A lifetime ago I stood waiting for my first girlfriend to stop screaming at David Essex as he emerged from the stage door behind a theatre in Surrey. He was very much the man of the moment having just starred in the film Stardust, the follow up to That’ll Be The Day. The world at that point was his proverbial oyster.

Now, nearly 35 years later, I am driving my excited wife all the way from France to Dartford in Kent to see the same David Essex in his latest stage production. Some things simply don’t change. Well maybe some, such as the average age of the audience for example. What hasn’t changed however is the man’s charisma, his voice, stage presence, and his ability to put on a damn good show.

I must admit when his latest CD All The Fun Of The Fair arrived I didn’t know it was linked to the current stage show. It shouldn't, however, be confused with his original 1975 album of the same name which was released at the height of all the hysteria.

Stardust was in many ways the perfect vehicle for David Essex. There was, despite his impossibly good looks, pop chart success, and the army of screaming teenage girl fans; something almost rock and roll about him. The addition of bona fide rock stars such as Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Adam Faith, and Dave Edmunds to those films added even more weight to that theory.

My rock and roll theory is helped by the fact that David Essex wrote, often with Jeff Wayne of The War Of The Worlds fame, some unusual, often quirky, songs. “Lamplight” for example, wasn’t exactly a straight forward teenage fodder song. Also check out a lot of the subject matter on his 1976 album Out On The Street.

Mind you, by then he could have released a single containing bathroom noises and it would have sold. Yet David Essex never once fell into that trap. In a world where vast sums of money were being offered to him he insisted on maintaining artistic control. In hindsight this fact alone probably helped to keep him sane. 

It is hardly a new concept writing a musical around the songs of an artist. Mama Mia, and We Will Rock You spring to mind. However the writers of this one had the aforementioned 'interesting' material to draw from. The result is an absorbing and highly enjoyable production.

David Essex appears as Levi Lee the owner of a funfair. As the complex story of inter family relationships unfolds he performs many of his best hits. It comes complete with dodgem cars, carousel horses, and the wall of death ride. All The Fun Of The Fair indeed.