he laughs.

The new songs include My Sweet Elvis, a tribute to his hero.

“It’s also about growing up in the East End, then moving to Mansfield when I was two. My mum ran lodgings for the Palace Theatre and I remember sitting in the wings watching people like Tommy Steele and Arthur Askey. And they’d all stay over at our house.

“It was in Mansfield that I first discovered Elvis.”

He adds: “I remember talking to Ian Dury about his song Sweet Gene Vincent and how great it was as a tribute. It occurred to me to do my own tribute to Elvis.”

The closing song on the album, Reverend Jack Daniel’s, is another new one.

“Two minutes before going on stage I’d always get the band and crew together to join in a prayer. A prayer with the Reverend Jack Daniel’s. We’d have a glass of Jack and coke each then go straight on stage.”

The revival is gaining momentum as he plans to write a country album this year.

“I’m going to Nashville in a couple of weeks to work with a guy who writes for Garth Brooks and people like that.

“And next summer I’ll be headlining the Americana at Newark which we’ll record to release an a live album.”

I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll is released on Universal Music TV on Monday.

Gig

Who: Alvin Stardust

Where: Palace Theatre, Mansfield

When: Tonight, 7:30pm

Tickets: £16/£17, 01623 633133

Web: www2.mansfield.gov.uk/palacetheatre

Duke Special

January 2009

HE was one of the highlights of last year's Splendour Festival in Wollaton Park, a mix of piano pop and music hall. He is Duke Special, aka Peter Wilson, who says his material sits somewhere between Elliot Smith and The Bonzo Dog Doo Da Band.
"I like employing certain aspects of theatre within the performance and using props and mystery," says the 28-year-old from Dublin – though his home city is Belfast.
Influences also include comedian Andy Kaufman and David Bowie.
"I wanted to find a way of being a piano-playing songwriter without being something schmaltzy or disposable."
The UK tour which drops in to Nottingham next week is unusual in that it comes two months before the release of his third album I Never Thought This Day Would Come. How come?
"For six or seven years I've toured constantly... about 150 shows a year. In a kind of Dylan or Van Morrison-esque way where you just keep touring whether you've got something new out or not."
He adds: "It's a chance to keep fans on board and also as a shop window for prospective labels."
Duke is looking for a label as he was among those culled from V2 last year. He does have a label in Ireland, though, which is why his new album is already on sale over there.
It can be bought via his website and fans may want to get hold of the special edition version as it includes paints and artwork for them to enter a competition to win an exclusive Duke Special gig.
"People can paint an alternative front cover and the ten best copies we'll send to Tony Hart," he says of the children's TV legend whose Vision On show introduced the Plasticine pest Morph.
"He retired long ago," he says of Hart.
"He lives in a cottage on his own and his work now is judging art competitions. When my friend alerted me to that I thought, we've got to do that!"
Not that Duke Special is any kind of artist himself.
"I was terrible at school. I used to draw a tractor and people would say 'Is that a fox?'."
The winner of the album competition will get Duke Special to perform in their front room.
"I did it once before as a way of buying a piano. I'd been borrowing this guy's electric piano for ages and he said 'if I organise a wee gig and invite some friends round you can keep it'. I had a guy playing drums with me that time."
He was lucky that it was a detached house with a reasonably sized front room. What if the winner lives in a two-bed terrace?
"(Laughs) I've played in smaller venues than that."
And with him for some of them was Duffy – who played her first shows with him.
"I was doing a solo tour in Ireland and I asked her to do half the tour – I had a drag act doing the other half. She was great. I was driving a transit van around Ireland with her in the back, so it was pretty gritty.
"She was so impressive and you could tell she was going to go a long way, for her attitude and her lack of pretension."

Duffy, Jongleurs

November 19 2008


WHILE the Christmas lights were coming on in the Old Market Square, the alarms were going off at Jongleurs.
It was this that delayed the arrival of Duffy for her 'secret' gig, as the Castle Wharf club was evacuated.
It was, admitted the Welsh diva, the result of her burning incense in her dressing room.
"At first they thought it was because I was smoking," she quipped.
The 50-minute set, part of Trent FM's Live At The Local annual gig, steadily gathered pace as she ran through most of her debut No.1 album Rockferry.
She was comfortable opening softly, with a gospel song accompanied only by her guitarist. The title track was the first song familiar to the casual Duffy fan and prompted the odd sway n singalong.
But what was apparent far too early was the noise from the crowd. The 400 or so competition winners, who'd been given free access to an intimate audience with a singer who'll be on tour from next week playing venues the size of the Royal Concert Hall, seemed otherwise engaged. Chatting with each other as if they were, indeed, down their local with the inconvenience of a live band in the corner.
They'd closed the bar to keep levels down during her set but it had little effect.
She began to tell the story of how the hit Stepping Stone came about but was drowned out by some yawping females. I couldn't make out what was said exactly but Duffy responded by assuring them that despite the Dusty Springfield comparisons she wasn't "a lesbian" – and they'd have "to fight amongst yourselves."
And those that weren't talking were watching the gig through their mobile phones.
Baffling.
It was a shame as Duffy is a real talent, able to effortlessly handle the shift from seductive jazz (Hanging On Too Long) to 60s soul (Mercy) and tormented ballads (Breaking My Own Heart, a taster from her next album).
She and her six-piece band seemed to be enjoying themselves at least, grinning throughout, joking about her pleasure in the fireman's lift out of the venue during the evacuation and a past gig in Nottingham that she had to play by candlelight.
Maybe being in a comedy club had lightened her spirits. and it has to be said, it's a great venue for live music.
But there's something to be said for charging an audience to see a show. At least if they've committed with their cash they'll pay more attention.