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Starr ready for stage return

Angela Kelly
8/10/2008

FREDDIE Starr was getting himself back in shape in more ways than one in advance of his latest tour.

It’s an eight-venue run, taking him around the country and including what is bound to be a popular gig at Manchester’s Palace Theatre on November 3.

"It’s a ‘breaking in tour’," he explained in those fruity tones with more than a trace of his Liverpool roots.

"I’ve not worked for a year and I’ve been in hospital with my knee so it’s to get me back on the road fairly gently."

In fact, Freddie has had a really tough time in the past 12 months.

A serious cartilage problem led not only to surgery but also to a nasty infection which took more time in hospital and much pain.

"I was in a wheelchair for three months and couldn’t walk at all," he said.

"I wasn’t allowed to put any pressure on my knee even with crutches. I felt helpless and I hated putting people out like that."

Then an old back injury flared up, and both knee and back required Cortisone injections, which have helped put him back on his feet.

But, of course, if that rather sad saga sounds very unlike the livewire we’ve grown to both love and fear over his past five decades in showbusiness, then he suddenly says something sharply funny and follows it with a burst of manic laughter. Amazingly, Freddie is 65 now.

Because of the enforced inactivity, he said that he’s "put on about three stone so I’m now trying to diet and lose it."

But his image is solidly enshrined in the consciousness of his many fans as a zany comic, throwing himself about the stage and suddenly doing something outrageous.

So, does he think that at least some of his appeal is down to that uncertainty from the audience at a Freddie Starr appearance?

"Oh, absolutely," he agreed. "Well, I’m going on tour now and, although I’ve got some basic ideas about what I’ll be doing, even I don’t know properly until I’m there."

There is no doubting, however, that Freddie is not only a seasoned performer who knows his audience well but a hard working professional.

That may be down to a tough post-war upbringing, and the kind of personal determination that has seen him through hundreds of stage appearances in spite of often being in agony from that bad back.

He started in showbiz as a youngster in a Sixties pop group, stole the show with his gags and impressions and started entertaining in working men’s clubs before graduating to nightclubs.

It took 13 years before he even made it to the nightclub circuit, and he gets annoyed by the expectations of quick success by wannabes on shows like The X Factor.

To demonstrate his feelings, he gave me a complete scenario of some tone-deaf type doing an audition in front of Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and co.

"I just think that people’s expectations of stardom like that are ridiculous," he asserted. "I hate these reality shows, they’re just cheap TV. We’ve become a nation of voyeurs.

"Mind you," he added. "Cheryl Cole’s all right. I love Girls Aloud."

Freddie had his own real breakthrough in 1970 when he wowed the posh crowds at the Royal Variety Performance, becoming the only performer in 47 years to be allowed an encore.

Since then, he’s appeared in many of the north west’s biggest nightclubs, in cabaret and has been a regular on TV shows, his own and other people’s. His An Evening With …. show with a celebrity audience is still being repeated.

He is genuinely grateful to his fans and takes pride in the fact that the children and grandchildren of the audiences that saw him in their teens still seem to enjoy him.

His singing voice is in fine form, and an album which was planned for this year but shelved because of his knee problems is now back on track.

He was also approached by the BBC to do a sitcom, but the tour put that on the backburner. "Yeah, I wouldn’t mind doing that," said Freddie.

But, typically, apart from those plans and the tour dates, being Freddie Starr, anything could now happen.

Freddie Starr will be appearing at Manchester’s Palace Theatre on Monday November 3. For tickets call 0844 847 2275.