In the world I inhabit, every week is very different. Some weeks its football or rugby, other weeks its radio or concerts. Last Sunday it was Butlins in Bognor Regis! I had been to Bognor many years ago but at the time I think I was living in London, so it seemed like a bit of a trek but manageable. Trying to get there from Swansea last weekend was a challenge to say the least. Having said that I had a terrific travelling companion so the 4 hours there and 4 hours back really did fly.
The email invitation from legendary DJ and TV Presenter Mike Read came a couple of weeks ago inviting me to be a part of his Heritage Chart Christmas Special 2024.
Filming for the Heritage Chart with Mike Read in Brighton.
Mike is one of the hardest working people I know. He presents a daily breakfast radio show and organises the Heritage Chart as a radio and TV show. He also manages to find time to record his own music and present numerous shows on the Talking Pictures TV Channel.
If I’m honest the renaissance I have experienced in my career over the past few years is in large part down to Mike and his encouragement to produce new music. Mike recognised that lots of artists of a certain age were finding it difficult to get their new music played on Radio and TV. Their old hits were on regular rotation on the ‘Greatest Hits’ stations but trying to get their new music heard was often met with a locked door.
Mike set up the Heritage Chart where listeners to his radio programmes were encouraged to vote for the new records being released by ‘Heritage Artists’. That has now led to a ‘Heritage Chart Radio’ Station and a weekly TV show which is syndicated all around the world.
The first I heard about the chart was when I got an email telling me that my Christmas duet with Steve Balsamo of the Christmas Carol ‘Little Town of Bethlehem’ was in the Heritage Chart top 30. Since then Mike has supported almost every release and broadcast the videos we have produced on his weekly Heritage Chart TV Show.
Now for many broadcasters an MTV style weekly show based around videos supplied by the artists and record companies might be enough, especially with a breakfast show and so many other TV commitments… but not Mike. He has now gone one step further and started producing ‘Top of the Pops’ style TV specials filmed in front of a live audience.
His 4th Anniversary Heritage Chart Show Special featured performances from the likes of Limahl who performed the song that featured as the first No 1 in the Heritage Chart all those years ago. Other artists included Owen Paul performing’ ‘My Favourite Waste of Time’, Peter Cox the voice of Go West and Paul Young. There were also messages of good wishes from Micky Dolenz from the Monkees, Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet, Dean Friedman and Cliff Richard.
Having seen that show I hoped that one day I would also be a part of one of Mike’s special shows. When the invitation came it seemed fitting that Mike actually wanted me to perform my first song that appeared in the Heritage Chart, that duet with Steve Balsamo.
Driving to Bognor from London all those years ago was a day trip but it was only when I put the address into the sat nav that I realised the journey from Swansea was going to take the best part of 4 hours. I have done so many of these types of journeys for a radio interview or maybe a guest slot on someone else’s show and my usual companion is my radio. This time I had the perfect travel mate, Steve Balsamo.
I’ve known Steve from the early days when he started to break into the music business with auditions for the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman. Many people will know about his time in the West End in the title role of the show ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’. If that was it then it would be a wonderful career but its only when you spend time and start swapping stories that you start to get an insight into the amazing career Steve has had so far.
Even before his West End Days Steve had already opened The Prince’s Trust Master of Music Concert at Hyde Park in 1996 in front of 150,000 people. If you look online you’ll find a picture featuring the stars of that show showing Steve stood next to the likes Stephen Fry, The Who, King Charles and Bob Dylan.
Backstage at the Heritage Chart Christmas TV Show with Mike Read.
Refusing to be type cast as a West End star only Steve made the brave decision to leave the world of musical theatre and concentrate on his own music. Since then he has written songs for some of the biggest names in music, formed the band ‘The Story’s with some old friends from Swansea and toured the world with the late Jon Lord, keyboard player with Deep Purple.
Touring the world can sound very exciting but to be honest after a while it can became mundane, boring and extremely tiring. But what it does bring is lots of stories… and Steve has plenty of truly amazing stories. Now I thought I could name drop but Steve wins hands down. We had 4 hours there and 4 hours back and I think we only scraped the surface… and this weekend only added to those stories.
Mal and Steve with Limahl and Daniel James.
We arrived at Butlins in Bognor Regis early Sunday afternoon and we were ushered into a holding room. In the corner there was a make-up artist working on the new members of The Fizz. In another corner there was a kettle ready to keep the endless cups of tea coming and in the middle of the room was a little fella we immediately recognised as Limahl.
The thing about a community like the Heritage Chart Artists is that you feel as if you know the other people who feature on the show. This became apparent to me a few weeks ago where I actually met fellow Heritage Artist Owen Paul for the first time when he walked onto the stage of the Swansea Arena for his soundcheck for my Golden Jubilee Show. Owen had sent a twitter message saying he would like to be a guest. I replied inviting him and there he was in Swansea singing ‘My Favourite Waste of Time’ with my band the Jacks.
So it was with Limahl. He recognised me and immediately reached for his phone to show me how he had added my tracks to his Spotify playlist. After that we met with Rozalla and The Fizz amongst others before chatting to Mike Read and then performing our song to a packed audience at Studio 36 Stage.
(Photo courtesy of Limahl)
With that we were done and heading West for another 4 hours of stories and laughing. Usually those long journeys are a battle to stay awake but with Steve in the car the time flew.
I’ve got a feeling some of these new friends might very well become part of our future as well as being a part of so many people’s past.