'I've always thought that music is magic': Jason Donovan talks ahead of Birmingham show
Jason Donovan was right back in 1989 when he sang that there were 'too many broken hearts in the world', but the Australian superstar will be doing his very best to mend more than a few as he heads out on a brand new tour for autumn 2020.
To mark the 30th anniversary of his hugely successful debut album Ten Good Reasons, Jason is now back with the Even More Reasons Tour, featuring a date at Birmingham Symphony Hall.
“The EMGR tour is a real opportunity to make people feel good. You can't beat a live band, and the interaction with an audience" The 51-year-old star said.
"I like to create a show which is not just about singing songs, I like people to come into my world through the music, the stories the visuals and feel they’ve got to know me a little more personally.
"The music becomes a sentence in which my life is the complete story. My shows are almost autobiographical in a way.”
After years of successful touring the country in huge productions like Priscilla, Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, and with a triumphant return to Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in London’s West End this summer under his belt, Jason feels the time is right to get back to basics and return to straight-up performing, with the spotlight on his stellar back catalogue – just him and the audience.
After his surprise appearance with his pal Kylie Minogue at her Hyde Park gig last summer, duetting once more on their million-selling collaboration Especially For You, the reception was off the scale.
Even More Good Reasons will be the first time in four years he’s performed his own material to a live audience.
“From my Doin' Fine tour in 1990 to Ten Good Reasons in 2016 and throughout my musical stage career, performing live has been a pivotal part of my professional growth," Jason said.
"I get such a rush, and energy from a live audience - it’s like a drug - it’s something that inspires me and even today, sometimes scares me.
"The anxiety before going onstage is palpable and it’s this energy alone that is almost addictive in a way and keeps me coming back for more.”
For Jason, nothing is more important than his fans – they have been with him since the beginning, through all the highs and lows.
Jason also recognises that we live in nostalgic times – vintage hits and videos are now freely available for anyone to find online, which has helped not only to keep him in the hearts and minds of loyal, long-standing fans, but introduce him to new generations too, especially after his appearance on BBC One’s Saturday night ratings juggernaut, Strictly Come Dancing.
In a time where celebrity status is slightly easier to attain thanks to reality TV and the growth of YouTube stars, it may be hard to comprehend the scale of Jason’s fame in the late 1980s and early 90s.
Thanks to his role as Scott Robinson in Australian daytime soap Neighbours, Jason Donovan was a regular fixture in millions of British homes, twice a day, five days a week.
His character’s on-screen romance with Charlene, played by Kylie Minogue – not to mention rumours that the pair were just as close once the cameras stopped rolling – meant Jason was soon a pinup for many teenagers.
Kylie and Jason’s fictional wedding as Scott and Charlene was watched by over 19 million viewers in the UK. Once Kylie departed the soap for her burgeoning singing career, it was only a matter of time before the talented Jason would also flex his vocal cords and head to the UK to work with the era-defining producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
Starting out with top five smash Nothing Can Divide Us, this was followed by the duet everyone was waiting for - Especially For You, with Kylie. The devoted duo were beaten to Christmas number one by Cliff Richard, but Especially For You did become the first chart-topper of 1989, staying there for three weeks and giving Jason his first number one single.
“Following on from the success of Neighbours, I was lucky that I had my first musical success during an era when pop music was so alive," Jason commented.
"Mullets, double denim and Jive Bunny aside, I was and am a massive fan of the 80s.
"I look back at those times with such affection and sometimes have to pinch myself to think that, I was able to play a massive part of forming popular culture at the time.
"I’ve always said, you never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
"To be able to relive these moments through music is an incredible gift.”
Three more chart-topping songs would follow, including the iconic Too Many Broken Hearts, and Jason’s emotional cover of Sealed With A Kiss, which went straight in at number one.
Jason’s fourth stint at the top of the Official Singles Chart came in 1991, amid his record-breaking run in the lead role of a revived Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, spending two weeks there with Any Dream Will Do.
His debut album Ten Good Reasons spent a month at number one and was the biggest selling album of the year in 1989, shifting 1.5 million copies.
Jason’s stage career has also taken in some bona fide blockbusters. Following his popular turn in Joseph in the early 90s, Jason has gone on to star in the likes of The Rocky Horror Show, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Priscilla, The Sound of Music, Annie Get Your Gun, The King’s Speech, Million Dollar Quartet and Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds. He also performed at Concert For Diana in 2007.
While his soap days may be long behind him, Jason has been a strong presence on TV.
He was a finalist in I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here’, he traced his Australian ancestors in an emotional episode of Who Do You Think You Are, and tangoed his way to third place in the 2011 series of Strictly Come Dancing.
During 2018 and 2019, Jason went introspective and travelled the UK with his Amazing Midlife Crisis Tour, completing 125 shows including a sold out week at the Edinburgh Fringe, exploring the perils and pitfalls of fame and learning once more to love his famous 80s blond mullet hairstyle.
More recently, Jason worked on his first theatre producing project, a new production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He also recently completed filming Dial M For Middlesbrough with Johnny Vegas, Sian Gibson and Joanna Page.
"Having not done my own live shows for a while I can’t wait to get out there again amongst my fans and deliver a new energetic show that is both personal, creative and reflective, something that is both nostalgic and just a bloody good night of out.
"I’ve always thought that music is magic. There is nothing like that emotional connection of delivering a song on stage and watching an audience respond to that moment.”
Jason Donovan comes to Birmingham Symphony Hall on November 24, 2020.
For more information and to buy tickets, click here.
