Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies coming soon to Cambridge

BBC Radio 2 DJ Gary Davies, a former Radio 1 DJ and presenter on Top of the Pops, has taken his popular 80s radio show out on tour – and it will soon be gracing the stage in Cambridge.

Together with his producer Johnny Kalifornia, the pair will take the audience back to the greatest decade in music – the 80s!

Expect to hear much-loved tunes from the likes of Wham!, Queen, Prince, Madonna, Whitney Houston and many more.

“I love radio, I love being in a studio being able to paint pictures and that very close one-on-one relationship that you have with the listener,” begins Gary, who had recently returned from three weeks in Thailand.

“But then it’s so much fun when you get out and meet the listeners! And the shows, touch wood, have been going phenomenally well. It’s just one big massive 80s party so it’s a lot of fun to do.”

On the unwavering popularity of that golden decade, Gary says: “I don’t think there’s ever been a decade like it, musically, because you had so much incredible variety.

“You had the aftermath of punk, which was the New Romantics, and that’s where electronic music started… So it was the birth of electronic music and so many other genres that are still very relevant today started in the 80s.

“Hip-hop started in the 80s – it didn’t exist before – you had iconic rock bands like Def Leppard, like Bon Jovi, U2, Simple Minds, amazing bands that are still as relevant today as they were then… Depeche Mode…

“You had soul icons, Whitney Houston, Prince… You had one-off novelty hits, you had the birth of dance music as we know it today: house music started in the late 80s – and you also had incredible pop music from the likes of Stock, Aitken and Waterman and others.

“There were so many amazing genres, so much variety, and most of those records stand the test of time today. Anytime you hear an 80s song, you want to go out and party.”

Gary, who is also joined on stage by dancers performing choreographed routines, says the show has a playlist “that tends to work really well”, but that they do “chop and change it quite often” depending on the crowd.

“We do continually update the show,” he explains, “we take some songs out, we put some songs in, but then there are some songs where we’d be in trouble if we didn’t play them!”

Which artists and which songs tend to get the biggest reaction? “They all do,” replies the renowned presenter and DJ, whose career began at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester.

“Every song we play gets a great reaction, otherwise we wouldn’t play it – so there isn’t a bad song there.

“But we play music from Eurythmics, from Belinda Carlisle, Rick Astley, Deacon Blue, Bonnie Tyler, Bon Jovi and loads more.”

Gary’s childhood dream of working for BBC Radio was realised when got his big break at Radio 1 in 1982. He started on a late-night weekend show but before long had taken over the lunchtime show, which he called ‘The Bit in the Middle’.

As well as being heard daily on the nation’s radios, he was a regular presenter on Top of the Pops, which was essential viewing for many years, of course, hosting the TV show more often than any other DJ in the 80s.

A household name for many years, his ‘Woo Gary Davies’ jingle was known universally.

Gary can now often be seen on TV as old episodes of TOTP (as it was also known) are often repeated on BBC4.

“The fact that they’re rebroadcasting old Top of the Pops, that’s great,” he says, “it’s a good chance for me to sit back and go ‘Oh my God, what was I wearing?!’”

Like most people back then, Gary, who says his favourite 80s band “would probably be U2” (he also expresses great affection for Tears for Fears, Deacon Blue, and Bruce Springsteen), also had ‘bigger hair’.

“A lot bigger hair, yeah,” he says, “I think that’s one of the good things about now is that it doesn’t take me any time to do, whereas back then it took me ages.”

Unsurprisingly, many of those attending Gary’s Sounds of the 80s show dress accordingly – so expect to see lots of wigs, leg-warmers and shoulder pads.

“A lot of people do dress up, it’s not compulsory,” insists Gary, “if you don’t want to you don’t have to. We just want you to come and have a great time.”

Along with all the great music and dancing, the Cambridge crowd can also expect a special guest to join in the fun and games.

“There will definitely be a live guest from the 80s who will be performing on the show,” confirms Gary, “I don’t think we’ve confirmed it just yet…

“In the past we’ve had everybody from Toyah to Jaki Graham, to Clare Grogan from Altered Images to Carol Decker from T’Pau, Mark Shaw from Then Jericho, Denise Pearson from Five Star... So it’s going to be an amazing artist who will join us on the show.”

Sounds of the 80s with Gary Davies – “three hours of absolute 80s joy” – will be calling in at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on Friday, 8 March.

Tickets, priced £22.80-£37, are available from cornex.co.uk. For more on Gary, go to djgarydavies.com.