Will Scott talks to David Essex about his forthcoming concerts in Catford and Gravesend

What is it like performing at the Broadway Theatre, in Catford?

I've played at a few venues off the beaten track but the atmosphere at The Broadway is brilliant.

Rumour has it the last time you played The Broadway you had a TV hidden on stage so you could watch the football. Is that true?

It wasn't at Catford was it? Oh blimey, I know I did it at Southend. It must have been the World Cup last year then.

Which football team do you support?

West Ham. In fact, I started in football before music. As a boy I was on West Ham's books but then I took to music and dropped football. Ironically, my two 14-year-old boys are following the same pattern. They are at West Ham's academy and all of a sudden they have lost interest in football and have taken up music.

Your tour is called the Spring Fling, why is that?

It's because it is a short tour. I usually do about 50 or 60 dates.

What can fans expect at the gig?

I'll be featuring most of my hits, suck as Rock On and Hold me Close and some of the new stuff as well.

Has your style changed much over the years or is it still ballad-based pop?

It's never really been ballad-based pop. I know A Winter's Tale and a few other songs were but it's mainly been rock-based.

What do you write about these days?

All sorts of things. I've written musicals and film scores. The ideas keep coming. I wrote an album called Touching the Ghost and it's a bit like that really, intangible.

Was the show Godspell where you played Jesus, your first break in show business or did you do records first?

I started in a rhythm and blues band when I was 16 but it was under the influence of my manager that I got into the theatrical side of things. And working in different mediums is very satisfying. I was 21 when I did Godspell. There was an outrage when it first opened because certain people thought it was blasphemous. But there was a great cast with Jeremy Irons, Julie Covington and Marti Webb.

From there you did the film That'll be the Day, in 1973. What was that film about?

It was about what it was like for a working-class boy growing up in the 1950s and the influences America had on the youth at that time, particular music. The follow-up film, Stardust, dealt more with the British influence on youth culture because there was the emergence of the likes of Pete Townsend and John Lennon. The film was saying we could write music too. Stardust was a definitive rock film. It wasn't as much fun as That'll Be the Day because the subject matter was darker. My character became a drug addict, a recluse and committed suicide. A lot of the stuff I did in the film was mirroring stuff in real life, apart from the drugs and the suicide that is.

Adam Faith, who died last week, was in that film. Was he a friend?

I considered him a friend. In this business you don't see people very often but we were very close at the time of the film. It was a bad weekend for me actually because another friend of mine died, Barry Sheen. He was on the site of my film Silver Dream Racer, giving advice on the motorbike racing.

Why haven't you done more films never asked or never fancied the scripts offered?

A bit of both really. I would have had to move to Hollywood, Los Angeles or California and I didn't want to do that. I wasn't prepared to wait to have my sausages flown over and not being able to watch the Hammers didn't appeal to me. I like this country too much. I had a number one in America with Rock On and I didn't even go there. Anyway, I like doing concerts and touring.

It could be said that you were the Robbie Williams of your day. What was that like and when does the screaming-girls phenomena stop?

It was great and it is still animated now but in the early days it was a bit like Ben Hur. I had to climb over rooftops and down fire escapes. It's better now because you enter into a real relationship with the audience

Is the audience full of single parents still hoping for a snog?

You'll have to ask them.

Rock On was a favourite of John Lennon's I hear. Did you know him?

I met him for the first time when I lived in New York and was up for a Grammy. Autograph hunters were harassing me and this big black limo pulled up and he [Lennon] wound the window down and said: "Get in Dave." So off we went to the Grammy's together.

Who are your favourite artists?

Peter Gabriel has always been a favourite.

His early stuff or later work?

All of it, it's like football, you don't become a bad player over night. I also like world music.

What about the future? Will it be more of the same, shows and recording?

I've written all the songs for my new album, Sunset, and I just need to record it. I've given you an exclusive, nobody knew the name of it until now. After that I'll be taking it on tour in the autumn. And there is, of course, my autobiography, A Charmed Life, which was released in August and is to be released in paperback soon.

David Essex, Mar 24, Woodville Halls, Woodville Place, Gravesend, 8pm, £19.50/£17.50, 01474 337774.

Mar 25, Broadway Theatre, Catford Broadway, 7.30pm, £19.50/£17.50, 020 8690 0002.