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Gareth Gates in Valentine mood on return to York Barbican to croon movie love songs

Gareth Gates: Bringing Valentine romance to York Barbican

GARETH Gates was visiting York Barbican for the first time on Wednesday – or so he thought – to promote his upcoming visit on February 16 with a concert of love songs from the movies.

A perusal through The Press files revealed the Bradford pop singer, musical theatre actor and pantomime regular, now 40, had performed there in Mad About The Musicals, singing the songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kander & Ebb, Boublil & Schönberg and Lloyd Webber & Rice, in November 2015.

Forgive him for not recalling that York performance. After all, much water has passed under the bridge since former Bradford Cathedral head chorister Gareth was piloted to pop success at 17 by his 2002 Pop Idol clash of the stammering northern working-class lad versus the unstoppable southern posh boy, Will Young.

In York, he also had appeared as bad-boy Warner in Legally Blonde The Musical in September 2012 and in his first comedy role as cowboy Willard in Footloose in May 2017, both at the Grand Opera House. “I did two tours of that show and they asked me to do it a third time, but I thought, ‘I’ve ticked that box,” he says.

Tanned, teeth pearly white, hair and beard matinee-idol dark, full and thick, he looked the very picture of gym-toned good health in the Barbican bar, his vocal coach a calming presence by his side as the stammer that never affects his singing or stage performances only rarely punctuated his affable conversation.

“I used to come to York as a child,” he says. “I’m from Bradford and we’d always have a day out here over the summer, bringing me over for a cruise on the River Ouse. I’ve always loved this place, going to the  Minster, and being able to perform here over the years has been a thrill.”

His latest return, in the week of St Valentine’s Day, will see producer and performer Gareth leading a company of singers and a four-piece band in Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs From The Movies, a show rooted in his 2002 cover of The Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody.

“That was my biggest hit and first ever number one, made famous by that scene in the movie Ghost, and I got thinking about how the world’s greatest love songs come from the movies and how I should do a show built on all those incredible movie songs,” says Gareth.

“The more I’ve looked into it and put together the set list, I realised that the synergy between music and movies is huge, and I hope that tapping into that will be a great move.

“If the show is a roaring success, we could look at doing an album, either as a live concert recording or going into the studio.”

Expect songs from Armageddon, Dirty Dancing, Titanic, A Star Is Born, My Girl, Top Gun and Footloose, among others, in a concert show divided into two sets of “beloved classic ballads, heart-warming melodies, electrifying up-tempo modern hits”. “And of course I’ll be doing Unchained Melody too,” says Gareth.

“I’m working again with Carrie Courtney, who booked the tour for Mad About The Musicals, and I’ve put together an incredible cast featuring West End talent. We have Maggie Lynne, who’s done Wicked and worked with me on a show many, many years ago, and Britt Lenting, a Dutch singer, who’s just finished doing panto with me in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley, where I was Prince Gareth of Greenwich and she was the Evil Queen.

The tour poster for Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs From The Movies

“We started rehearsals when I was looking to cast the show. I heard her sing and thought, ‘I need you to be in the cast’. She’s done The Phantom Of The Opera, Love Never Dies and Little Mermaid, and she can be very operatic when she sings. She has such a powerhouse voice.

“She made a big name for herself in Holland but in 2016 she decided to take a leap across the water to see if she could make it in the West End and she’s absolutely smashing it.”

Completing Gareth’s vocal line-up will be Dan Herrington. “He’s fresh out of college after studying at Performers College in Essex,” says Gareth. “I like to put together an experienced bunch of performers but I also like to give aspiring, budding talent a chance to shine.

“I went to a showcase at Performers College, heard him sing and booked him straightaway for my autumn tour, where he was one of the Four Seasons in my Gareth Gates Sings Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons show.”

The band from that tour – all of them session musicians from big shows in the West End – will be joining Gareth for the 25-date movie music tour of England, Scotland and Wales. “We also had this crazy idea of taking the Frankie Valli show out again at the same time, doing one show in some cities, the other show in other cities. It seemed like a good idea – I’ll tell you how it goes!”

Gareth has worked with lighting designer Matt Boyles on the movie show’s design. “It’s essentially a concert show, but because of my roots in theatre, there will be a narrative to it too, with an old-school TV screen that we’ll start the show on and then we launch into all these amazing songs, which I’m really excited about singing all in the same show.

“Putting the set list together is based on instinct and experience over the years of doing these shows, which counts for a lot.  If, after the first show or two, we feel something doesn’t work where we’ve placed it, we will change things up, based on the reaction of the crowd. I’m a great believer in that: you have to read the room.”

Gareth has lived in London since his Pop Idol discovery at 17, “but any opportunity I get to come back to Yorkshire, I do,” he says. “The first house I ever bought was up here in Yorkshire, on the edge of the Dales, which I bought for my family and I still have a house up here. I come up as often as I can and Yorkshire will always be my home.”

Hence his Love Songs tour will open in Yorkshire in Valentine’s week with shows at Wakefield Theatre Royal on February 10 and Hull Connexin Live on February 13, as well as York Barbican on February 16, and later dates at Bradford St George’s Hall on March 14 and Sheffield City Hall on March 28, while Gareth Gates Sings Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons will play the Victoria Theatre, Halifax, on March 1.

He has filmed a piece for ITV’s Calendar show on Bradford City of Culture 2025, visiting “some of the places where I grew up, like my old school Dixons City Academy and Bradford Cathedral, where I joined the choir when I was nine and was head boy chorister at 11,” recalls Gareth.

“I sang for The Queen at the Maundy Thursday Service in 1997 when I was 12 and was given Maundy money as I was the head boy soprano soloist, so essentially I was working for The Queen!

“For that sort of pressure to land on your shoulders at that age was a challenge, but all great training for what was to come.”

“The more I’ve looked into it and put together the set list, I realised that the synergy between music and movies is huge, and I hope that tapping into that will be a great move,” says Gareth Gates

Gareth had the honour of meeting HM The Queen again on his 18th birthday. “I was invited to Buckingham Palace for a Young Achievers ceremony after I’d helped many people with stammering and speech impediments. She didn’t remember me singing at the Maundy service!.”

Gareth hopes to take part in Bradford’s year as City of Culture, on top of his home-city performance of Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs From The Movies. “We’re in talks about doing a show  at Bradford Live,  the brand new venue at the old  Bradford Odeon, hopefully towards the end of the year,” he reveals. Watch this space.

Gareth’s diary is ever busy. “I’m constantly working, and the biggest thing I’ve learned of late is not to overdo it,” he says. “I’m very fortunate to be as much in demand as I’ve ever been. There’s never been a dry spell – I find it hard to say ‘No’ – though I do have to at times.

“In 2023 I worked the most I’d ever worked with only ten nights off. It was a mixture of work, like performing every night when I was on board on cruise ships, with my own lounge, and also doing pantomime and The SpongeBob Musical, which was a fun show to do.

“I did lots of festivals, lots of Nineties and Noughties shows, and do you know what, I did burn out. I did way too much, so last year I eased off when I could, and this year I’ll be trying to do a little less – and that’s through the fear of my voice becoming slightly smashed.  I do have to be careful with it and look after it.”

Staying fit is important to Gareth. “I’m massively into the gym,” he says. “I’m a health freak! I get all that right but I am very guilty of over-working.”

Twenty-three years on from Pop Idol, he and Will Young maintain their friendship. “I’ve only stayed in touch with Will and with Zoe Birkett too from that time. We’re really good friends; we hook up whenever we can  – I spoke to him last week.”

Looking back to 2002, he says: “We went into it completely blind, not knowing what to expect, and we had each other to rely on throughout. Then we had a number one hit together with The Long And Winding Road and went on tour together. We were the guinea pigs of it all but we could fall back on each other.”

Pop careers rooted in the hothouse of talent shows can crash and burn, but not so with Gareth. “I’m fortunate that people have not turned on me, but a big part of that is I’ve not changed from the person I was, whereas you open yourself up to criticism if you do. I’ve stuck with the same people, always being grounded, rather than overstepping the mark,” he says.

 “The danger of pop stars losing their way is if they surround themselves with ‘yes’ people, and then the moment someone goes against them and says ‘No’, that’s their downfall. I’ve kept the friends I’ve always had around me and they’ve kept me the person I’ve always been.”

He may live in London, but you cannot take the Yorkshireman out of Gareth. “It’s massively important to me,” he says. “I take a lot of pride in keeping my roots. My accent is still quite broad and I actually enjoy that. I get a lot out of coming from Bradford and Yorkshire.  It’s made me the person I am. I love being from Yorkshire – and I love playing to a home crowd as they love to see a Yorkshireman doing well.”

Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs from The Movies – A Valentine Special, York Barbican, February 16, 7.30pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Also Hull Connexin Live, February 13, 7.30pm. Box office: connexinlivehull.com.

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REVIEW: Red Ladder Theatre Company in Sanctuary, Selby Abbey, 7/10/2024 ***

Ingrid Bolton-Gabrielsen’s Molly clashes with Ravneet Sehra’s police officer, Uzma, as Emily Chattle’s vicar, Fiona, tends to the injured Alland (Aein Nasseri) in Sanctuary. Picture: Robling Photography

RED Ladder’s first touring production under the direction of new artistic director Cheryl Martin asks: “What kind of society do we want to live in?”

One where the arts can thrive, one where the medium’s message of co-operation, collaboration, freedom of expression, communion, connection, compassion and shared humanity spreads its wings to society at large.

One where there would be an understanding of why asylum-seeking young Iranian journalist Alland (played by Aein Nasseri) is seeking sanctuary at a church in northern England in this topical new musical by Boff Whalley (music and lyrics) and Sarah Woods (book).

Pioneering Leeds agit-prop theatre company Red Ladder has united with Wakefield Theatre Royal and CAPA College, Wakefield, for a tour of theatres, community venues and, significantly, churches from September 19 to November 9. Everyone is pulling in one direction, unlike the protagonists in this fraught drama, the different forces at play within a fractured State and Church at war with itself.

In prayer: Emily Chattle’s vicar, Fiona, in Sanctuary. Picture: Robling Photography

The programme cover takes the form of an Order of Service, on account of what will happen at the climax, but it also further pushes the Church to the fore of the debate that plays out contentiously.

Word has it that the script has been toned down, but it still packs a punch, and where better to watch the sparks fly than in a church, Selby Abbey, for all the familiar frustrations of imperfect sight lines, lighting and sound not being on a par with theatre facilities. (Faces were not well lit; some lines were lost to the acoustics of a vertiginous stone building.)

There is nothing rose-tinted about Red Ladder here. Tellingly, Sanctuary tells its story from all sides. It does not shy away from Alland being an illegal immigrant, already told to leave but pleading to stay for fear of what would ensue if he were to return to Iran, where his courageous journalism had challenged the authorities on their treatment of women.

Church worker Molly (Ingrid Bolton-Gabrielsen) and all-inclusive vicar Fiona (York actress, singer and clown Emily Chattle) support him.

CAPA College performing arts students in the Greek chorus role of Vox in Sanctuary. Picture: Robling Photography

Stone-hearted higher church authority Peter (York actor and keyboard player Richard Kay) plays it by the book, (the law of the land, not the spirit of the Good Book). So does police officer Uzma (Ravneet Sehra), a third-generation British Asian woman who attends the Christian church. The difference between Alland and her immigrant grandparents, she says, is that he came here illegally whereas they were invited to work here.

Sanctuary is billed as a musical, rather than a play with music, but the greater weight of the piece, the drama, lies in the confrontations, the differences of opinion, red tape versus blue sky thinking, the moments of confession and contemplation, albeit that protagonists burst into song in the tradition of song being the ultimate form of emotional expression when mere words won’t suffice.

There is a second musical force at play too: the CAPA College performing arts students that serve as Sanctuary’s Greek chorus, Vox, commenting in song on what is unfolding (and joining Kay in his second role as a vigilante by playing protestors too at one point). In white, they have the presence of protective angels; in dark hoods, they become symbols of the devil, in Caitlin Mawhinney’s costume design.

At times, the chorus songs feel more like the stuff of a school musical, but musical director Jennifer Pugh pulls powerful vocal performances out of Nasseri, Kay, Bolton-Gabrielsen and especially Chattle, often in tandem with Vox. Sehra’s singing of Uzma’s Lament needed better amplification to have had its desired impact.

Ravneet Sehra singing Uzma’s Lament in Sanctuary. Picture: Robling Photography

On a night of so much debate, one more came to mind: would Sanctuary have had more dramatic impetus if there had been fewer songs? Certainly, it would have cranked up the hostile environment still more in this bitter pill of a modern-day riff on Brechtian musical theatre.

Whalley posits that “music can cross divides, it can patch up differences between people, which is what Sanctuary will hope to do”, but the wound here – a nation in turmoil over immigration – appears to be growing deeper, beyond music’s healing, bonding powers.

In a nutshell, Sanctuary asks, “Do we want safety and freedom for only ourselves, or for us all?” There should be only one answer, but that would require reform, not Reform.

“I hope this musical helps open up this conversation because it’s one that goes to the heart of who we are and the kind of society we want to live in,” says director Martin. In the best of worlds, the arts can lead that progression, but right now it feels like a voice in the wilderness.

Red Ladder Theatre Company in Sanctuary, Wesley Centre, Harrogate, October 12, 7.30pm. Box office: Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk. Age guidance: 13 upwards.

Did you know?

SANCTUARY is supported by the Mayor of West Yorkshire’s Safer Communities Fund.

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An Officer And A Gentleman…and a Yorkshireman as Zack Mayo. Meet Luke Baker at Grand Opera House, York

On duty: Georgia Lennon as Paula Pofriki and Luke Baker as Zack Mayo in An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical

YORKSHIREMAN Luke Baker, set to play the title role in An Officer And A Gentleman The Music in York next week, remembers early career advice from his father.

“Born in Leeds and brought up in Wakefield, when I was 15, I started doing shows at the Wakefield Theatre Royal summer school with director Louise Denison, who must be solely responsible for half of the West End now,” he recalls.

“I grew up playing rugby, at scrum half for Sandal, and played football and did gymnastics too. I used to go down to Thorne Park to play, and had played for various football clubs when I decided to start concentrating on acting.

“When I told my father, he said, ‘to be honest, you’ve got more chance of singing at Wembley than playing there’!”

Two years at Leeds College of Music – now Leeds Conservatoire – from 2005 to 2007 were followed by a BTech in musical theatre at ArtsEd, in London, graduating in 2100. “You can train anywhere and you will get similar training, and your ability will speak for itself, but it’s about the impact of the contacts you can make when training in London: the directors, casting directors, choreographers and agents.

“They would come and do Q&As with us, as well as work with us, and then the agents would come to the full-scale musicals that we’d do to end the year. The next day you’d be called to the head’s office and you’d be given a Post-it with the name of an agent on it.”

Luke met no fewer than ten agents. “You have to suss out if they want to work with you, if you want to work with them, and it then boils to if you think you can work with them,” he says.

He duly signed up with Belfield & Ward. “I’ve been with them ever since, so I made the right choice. People tend to change agents after five years, but I’m loyal – and maybe that’s a Yorkshire thing.”

Now 36, he is working with a fellow Yorkshireman for An Officer And A Gentleman: director Nikolai Foster, who grew up in North Yorkshire before training at the Drama Centre, London, and The Crucible, Sheffield.

Foster is artistic director of the Curve, Leicester, the producers of the February 23 to November 16 2024 tour of the musical adaptation of Taylor Hackford’s 1982 all-American film starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger.

“I’ve worked with Nikolai quite a few times,” says Luke. “I first came across him when I was graduating from ArtsEd, and he would have been among the directors who came to see one of our shows.

Off duty: Yorkshire actor Luke Baker

“I did the second UK tour with him of All The Fun Of The Fair, when we visited the Bradford Alhambra and Sheffield Lyceum, and last year I played Tony, Billy’s brother, for him in Billy Elliot in Leicester.

“It was always a dream to play that role. So many people had said to me, ‘you’ve got to play Tony, if you get the chance’ – but I was always doing something else when the role came up in the West End. It was a dream opportunity to do it with Nikolai at Leicester, one to tick off on the wish list.”

Foster has reassembled much of his Billy Elliot production team for An Officer And A Gentleman, including musical director Christopher Duffy and choreographer Joanna Goodwin (assistant director for Billy Elliot), so they were familiar with Luke’s pedigree too.

His audition process began in the customary modern fashion of submitting a tape. “I sang Bon Jovi’s Blaze Of Glory, my first song in the show, and then they call you for an in-person audition at Pineapple Dance Studios, where I did the songs and the scenes. One tape, one live audition, and I got the part,” he says.

“For some shows I’ve done ten rounds of auditions over three and a half months, and then you might not get it, but some things go like that. It’s all part of it.

“It’s different needs for different shows. Like I did ten rounds to play Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys, and by then everyone left could do the role, but that show is a product that has to be signed off by the American producers and everyone has to fit with everyone in the cast in a specific way.

“I think it suits me better to be creative in a role, either creating a new part or doing a part where I can do my character background work and think ‘what can I do with this role?’.”

That applies to his casting as fearless young officer candidate Zack Mayo opposite Georgia Lennon’s fiery-spirited Paula Pofriki in Douglas Day Stewart & Sharleen Cooper Cohen’s story of love, courage and redemption.

“I’ve been lucky to be able to be creative in the role, and Nikolai is the kind of director who wants it to be your version. It’s the same show as it was when first done six years ago, but it’s never final; it’s forever growing and changing, like using different choreography.”

What can next week’s York audiences expect, aside from George Dyer’s musical arrangements of Eighties’ pop bangers by Bon Jovi, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and the film’s signature song, (Love Lift Us) Up Where We Belong. “Like the film, it’s a love story, but it’s darker than people remember. It’s not like Top Gun!” says Luke.

An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, June 4 to 9, 8pm, Tuesday, 7.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday, 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york

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Dancefloor disciple John Godber keeps the faith in Northern Soul in days of drudgery and nights of joy in Do I Love You?

Emilio Encinoso-Gil, Martha Godber, centre, and Chloe McDonald in John Godber’s Do I Love You?, returning Northern Soul to Scarborough this week. Picture: Ian Hodgson

“I’M not afraid to admit I was a rather good dancer,” says playwright, director, actor and erstwhile terpsichorean tornado John Godber. “Not so good now, mind. My knees.”

His ‘tap’ these days would be on the laptop, leading to his latest play, a hymn to Northern Soul that keeps the faith with the Wigan Casino days but addresses today’s believers in Do I Love You?, on tourthis week at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, in Scarborough, where John once cut a rug at all-nighters.

“This is Northern Soul for a new generation, but with rising costs, unemployment and small-town blues, has anything really changed?” asks John, now 67. “Is this England 1973 or 2023? The pubs are closing, hospitality has gone, and strikes are everywhere…but when you’re out on the floor…”

…There you will find Godber’s twentysomethings, Sally, Nat and Kyle, as they develop a love for Northern Soul and the people absorbed in its culture across the industrial north. What started as a college project has grown into a passion, but the dance steps are exhausting.

Far beyond their home city of Hull, they find excitement, purpose and the tribe they have been seeking. Cue talcum powder, loafers and weekenders, from Brid Spa to Stoke, from Oxford to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, as these young soulies vow to keep the faith, even as Britain crumbles, school buildings and all.

Do I Love You? Indeed he did, back in the day. “I went to all-nighters in Scarborough, Doncaster, Wakefield, Whitby, Hornsea, and even then that single [Frank Wilson’s title song] was worth £45,000,” says John.

“It’s the one that lots of people know, but lots of soulists despise it because it’s too well known! Only 200 copies were printed, and one copy recently sold for £150,000.

“There’s this really interesting thing that soulies want to keep it underground, which is difficult, particularly when the BBC Proms did a Northern Soul Prom last summer [July 15 2023, curated by broadcaster and writer Stuart Maconie], gentrifying it with symphonic arrangements, of course!”

Playwright and Northern Soul devotee John Godber

John recalls his dancing nights and early single acquisitions. “Dobie Gray’s Out On The Floor was my first one, then The Flasher, the instrumental by Mistura, and then you’re on to Al Wilson’s The Snake,” he says.

“Every church hall had a Northern Soul night, every youth club had a Northern Soul Night back then. For every song, they danced throughout and clapped in time together because the music realy meant something to them.

“Before we opened the tour last September , the cast went to a soul night at an ex-servicemen’s club, where they played Frank Wilson’s Do I Love You?, and they came away saying, ‘oh my God, it’s all true’.

After a run of state-of-the-nation plays (Shafted, 2015; Scary Bikers, 2018, Sunny Side Up, 2020; Living On Fresh Air, 2023), Godber’s latest comedy is more of a celebration, albeit with politics still at its rotten core.

“I’m interested in enclosed environments: nightclubs [Bouncers], schools [Teechers], gymnasiums [Gym And Tonic], now the Northern Soul scene,” says John.

“This time there’s a lot of music, a lot of dancing, in the show, and we’ve had the world champion Northern Soul dancer, Sally Molloy, in for a couple of sessions. Just extraordinary!

“She came to the read-through to authenticate the piece and said, ‘I bless this show’, which was great because we want it to be authentic.

“Dancing was important to the casting, so we looked far and wide and even looked at auditioning some Northern Soul dancers but they just didn’t cut the mustard with the acting.”

John settled instead on a typically compact cast of Yorkshire actors Emilio Encinoso-Gil and Martha Godber and Belfast-born, Liverpool-trained newcomer Chloe McDonald.

Dancefloor discussion: Emilio Encinoso-Gil, Chloe McDonald, centre, and Martha Godber in Do I Love You?. Picture: Ian Hodgson

“Martha went to Northern Contemporary dance in Leeds when she was 16 and got into Trinity Laban [Conservatoire of Music and Dance], but then decided to go to LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) to train as an actor,” he says.

“They worked with Sally a couple of months before rehearsals started, then did a full day with her, after the read-through day, when they almost couldn’t walk for a week!”

John’s own research brought him into contact with Dr Sarah Raine, from the cultural industries department at Leeds University.

“What she’s identified is a real growth in Northern Soul, when working men’s clubs have gone, youth clubs have gone, Sunday League football has gone, funding has gone, but Northern Soul club nights go on,” says John.

“It’s an echo back to when there was pride in your work, what you do, where you fit into your community, doing something that requires a skill through the ability to dance, and conssequently you gain status in your community.

“The music is put first; it’s not about leaving with someone on your arm, unlike in Bouncers, though the drug scene is pretty clear, but after 12 hours of stomping, you’re going to need something stronger than coffee and Red Bull!

Godber’s twentysomethings in Do I Love You? work in a “chicken drive-through portal” as he euphemistically puts it. “It’s not a great place to work. Two of them have degrees, one in psychology, one in musical theatre; the other has stayed at home to look after her grandmother,” he says.

High kicks: Martha Godber in rehearsal at Hull Truck Theatre for Do I Love You?

“After Covid, they’ve picked up these low-grade jobs, but the music underlines where they are in their rites of passage. They find this creed they have some sympathy with, a kind of religion, a kind of tribe, to counter domestic difficulties, loss of love and dreary jobs.”

“In 2024, with the drudgery of daily life, now it’s about finding meaning and young people feeling they’re in a safe place.”

As for keeping the faith by seeing Do I Love You?, “What’s interesting is that if you’re my age, you’ll be re-living your youth; if your’re young, in your 20s, you’ll think, ‘yes, I can see why it means so much to them’.

“Why coin that adage ‘Keep the faith’? I guess soul music is not a million miles away from religion, so it’s not far away from faith.”

Northern Soul disciple John has a confession to make: “The full disclosure is, I was really into Northern Soul, but I was also into prog-rock,” he says. “That was my intellectual side. Northern Soul was my spiritual side.”

John Godber Company in Do I Love You?, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly; 1.30pm tomorrow; 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Leap of faith: Emilio Encinoso-Gil during rehearsals for Do I Love You?

Did you know?

NORTHERN Soul dancers, in their flat, slippy shoes, would dust the dancefloor with talcum powder to make their moves glide more easily, countering the stickiness of spilt beer. “But talc is frowned on these days because it’s carciogenic,” says John.

Did you know too?

RARE American soul songs, expressing pain and suffering, were favoured over slick Motown chartbusters by the working-class, predominantly male dance crowds that gathered at burgeoning Northern Soul nights across the north in the late-1960s and early 1970s. Football fans on away days would bring back records from London record shops.

What is John Godber’s favourite Northern Soul record?

TOBI Legend’s Time Will Pass You By. “It’s a song about dying, which makes it utterly existential,” says John.

REVIEW: Do I Love You?, from when John Godber’s premiere opened at Wakefield Theatre Royal in September 2023

TWO Big Egos In A Small Car podcasters Charles Hutchinson and Graham Chalmers discuss John Godber’s Do I Love You? and last autumn’s premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s Constant Companions, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in Episode 152.

Head to 12 minutes 45 seconds into:  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/13689546