Soap star turned singer Jason Donovan has spent the better part of the 30 years in showbusiness.

Starting his rise to fame as one of the stars of hit Australian soap Neighbours, Donovan has turned his hand to a pop career, musicals, and leading roles in stages plays.

Now, some 27 years since the release of his debut album Ten Good Reasons, the 47-year-old is going on tour again with a special production performing his first record in full every night.

With a life in the charts and on the stage, Henry Holloway talks to Jason Donovan about his new tour and three decades of fame.

The Guide: Why have you decided now to perform Ten Good Reasons in full now?

Jason Donovan: It is one of those records which has become iconic of the time and it was the best selling record of 1989.

There seems to be a sort of market, and a love of all things eighties at the moment.

I have not toured since 2008 so now seemed about right and it is good to be here again.

As it has been eight years since your last tour, do you have any initial nerves or stage rust?

Not at all, I feel pretty match fit actually.

I have been doing a lot of theatre over the years so I am certainly not apprehensive about audiences, and so far the tour has been very successful.

How have you prepared yourself for going back to the full live show experience as compared to stage roles?

There is a different skill.

Getting up on stage is all about confidence and it's a bit different trying to sing two hours of songs back to back – doing that requires a lot of stamina.

But then it's different disciplines, when I am doing theatre you can do eight shows a week and that is very taxing.

Going out on stage has its own skills attached to it when it is just you and you are the sole focus, you need to be on your game.

You are a veteran of the industry now. Do you enjoy stepping out on stage as much as when you first started out?

Yeah, as long as you do not come down with too many colds which unfortunately at the moment is what is affecting me.

There is a lot of that going around at the moment.

Do you ever get any butterflies anymore or is now just second nature to you?

There are always anxieties still, but itt is why we do it, it is all about getting out on stage

You just hope things all go right., but that does not always happen.

Have you ever had something go wrong on the current tour?

We do live work because no shows are ever perfect and some shows are better than others. That is why we enjoy working live.

But I have say, so far, touch wood, everything has gone pretty smoothly with this tour.

Having been away from touring your music so long, what has the response been like?

The response to the tour has been totally overwhelming.

I have been shocked and humbled by the speed at which these shows sold out.

You said there seems to be a ‘market’ for all things eighties at the moment, so why do you think that is?

I think it was a very explosive time in popular culture.

The thing with it was the eighties it did not take itself too seriously and it was also very celebratory.

It was the invention of music television, you had computers, and people began to have much more access.

Also you had the characters you had around in the eighties have become iconic and I think that is because multimedia started to happen and we started to visualise things in a creative way.

It has been 27 years since Ten Good Reasons came out, so when you compare the person you are now to who you were then, do you see a big difference?

I have certainly experienced a lot more.

I think creatively I am in a different place and you know I see my talents, my singing ability and creative abilities, have certainly developed and I am more experienced.

But that does not detract from for the fact that record was of its time and of its place and people loved it.

People bought it by the truck loads and it seems to have a really special place in a lot of people’s memories.

That is because music puts you in a time and a place like no other medium.

With my audience they remember songs like Too Many Broken Hearts and it takes them back to their youth I suppose.

What are the major differences between the music industry now and when you started out?

I am not really in the music industry so I do not think I really says what they do differently or does not do differently.

But what I do know is that good songs, great writers great performers and great talent will always shine through.

The distribution aspect of how we do things will change but the talent will always rise to the top.

The best will always shine through with great songs and great music.

The last time you were in Brighton was for Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds as the preacher. Was that a good experience?

It was a great experience, they were great people to work for and it was a great show.

I have done that three times now and the show has now gone to the West End.

I love Brighton. It is a great town and you can have a lot of fun there.

I cannot wait to be back.

You received a lot of plaudits for when you played speech therapist Lionel Logue in the King’s Speech. Do you enjoy those sorts of stage roles?

I would love to do more of those kid kind but I like to mix it up.

I am multifaceted and hopefully people to see me as multi talented so I am lucky to be able to do lots of different things. So long may that continue.

Anything lined up in the future?

Right now I am focusing on the tour, I have got festival dates over the summer and a couple of things in the pipeline for the autumn but nothing is set in stone at this point.

JASON DONOVAN

Brighton Centre, King’s Road, Wednesday, March 23

Doors 7pm, Tickets from £28.50

Call 0844 847 1515