Playing Teen Angel in an immersive version of Grease will be some kind of cosmic karma for Ricky Wilson.
Back when he was a teenager at Leeds Grammar School, the future Kaiser Chiefs frontman was cast in a small part in the 50s-set musical.
"I had a minor role so this is my 'I will show you' vindication to the casting director at school," he says.
"I believe out of the entire cast of Grease in 1993 I am the only one who's gone on to become a professional singer.
"I had a message from an ex girlfriend in the cast who has still got the performance on VHS - I did have a guitar but I was just pretending to play it - it's the kind of clip that will turn up on the Graham Norton Show!"
Wilson is famed for his rock 'n' roll style stage leaps but he will be donning a glittery suit as Frenchy's heavenly mentor singing Beauty School Drop Out in Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical.
The show goes on around and in front of the audience who get to sit on the bleachers at Rydell High, ride the funfair, and eat hot dogs and milkshakes while watching a combination of live action and the original film.
"They have the film playing while we are rehearsing and I am surprised how much I know it," says Wilson.
"I have a big part but I'm on for a very small time and there is a modicum of acting which is good because I am a terrible actor - I am playing myself really.
"It's fun and I get a shiny hot costume to wear."
Wilson has lived in north London for two decades, ever since the indie pop band hit the big time in the mid-noughties. He bought his first flat - sight unseen - in Primrose Hill and has most recently settled in Crouch End.
Now happily married to wife Grace with four-year-old twins, he is "knocking on 50" and enjoys saying yes to fun projects like Grease in Battersea Park.
"I have got to a fortunate age when I'm asked 'would you like to do it?' there's no thought of 'is this the right thing to do?'
"It's more 'can I do it?' I am open to stuff and it's quite nice getting jobs. I have been asked to do a lot of musical theatre before, but it's too much commitment for eight shows a week when I still have a prominent front hustle."
That front hustle is the band who formed in Leeds in 2003 and was named after a South African football club Kaizer Chiefs in honour of legendary Leeds United player Lucas Radebe.
After playing numerous pub gigs and support slots they had their breakthrough debut album Employment in 2005 and have gone on to score hits such as I Predict a Riot, Every Day I Love You Less and Less, and Ruby.
He says the day job still involves getting together in the same Leeds rehearsal room where they started 30 years ago - and gigging all over.
"Leeds is great. It's like the friends you have in school where you don't talk for a bit but when you see them it's exactly the same - you slip so easily back into it.
"The people haven't changed a bit - they are brilliant and I still feel at home when I'm there.
"The band is a huge part of my life and lots of fun, we are a group of friends who are all quite miserable - but not on stage."
Asked if they have a rider to their contracts stipulating certain hospitality is laid on he says "no because we are quite tight and you only end up paying for it yourself".
He adds: "I am about to go to Spain with them. A few years ago we would have headed off on tour, a car would take you to the airport and you wouldn't even see your passport.
"Today I am getting the Tube and train to Luton on my own, it's so much quicker and easier."
Ricky Wilson plays Teen Angel in Grease The Immersive Musical from until September 13 in Evolution London, Battersea Park, Chelsea Bridge Gate, Queenstown Road, London SW11 4NJ.
www.greasetheimmersivemoviemusical.com
Share