‘Suddenly the 80s (and I) are both back!’: Gary Davies is riding a fresh wave | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV

Throughout the 1980s, Gary Davies was one of the most recognisable faces in music. With his broad grin and long mullet hairstyle, the Radio 1 DJ presented Top Of The Pops on BBC1 more than any other host that decade.

Alongside Radio 1 peers including Peter Powell, Simon Bates and Steve Wright, Davies helped the station draw 24 million listeners every week, while Top Of The Pops routinely had audiences of 12 million. He had his catchphrase “Woo, Gary Davies!” shouted at him whenever he left the house.

But by 1993, 11 years after first joining Radio 1 from his local Manchester station Piccadilly, Davies was viewed as being as naff as the decade that launched him.

With grunge and Britpop taking over music, Davies was axed by Radio 1 – and he promptly quit the limelight for 20 years.

Choosing to work behind the scenes in the music industry instead, as a talent spotter for both musicians and songwriters, Davies was happy to leave fame behind.

But after a one-off offer to deputise for Radio 2 DJ Sara Cox’s show Sounds Of The 80s celebrating 1980s music, Davies was back – and now he’s even taking his Radio 2 show on tour, playing to 2,000 delirious retro clubbers every night.

“I can’t say that I appreciate being on the radio even more now,” insists the easygoing reborn star. “I always did appreciate what ­I had, because I knew I was a very lucky ­boy to do what I love. Not many people can say that.

“I’m forever grateful that I seemed to have an affinity with the Radio 1 audience, and I still am today for the people who listen on Radio 2. I knew from the start, it doesn’t matter how good a DJ you are, if you start p***ing people off, you’re on the way out.”

Although his hair is shorter now, Davies’ smile is still the same, that of a man who knows life is sweet. It’s no wonder he ­
still gets recognised, despite only going back to presenting Sounds Of The 80s on Radio 2 on Saturday nights since permanently replacing Cox in 2018.

“I still get ‘Woo, Gary Davies!’ shouted at me a lot,” chuckles Davies, 65, who helped launch the careers of Simple Minds, Pet Shop Boys and Tears For Fears at Radio 1.

“I think it’s great. Some people are a bit embarrassed when they say it to me, thinking I’ll be offended. But it’s flattering, like being a singer having their hit sung at them. It was harder in the ’80s, because ‘Woo, Gary Davies!’ just happened all the time. If it happened in the supermarket, people would look around and stare at me.

“Inevitably, someone would come up ­ and demand, ‘Who are you, then?’ That could be embarrassing, but now? I love it. Bring it on.”

After leaving Radio 1, Davies decided to quit radio altogether. He hosted occasional shows for Virgin and Century, but “only as a hobby”. Instead, ­­ he launched Good Groove, a publishing company which paired songwriters with musicians seeking potential hit songs.

“It took me five years before I had any success,” admits Davies.

“I put pretty much everything I’d ever earned from Radio 1 into the business, and I nearly financially spiralled. Then our song Black Coffee was recorded by All Saints.”

The girlband phenomenon had a No 1 in the UK and throughout Europe with the song in 2000. As Davies notes: “They basically saved my a**e.”

Good Groove soon placed more hits with the likes of Kylie Minogue and Celine Dion, while Davies also discovered Leeds soul singer Corinne Bailey Rae, whose 2006 chart-topping self-titled debut album ­was nominated for a string of Brits, Grammys and the Mercury Music Prize. Being asked ­ to guest host for Sara Cox on Radio 2 as a one-off in 2017 was “very scary”, Davies reveals, adding: “I thought: ‘I don’t know if I can even still do it’.”

But he was such a hit that he was the ­obvious choice to replace Cox when ­ she moved to a daily morning show the ­following year. “In my 20-something years of being away, I’d never missed being a DJ,” Davies insists.

“But as soon as I went back, I loved it. Radio is still an incredible intimate medium. It’s still your friend – I always imagine I’m speaking to one person. When a listener texts in, I have a picture of them in my head.” What has changed, Davies volunteers, is political correctness.

On his 1980s Radio 1 lunchtime show, a regular guess-the-song game had rejoiced in the smutty name of Willy On The Plonker. “I can’t say half ­ the things I used to say on air in the 80s,” he acknowledges. “No, I couldn’t have a ­segment called Willy On The Plonker now. But the 80s was my time and times have changed. It’s as it should be now.”

It’s that level-headed attitude that helped Davies survive for so long at Radio 1, ­initially on a three-month contract in 1982 for just £60 a week.

“From the moment I joined Radio 1, I knew it could end at any second,” he shrugs. Davies was 36 when he was axed. “The closer you get to 40, you know your days are numbered. And that’s fine.

“I would have gone on, and my audience figures were as big as they’d ever been. But I have no bitterness, only amazing memories of 11 fantastic years.” He thoroughly enjoyed presenting Top Of The Pops too, but only after a disastrous debut just three months after joining Radio 1.

The next day, Davies’ agent phoned to say that Top Of The Pops producer Michael Hurll thought the newcomer was so bad that he was unlikely to host the show ever again.

“I thought that was my dream over,” Davies admits.

“But a couple of months later, I was ­back on. I was still rubbish, but I’d watch myself back and think: ‘Stop doing that, ­
and that.’ After about five shows, I knew what I was doing.”

Davies’ other catchphrase at Radio 1 was “Young, free and ­single”. It arose after Radio 1 exec Doreen Davies (no relation) learned that the ­then-new DJ was living in his sister’s spare room. She advised Davies to share his ­personal life with listeners.

The broadcaster recalls: “After my ­conversation with Doreen, I came up with a dating ad style monologue: ‘Gary Davies here: Radio 1, 5ft 10, dark brown hair, hazel eyes, smooth, suave and sophisticated.’ I was just messing around. Then the hit Young, Free And Single by Sunfire came out. I added that line in and it really caught on with the listeners.”

Did Davies actually live a young, free and single lifestyle?

“Oh, of course I did,” he smiles. “I ­ mean, why wouldn’t you? I had the best job in ­the world. Let’s just say it was an incredible time.” He eventually settled down, ­marrying Lisa Tchenguiz in 1990. They divorced after 11 years, and he’s now ­happily married to second wife Joongjai Bhumichitr after they met through mutual friends five years ago.

Details of the couple are hard to find online, but Davies explains: “There are ­pictures of me and JJ together on Instagram. I certainly don’t hide my private life, but I only post about it on Instagram when I feel it’s relevant.

“Social media is important, as it’s a ­ great way to communicate. I’m just not one of those people who wants to post about my life five times a day.” To complete his ­happiness, Davies is going back to his ­ roots by DJing live, taking Sounds Of ­ The 80s on tour.

It recreates the Radio 2 two-hour show, adding a troupe of dancers, dubbed Gary’s Gang, performing to ­80s classics. Eighties icons including Five Star, Altered Images and T’Pau have also appeared live at ­previous shows.

As a child, Davies’ cousins Jack and Ivor Abadi ran influential Manchester club The Twisted Wheel, where he saw Rod Stewart and Wilson Pickett perform.

It evolved into the club Placemate, where Davies played his first DJ gigs, leading to his job on Piccadilly Radio. Nearly 50 years on, Davies is back DJing to eager clubbers.

“Everyone in the audience has a seated ticket,” enthuses Davies.

“But from the very first song, no-one is sat down. When I left Radio 1, there was a backlash against the 80s. It wasn’t cool.

“Since then, everything has reversed ­ and people see that the 80s was a remarkable decade. I’m lucky to have been part of it. And now I get to love it every day.”

With that, there’s another trademark broad Gary Davies grin.

All that’s missing is the mullet.

• The Sounds Of The 80s Live tour starts on February 23. For more information and tickets, visit soundsofthe80slive.co.uk Sounds Of The 80s with Gary Davies is on Saturdays 8pm to 10pm on BBC Radio 2 and also via BBC Sounds