A farewell to touring for 60s legend Mike D’Abo - Worthing date

It's just the slog of touring that Mike is leaving behind. In fact, he is currently working away at his 80th birthday album which he is hoping to bring out for next year.

“I love music and I will keep on gigging forever… for as long as I can! But touring is a different phenomenon.”

Mike, famously the front man for Manfred Mann after Paul Jones left, has already done his farewell tour with The Manfreds: “But if you are touring you're away from home for a long time and my first love is my music room. I'm much more interested in being in my music room than in slogging from Scunthorpe to John O'Groats. And I don't like not having a regular meal. You can't eat before the gig and then afterwards there is nothing, and there's no decent breakfast to be had when you're on the road. And there are all sorts of things that irritate me about touring. I just realised that I don't have to do it. I did the farewell tour with The Manfreds which was really great. That finished last year and now I'm doing these gigs and then that’s it, I think.”

And he certainly won’t miss all the hassles of travel and all the worries about whether he'll actually get to where he's going in time: “I have written my end piece which maybe they will use in the brochure but the fact is that I've got young children. I've got children that are 17 and still at school. I've got older children as well obviously.”

And it is a question of priorities: “I am recording my 80th birthday album and it will be finished in 2025. And if I can get on radio with it and if there is enough interest generated and if someone offers me a tour on my terms then, yes, maybe I will be seduced and will tour again. But the fact is I don't want to be limited to being the guy singing 60s songs. I'm writing songs in 2024. I'd love to be on Jools Holland or something like that. But I know that's a long shot.”

But absolutely Mike accepts that you have to respect your back catalogue: “I remember Paul Jones saying to me ‘Mike, you have got to learn to love your hits.’ And I do still sing Ha Ha Said The Clown, but that’s not something I would really want to be doing still. But the fact is it would be mistreating your audience you didn't play songs like that and there are lots of songs that I'm very proud of.”

As for the 80th birthday, which he celebrated on the very same day as Roger Daltrey, Mike is focusing on the album for his celebration: “And I want to produce an album that I am really proud of. Everything I've done recording-wise has been a slight disappointment. I've done a number of albums and maybe a couple weren't very good but the best album is the album that I did with Mike Smith (lead singer/organ player in The Dave Clark Five), the album Smith & D'Abo. That's an album that I'm really, really proud of.”

And that’s where he's hoping to pitch the 80th birthday album.

The Worthing (Pavilion Theatre, Saturday, November 2) night features Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, The Fortunes, Mike D’Abo, Steve Ellis and Vanity Fare.