80's icon Paul Young coming to Weymouth with Essential 80's tour

He'll be taking to the stage with T'Pau and Hue & Cry

Author: Maria GreenwoodPublished 7th Feb 2022

It was the decade of big hair, MTV and gave rise to some of our best loved pop stars - like Paul Young.

The 80's icon has been speaking to Greatest Hits Radio Dorset about the Essential 80's Tour coming to Weymouth in September, which also features T'Pau and Hue and Cry.

80’s heart throb Paul Young, shot to fame with his much loved album No Parlez’ followed by a steam of top 10 hits such as Wherever I Lay My Hat, which hit the number 1 slot in 1983 Love of The Common People, Everytime You Go Away’ & Everything Must Change.

He is also a Brit Award winner for Best Male vocalist, sings the opening lines on the original Band Aid Single Feed The World and performed at Live Aid in 1984.

Paul told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset:

"The opening line of every song is really important. They obviously sat down and went we'll get this person to do that and that person to do that and we'll leave the first line until we've done the rest and then we'll make up our minds on who should sing it. And they couldn't make up their minds so they tried 3 or 4 people, and I won!"

Paul told us why he thinks the 80's was such a unique era for music.

"Drum machines and synthesisers were making the music sound very different, and yet you still had artists coming out of the punk era. You got Dire Straits which were quite traditional, Robert Palmer, me, everyone had a different sound."

"Musically it was like anything goes. Even though there was still a lot of poverty and things like that, people saw music as a way out, so it was a very exciting place. Also the clubs like Blitz and things like that. And it was mixing with fashion as well, they were fusing into one."

And he had this message for his Dorset fans, "I bet you haven't got your puff balls skirts but get your glad rags on and come on down!"

Well known as a loyal & loving family man Paul is also a keen chef, biker and fan of all things Mexicana!

T'Pau

Carol Decker of T’Pau, broke hearts with her powerful vocals on huge hits such as China in Your Hands (Number 1 for 5 weeks in the Official Uk Top 40) and the uniquely arranged Heart and Soul their debut single that reached number 4 . The flame haired songstress became a teen icon in the 80’s. Their 1987 album Bridge of Spies is as synonymous with the 80’s as Carol’s trend setting pineapple hair do!

Hue & Cry

Scottish duo Hue & Cry were a force majeure with their high energy hit Labour Of Love. The band consistently skirted around the top 20 throughout the 80s, their seminal Hue and Cry album Rote, was released to not only huge acclaim but to multi-platinum success, spawning the singles ‘Ordinary Angel’, ‘Violently’ and ‘Looking for Linda’.

The Essential 80's comes to Weymouth Pavilion on Friday 30 September and Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre on 5 October.

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Greatest Hits Radio app.