Gareth Gates on the road with his Love Songs from the Movies tour

SussexWorld

Gareth Gates hits the road with his Love Songs from the Movies tour – a theme which effectively takes him back to where it all began.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Lance Sussex Newspapers and

00:06a huge pleasure to speak to Gareth Gates. Now Gareth, you are embarking, you've started

00:10on a tour. Gareth Gates sings love songs from the movies, you're playing the King's Theatre

00:15in South Sea and Guildford's G Live on this tour, and we're saying what fantastic rich

00:20pickings you have just encapsulated in love songs from the movies. But in a way, that's

00:25where you began, wasn't it, Unchained Melody? Yeah, my first ever number one and my biggest

00:32selling hit to date was Unchained Melody, made famous by the movie Ghost. And this gave

00:37me the idea for the show, why not put together a show with all those big, big love songs

00:45made famous by movies. And so the songs in there from the likes of Titanic, Pretty Woman,

00:52Dirty Dancing, Armageddon, to name only a few. And it's a really great show we opened

00:59this week. And it was a roaring success. And I can't wait to bring it to the King's Theatre

01:08and also G Live as well. And you are heaping up the pressure on yourself

01:12because this is not just Gareth Gates, the performer, this is Gareth Gates, the producer.

01:17You've decided where it's going, you've cast it, you've decided on the songs, you've done

01:21everything. Why? Why do that? Well, it seemed a good time. It seemed a good

01:27idea at the time. It still seemed a good idea.

01:31Now I'm really enjoying being a producer, actually. It's something I've wanted to get

01:36into for quite some time. You know, but in the past, I've just been used to turning up

01:42to a gig, singing a few songs, disappearing home without a care in the world. But it's

01:48very different now. It's a completely different beast. I've literally done everything from

01:54programming exactly where we're going around the country, marketing the event, putting

02:00together the cast. I mean, I've been in the industry for 23 years now, so I've lots and

02:06lots of friends I've worked with in some of the biggest shows that I've called upon, all

02:10backed by a live band. Again, players that I know and some of the best players in the

02:15industry. You know, even booking people's hotels and travel. I mean, it's crazy.

02:23It's down to you, but presumably what it does give you is the ultimate creative, expressive

02:29freedom, doesn't it?

02:31Yeah, I, you know, the set list, for instance, is all me. And, you know, there's so many

02:39love songs from movies. My initial list, I probably had about 58 options to go for,

02:50but for a two hour show, you probably need about 28 songs maximum. And so trying to whittle

02:57that down was hard. But, you know, but knowing and being on stage, knowing that you've put

03:03everything together is a really sort of...

03:06And to still be doing this 23 years after Pop Idol to sustain that success, that's really

03:14quite something. And you're saying that, you know, it is work ethic, isn't it? You're a

03:19hard worker.

03:22Yeah, it's, you know, in this industry, you have to be hard working because it's tough

03:29at times, you know, and the nature of the industry, you know, there was years where

03:37X Factor would churn out another one of me and churn out another one of me.

03:41But where have they gone?

03:43Well, yeah, yeah. But you, you know, knowing that you constantly have to keep on trying

03:52to reinvent yourself, you know, in different, you know, I was a recording artist for many

03:58years and had a lot of success with that. You know, I then entered into musical theatre.

04:03I did Joseph for Andrew Lloyd Webber on the West End. I did Les Miserables for Cameron

04:08Mackintosh. You know, I've done lots of musical theatre shows. You know, now this new avenue

04:15of producing as well as being in shows as well is a new string to my bow. And I'm really,

04:22really loving it. And I think work ethic, but also trying to find sort of new things

04:29to keep it fresh, you know, I think seem important too.

04:34Well, it sounds fantastic too. Good luck with the whole thing.

04:37Really lovely to speak to you, Gareth. Thank you very much indeed.

04:42I appreciate it.

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