“I was very keen to be a rock star": Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson talks ahead of Midlands and Shropshire shows
There’ll be a sense of coming full circle for former Home Secretary Alan Johnson when he starts his UK tour with a gig at Much Wenlock.
Johnson is on the road until the summer – also calling at Shrewsbury Walker Theatre on June 6 – and is looking forward to it.
For before starting his career as a postman, union leader and politician, he spent his time in bands and was hopeful of making the big time.
“I’ve never really been on tour. But I’ve done book festivals and if you stick a series of book festivals together you can call it a tour. Books will be the main topic of conversation when I do these dates and I’ll be talking about music as well, because my latest book is a music memoir," he told us.
“But people can talk about anything. It’s the nearest thing I do to being a rock star. We might get some t-shirts done with all the venues on the back.
“I was very keen to be a rock star. In my teens, I played with two really good bands in London and I never lost the bug. In the end both bands suffered from a crime wave, we had our gear nicked. So I became a postman, because I was getting married, and that was me for the next 25 years.”
Alan Johnson served in the Blair and Brown Governments as Work and Pensions Secretary, Trade and Industry Secretary, Education Secretary, Health Secretary and Home Secretary.
Having left school aged 15 and failed in his attempts to become a rock star, he joined the Post Office as a postman and became a local official of the Union Of Post Office Workers rising through the ranks to eventually become the union’s youngest ever general secretary in 1992.
Five years later he became the Member of Parliament for Hull West and Hessle, a position he held through five general elections, standing down when the 2017 election was called.
After leaving Westminster, he devoted himself full time to his burgeoning career as an author and he has now written four volumes of memoir. His award-winning books recount the experience of his life in the slums of Kensington during the post-war 50s through to reaching one of the highest offices of State.
Music has always been a big part of his life and he’ll be talking about that on the tour.
“The passion and love for music has been with me throughout my life. The big events in most people’s lives are marked by music," he said.
"That’s why music is so evocative. It has the power to bring back a memory. It has the power to transport people away from whatever worries and conditions they have.
"I can’t imagine a life without music. I love Springsteen, I love Super Furry Animals and today I love an American guy, John Grant. I also love The 1975 and Everything Everything. I keep listening to new music.
“Arctic Monkeys have transported themselves from being a basic rock band to something incredible. I think if you just sit there playing your Dire Straits’ greatest hits you’re going to miss out on fantastic music that’s happening now.
"When people ask me what’s the best era for pop music, I say now. You have that fabulous back catalogue stuff but you’ve also got new artists taking things forward.”
Johnson’s show at Much Wenlock’s Edge Arts Centre will take place on February 1 and be followed by an appearance the following day at Wolverhampton Literary Festival.
There’ll be much talk of music during those shows.
“There’ll be a lot of concentration on music and the birth of rock’n’roll. But we always have questions for the audience and they will ask me questions on all kinds of things.
"I’m not deliberately stitching my political career into the show so anyone who finds politics boring needn’t worry.”
