Boogie Nights, Theatre Royal, Brighton, June 4 - 9 (From The Argus)

Boogie Nights, Theatre Royal, Brighton, June 4 - 9

9:28am Friday 1st June 2007

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"At first I was like, eurgh, I don't wanna wear flares," says Antony Costa. "Them and platform shoes. But, y'know, it's all right."

A former member of boy band Blue who re-emerged in 2006 with a lead role in Blood Brothers, Costa missed the Seventies by two years. But he reckons he's got a handle on the decade of disco thanks to repeats of Minder and The Sweeney on UK Gold and parents with a penchant for Kool And The Gang, Heatwave, and other old soulfunk tunes.

"I'm a person that likes a lot of music," he says. "I like anything from Elvis to Stereophonics. But Earth Wind And Fire are the best band that ever conquered this earth. That's my band.

They're proper musicians, it's about the music, and that's why they still live now. When their songs come on in a bar people have a smile on their faces, and that's what we like to get across when we do Boogie Nights."

Currently on its fifth UK tour, Boogie Nights was conceived ten years ago by Shane Ritchie as a musical take on his own rags to riches life story. It has even spawned an Eighties-set sequel - a theatrical first.

The original jukebox musical (more than 30 songs include We Are Family, Celebration, YMCA, I Will Survive, Play That Funky Music), it is the feelgood story of Roddy O'Neil, a young man desperate to make it as a pop star who will step on everything - including the girl he loves - to get to the top.

Costa leads the cast, with genuine Seventies survivor Alvin Stardust as Roddy's father.

"It ain't Shakespeare," says Costa.

"I ain't gonna say it's Macbeth or anything. It's a good, light-hearted show with a good little storyline underneath. Roddy cheats on his girlfriend, he doesn't realise his girlfriend's pregnant with his baby, that's lots of issues people can relate to."

Of course Costa, who sold 11 million records with Blue in his early 20s, was never ruthless in his ambition. "Me, I was professional," he says, "I listened to my management". But he nevertheless had his fair share of kiss and tell stories.

The vitriol of Jodie Marsh led to some particularly embarrassing gossip, while even Blue fans themselves took to identifying him as "the ugly one" in the line-up.

How did this feel?

"Aw, you've ruined my day now," he says, sounding genuinely hurt. "Nah, listen, I couldn't give a f***. People ain't got nothing to do, basically.

"We were in a little bubble for five years of our life in Blue. We didn't care what people said or thought or whatever.

"We knew what we were doing was right and people were buying records. If people are buying records the proof's in the pudding."

His former bandmate Simon Webbe played the Brighton Centre on Thursday. Would Costa swop places?

"I would go back, listen - I never say never. I'd love to go back if the time was right. But at the moment the boys are doing their own thing and I'm the happiest I've been in three years. I just hope the Brighton crowd are up for it."

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