David Essex

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 20:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty eight, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:26

There can be few people who have been asked to play Jesus Christ, Lord Byron, and Che Guevara during their stage careers. My Castaway this week is perhaps the only one.

Presenter0:37

He's the sort of man for whom desert islands were made, eternally youthful in looks and always romantic in approach. He's written and sung a hundred and sixty songs, many of them hits, and sung and acted his way through several musicals, including his own.

Presenter0:52

But Stardom cannot disguise the fact that he is the London lad with the husky voice and the twinkling eyes. He is David Essex. Welcome to the Castaways Couch.

David Essex1:02

Thank you.

Presenter1:02

Has the voice always been husky?

David Essex1:05

I think it probably has. It wasn't really helped because I I I decided when I was about ten to uh buy this packet of it used to be called Weights. I don't know if they still exist.

David Essex1:16

and smoked em all very quickly, and then was uh felt really sick on a railway bridge in Canning Town.

David Essex1:22

And but I think it was probably singing the blues, um, a little bit later that that permanently wrecked the voice, yes.

Presenter1:29

I don't know about that. It's been a rather successful wrecked voice, if that's the case.

Presenter1:34

What about the looks? Have they always been boyish?

David Essex1:37

There was a time when um my mum used to take me into shops and and they'd say, And what does a little girl want?'Cause I had these big long eyelashes and all my mates' big sisters always said, Oh, and he got lovely eyelashes and my mum caught me in the bathroom once with a pair of scissors, just about to cut em off.

David Essex1:54

So I hated that, of course.

Presenter1:56

I see now um when people write about you they talk about the evergreen David Essex, and they start talking about the the few grey hairs around the temples or or the ears. Do you mind age?

David Essex2:08

No, I'm I'm I'm happier now, I think. I'm just coming up to forty one than than I've ever been because

David Essex2:14

So much was happening in the seventies I I wasn't really able to take stock of anything.

David Essex2:20

And uh I I feel a lot fitter now than I have for a few years. I play a lot of sport and so on.

David Essex2:26

And through through age, of course, comes experience and a certain amount of objectivity, I think, about about what you're doing.

Presenter2:33

The island, David, are you looking forward to being cast away?

David Essex2:36

Really am, yeah.

Presenter2:37

Very good.

David Essex2:38

I wish we were there now.

Presenter2:40

No, I'm not coming.

David Essex2:41

You're not coming. No, you're all back. Not so much then.

Presenter2:46

Let's have the first of your records.

David Essex2:49

Right. Well this uh this is a a tune I first sang in school, I vow to thee, my country and then I found out later it came from the Planet Suite, which I'm very fond of.

David Essex3:01

The whole scrope and it's the Jupiter, the good bit.

Presenter4:07

JUPITER FROM HOLST SUETE THE PLANETS, played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir George Schulte there and conducted by David Essex here.

Presenter4:17

They were born and bred in the East End, whereabouts.

David Essex4:20

Well, I was born in a place called well, we call it Plasto, but I remember there was uh an unfortunate murder there at one time in a park, a policeman got murdered, which was terrible.

David Essex4:29

And it came on the news that uh this policeman had been murdered in Playstow and I said to my mum, where's that? She said, Plasto.

David Essex4:36

uh which is in West Ham.

Presenter4:38

What did your mum and dad do?

David Essex4:40

Well, my dad worked in the dock because most people did there, um, in the vit in the role group of docks, which I don't really exist now.

David Essex4:48

Um and my mum used to do a little bit of cleaning and and play piano in a pub.

Presenter4:54

And what sort of thing did your mother sing in the pub?

David Essex4:57

Oh, um who's sorry now Right to the end

David Essex5:02

You know, stuff like that.

Presenter5:04

They must have been tickle pink when you made it big.

David Essex5:07

I think they were confused really.

David Essex5:10

I must say if it wasn't for for my dad especially and and you see I I decided I wanted to be a drummer and in a council flat that can be tricky.

David Essex5:20

because of the noise element and uh my dad stood by

David Essex5:24

my ambition and my decision against all the odds which basically were were the neighbours.

Presenter5:30

You were quite a little trader, weren't you? I mean, working on on market stalls and things.

David Essex5:34

Yeah, I used to I used to there w Rathbone Market, which is um i in Canning Town there.

David Essex5:41

I used to um work down there sometimes after school and sometimes at the weekend. I started off y on a fruit stall which wasn't really big fun and and then managed to graduate to a a record store where you had those big seventy eight records, you know. They had a marvellous smell and

David Essex5:59

and labels and exotic names and

David Essex6:02

And that that was brilliant.

Presenter6:03

Then you became a bit of a step toe and started selling scrap.

David Essex6:07

Yeah, I got got a job with a man uh who had a awesome car who would go round and and shout something. I never knew what it was. It was like, Oh, yeah, young burr.

David Essex6:16

But people seemed to know what he meant and they'd come out and they'd give him woollens,'cause woollens were in demand, and he'd give him the odd coldfish. It was uh

David Essex6:25

It was a great education and and the the horse. The only thing that went wrong is that it was just at the end of the time when um

David Essex6:32

Milkman had horses and uh apparently our horse took a shine to a a Milkman's horse in a cul de sac. And that that that took a th logistically that was tricky.

David Essex6:45

But apart from that, it was it was all really good experience.

Presenter6:48

Another record, please.

David Essex6:51

Right, well this I suppose really epitomizes the the East End for me because the East End, you know, lots of people say, Oh, you know, poor background and all the rest of it, but it w it w it was paradise for me when I was a little boy. And um Flannagan and Allen is a is a record I've chosen.

David Essex7:07

And for me it sums up the East End and that kind of quality and feeling when I when I was very young, and it's called Down Forget Me Not Lane.

Speaker 37:25

Rain it is the wondering leaf.

Speaker 37:29

There's a rainbow that I can see.

Speaker 37:34

And he's waiting for me, Don't Forget me Not Land.

Presenter7:40

Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen singing Dan Forget Me Not Lane.

Presenter7:45

So what, David Essex, was your salvation? What got you out of all of that?

David Essex7:49

Well, I it I knew, um, I wanted to do something that that involved a certain amount of what I felt was freedom, you know, uh the the idea of

David Essex7:59

of working nine to five never really appealed to me. But I didn't know what, and I used to go on these adventures to Soho with a friend of mine who later became a milkman, who was

David Essex8:09

um, my old mate, and we'd we'd walk along and uh

David Essex8:13

I think it was only about thirteen.

David Essex8:16

and we were walking down Wardore Street, which is in Soho, in London.

David Essex8:20

And this this kind of music came out of the basement and it it

David Essex8:25

It was incredible and I thought, Well, come on, Jim, we'll go down there So we we got in.

David Essex8:30

And inside it was a club called the Flamingo, and inside it was just full of American GI s, mainly black, and uh and this band on stage that turned out to be Rufus Thomas.

David Essex8:41

And it was like the star over Bethlehem, in a way.

David Essex8:45

And I just knew I had to be a musician and I had to play blues music on R or R and B.

David Essex8:51

So the next decision really was what what to play and it seemed to me that you banged the drum and it answered back, because I wanted to do it quickly. I've always been very impatient.

David Essex9:01

And that's where the uh the second hand drum kit well, it was actually a snare drum first of all, came on onto the horizon'cause I saved up my money from the market and

David Essex9:10

Got permission from Ded to buy it.

David Essex9:13

and then started to learn the drums.

Presenter9:14

Can you remember your first public engagement?

David Essex9:17

Yeah, I mean things didn't quite go the the the the way I wanted because I I wanted to play uh in a blues band, but there weren't many around at that time.

David Essex9:27

They were in Chicago. They weren't particularly in West Ham. And uh there was an ad for

David Essex9:32

young drummer wanted for a dance band and I went along and uh I got this job and I used to play in these pubs and with with a huge um bass drum which was I could just about see over one cymbal and one sneer drum.

David Essex9:47

Playing all these kind of uh cha-chars and pasadoble and and uh

Presenter9:52

I thought you played with something called the Everons.

David Essex9:55

Oh, that was later. That that was when I was starting to move musically into the direction one wanted to move into. Yeah, the Everons was an R and B band. Ever on meaning we were never off.

David Essex10:06

And uh and they they had this uh bizarre agent that that used to book Edinburgh one night and Southampton the next, so we'd all come down in a full transit. There used to be nine in the band, half half West Indian, half uh boys from the East End.

David Essex10:22

And what we would do is that we would

David Essex10:25

we'd make money from the gig, you know, which wasn't a lot.

David Essex10:29

and we would have a rotor system on on who would go and stay bed and breakfast.

David Essex10:33

and who would sleep in the van and um

David Essex10:37

I always seemed to not yeah, I was the Van Waller. I mean, I spent a lot of time.

David Essex10:43

And of course if if one met a young lady then obviously you you were at the top of the rotor for the bed and breakfast, but

David Essex10:49

I I was much more concerned about music at that time.

Presenter10:53

So are we. Shall we have a third record?

David Essex10:57

Well the the third record is um you see, wh when you do a programme like this, very hard generally to focus on all the different episodes that's happened. I mean, so much has happened to me. M most of it uh has been wonderful, some of it uh a lot of it's been strange.

David Essex11:13

But I would think that having um a record like In My Life by the Beatles on a on a desert island would help me focus and think of certain things that have gone on and the people I've met because as you probably know, you meet so many people and and you work so closely together on on on a particular project you're on.

David Essex11:32

And then you don't see him for ten years. And I would think something like In My Life would uh would focus all those people and and all those happenings.

Speaker 311:42

There are places I remember

Speaker 311:47

All my life, though some have changed.

Speaker 311:52

Forever, not for better

Speaker 311:56

Some have gone and some remain All these places have their moments

Presenter12:02

Yeah.

Presenter12:04

Oh man.

Speaker 312:06

Lovers and friends, I still can

Presenter12:10

The Beatles with the Lennon and McCartney song in my life. So David, while while the Beatles were in their heyday singing things like this, you were grinding your living up and down the country in pubs and clubs and motorways.

David Essex12:21

Yeah.

David Essex12:23

Yeah, I mean we we really uh we we thought the the Beatles were just commercial kind of sell out merchants as far as we were concerned. Uh because we wanted to be black and obscure.

David Essex12:35

And we certainly were obscure, but we weren't particularly.

David Essex12:39

So our our main preoccupation was to uh to to starve as much as possible and find an attic to, you know, be credible about

Presenter12:48

Now, you you'd got married. You married when you were nineteen, which was very young, wasn't it?

David Essex12:52

Did I have must have? Yes, that's true.

Presenter12:54

Now were you looking for security, or had you fallen madly in love?

David Essex12:57

Um I think it was it was both, really, a bit of both. Um

David Essex13:04

I was also wanted um children. I love children.

David Essex13:09

Grew up with them.

David Essex13:10

Tommy Cooper joke.

David Essex13:12

And

Presenter13:13

You've got two, which you'd add at this point.

David Essex13:14

Yes, I've got two and uh uh so we got married and and it was it was just after I

David Essex13:23

I I mean, I'd worked in vans and I caught pneumonia in the van in Manchester.

David Essex13:27

And then I came back to London and and uh the man that was managing the band used to be a theatre critic, Derek Bowman, and he said, Well, well what about the theatre?

David Essex13:36

And I went along and auditioned for a repertory company. I'd

David Essex13:39

He took me off to see some some s theatre and uh I was really struck by the kind of civilized quality of it all. I admired the fact that bottles weren't whizzing round the performers' ears, which I was used to and and people would say, Excuse me and sorry and all that. I thought, Well, it's very civilized. So I I auditioned and this man gave me the job and off I went touring and and learning in a sort of invisible way. I you know, I'd I'd be the one

David Essex14:04

You know, where you have a piece of perspective scenery, where you have a church steeple, which is actually quite small and it's in the distance, gives you the feeling of a village. Well, I'd be the one who'd who'd who'd been told to look relaxed, who'd go over and lean on it, you know.

David Essex14:19

And it was great because we were only playing in front of eight old ladies in in Bridlington and I was able to learn. It was very valuable.

Presenter14:28

Another record, please.

David Essex14:30

Right, now where are we?

David Essex14:32

God only knows. Right. Now this one I just like. I I

David Essex14:37

I think it conjures up, um, California. I'm not not a big fan of California, but I would think the island would be a bit like that, with the sea and all that, and I could make a

David Essex14:48

bit of a surfboard out of um

David Essex14:51

some trunk or something.'Cause I used to be a sixer in the Cubs, you know.

David Essex14:55

and I could do a bit of surfing with this turned up on the radio.

Speaker 315:02

You should have believed me.

Speaker 315:05

Your life would still be

Speaker 315:09

The world could show nothing to gain

Speaker 315:13

So what good would living you mean?

Speaker 315:18

God only knows what I'd be without you.

Speaker 315:26

God only knows what I feel

Presenter15:30

God only knows from the Beach Boys. I was thinking, David, I mean, you could make a kind of drum kit on the island, couldn't you? Tree stumps.

David Essex15:36

Oh, easily. Easily. Wh when I was uh researching um Mutiny, which uh a lot of the music was kind of Tahitian based, they they do play with log drums, which are just basically hollowed out pieces of wood. So I could get that organized.

Presenter15:51

And and and you could build something to shelter under.

Presenter15:55

That's not

David Essex15:55

I think so. I mean, I'm not allowed to take a caravan or anything.

Presenter15:58

No, no, no.

David Essex15:59

No, of course not. What a silly question.

Presenter16:01

What a stupid

David Essex16:02

Yeah, I'd I'd make some little hide away.

Presenter16:05

Are you going to be desperate to escape?

David Essex16:07

No, no. I I think uh I actually like travelling alone. I've I've wandered round uh South America and India.

David Essex16:14

And I had lots of adventures. So I don't mind being by myself. I think I'll quite enjoy it. I don't know if forever.

Presenter16:20

All right, back we go. 1971, the big break came.

David Essex16:24

Yeah.

Presenter16:24

You and thousands of others, I read, were auditioned for Godspell.

David Essex16:28

Yes. Well, it was it was really at the point when Verity was on the way and I thought, Well, I'd better get a real job or something.

David Essex16:36

'Cause I'd floated into various things like window cleaning and minicabbing and and things like that.

David Essex16:42

And Derek, bless him, rang up and said go and audition for this this musical, Godspell and I said, Oh, all right. So I went along and I was very, very hostile.

David Essex16:53

And the um the it was American production team. John Michael Tabilak was the man who conceived it.

David Essex16:59

uh said, Can you sing a song? and I said, Yeah, w wh what shall I sing? and they said, Do you know the song going out of my head? and I thought, Yeah, I know that one So I I learned it quickly and and there were all these um shouts of joy from the auditorium and they came down and said, We we want you to play Jesus.

David Essex17:18

And I said, Oh yeah, okay, well that that's very nice, thank you. Do w when I grow a beard and and all that oh no, Jesus is a red-nosed clown I thought, Oh dear me

David Essex17:27

It is nuts.

David Essex17:29

And then I went away and I read the Bible really for the first time because I didn't really pay much attention in school and and I got a very clear picture about this kind of Jesus in this show.

Presenter17:39

And it was I mean it was the most enormous success. They said it was the most moving performance and the happiest performance in town. That was what was nice, wasn't it? It was a very happy show.

David Essex17:45

Synta

David Essex17:48

It was. It was phenomenal and then there there were just these queues right round Chalk Farm trying to get in.

Presenter17:54

Wonderful. Your fifth record, please.

David Essex17:57

Right. Well, I I I'll be sitting on this island and I'll be thinking, um

David Essex18:01

Well, it's nice here, but I

David Essex18:03

I think there'll be times when I wake up and think

David Essex18:06

I can't be bothered to do this, or I can't be bothered to do that, and I'll be.

David Essex18:12

I'll need something really to spur me on, you know, something that's full of

David Essex18:16

of England, all the great things of Britain and England that uh

David Essex18:21

That have happened all through the ages, that that kind of courage and and strength.

David Essex18:27

So I went for the big one, Elgar's Prompt and Circumstance Marks No. 1.

David Essex19:23

Dun dun dun little little

Presenter19:27

Elgar's Prompt and Circumstance, continued there by David Essex. March number one, Sir Adrian Bolt conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Well, it all happened after Godspell, David. There was the film next with Ringo Starr. That'll be the day. You got an award for that, didn't you?

David Essex19:42

I I've loads of accolades, yeah. Most of them are on my mum's mantelpiece. But um yes, you're right. I mean what what was phenomenal was the fact that all these three areas opened up.

David Essex19:54

Um through God's spell, David Putnam asked me to do um That'll Be the Day.

David Essex19:59

And then I wrote a song for That'll Be the Day, which David Putnam thought was too weird, which was called Rock On.

David Essex20:05

And that came out and went to number one in America and and Britain.

David Essex20:09

And then you had That'll Be the Day which was uh a very popular film, and then you had Godspell and it w

Presenter20:15

And then you had Gonna Make You a Star, which went to number one, another single.

David Essex20:18

Yeah.

Presenter20:19

What was it like what is it like performing to a a a hall full, a stadium full of screaming girls?

David Essex20:26

But to be honest, I sort of missed it, um, because I I was so bewildered and bemused by it.

David Essex20:33

that I didn't I wasn't quite it was like a a strange dream.

David Essex20:38

I wish I'd enjoyed it more. It was like an electric shock of love, but uh for me the music was so important and I used to get quite uh irritated.

Presenter20:47

I can remember.

David Essex20:47

Yeah.

Presenter20:48

Hearing Cliff Richard in Dudley Hippodrome. Well, I can't remember hearing him. I can remember being surrounded by screaming girls. And I was quite excited myself.

David Essex20:57

Absolutely, why not?

Presenter20:57

Absolutely, why not? But what is the point I mean, for you, for the musician up there, they can't hear you?

David Essex21:01

They can't.

David Essex21:03

No, it is it is a bit frustrating. I think it depends why why you do what you do. I mean, I've always I've been always very serious about the music, uh, even though some of it may not come across as serious and

David Essex21:16

Um I

David Essex21:17

For me it w it it was slightly frustrating and

David Essex21:20

and strange. But I wish I'd enjoyed it a bit more. I was much more of a

David Essex21:25

preoccupied with the quality of what we were doing.

Presenter21:27

Are you like um quite a lot of people that you're you're one person when you're out, sort of bubbly and giggly and nice and fun, and and another person when you're at home, quite withdrawn and monosyllabic and difficult to live with?

David Essex21:40

Um

David Essex21:41

I'm not sure'cause I I'm living alone, so there's only there's the dog and I, George, and he seems to quite like me. But uh I think I I think I'm uh basically funnily I do think I'm an introvert and I think that I I do what I do to relate to people um uh through the music and through performance. Although I enjoy performing, I I I'm not really, I don't think, a natural performer. I'm not a show off. I mean uh I'm the the one in the kitchen at parties. That probably goes back to the fact that I'm an only child, so

Presenter22:14

Mm.

David Essex22:15

You do spend a a fair whack of time by yourself, you know.

Presenter22:19

But it I mean, obviously it's made you very sad that your marriage didn't work out in the end.

David Essex22:23

It's sad, but in many ways it it it's worked out rather well because we're great friends, Maureen and I. And uh I know if we were under the same roof, you know, we the old uh plates would start flying again. So w we get on great now and I see the kids more or less every day and and sometimes we go away together on holidays.

David Essex22:43

So although it's not ideal, it's really not that bad.

Presenter22:45

And there's always George.

David Essex22:47

There's always children.

Presenter22:48

Another record.

David Essex22:50

Okay, well this is um from I I I like musical theatre a lot. Uh for me it encompasses drama and music, so it's perfect for me. And I think probably my favorite score is Westside's Story.

Speaker 323:03

There's a time for us Silas

Speaker 323:18

Time together with time to spare time to work time to

Presenter23:31

Somewhere from West Side Story, the original Broadway production with Rary Grist. David, I've got written here Hobbies, Helicopters, Motorbikes, Cricket. In which order?

David Essex23:41

Um they're all equally important to me. Tennis. Um I'm I'm a lousy golf player, but somebody gave me some golf clubs and I'm

David Essex23:50

I'm losing golf balls at the rate of knots at the moment.

David Essex23:53

Um I love sport. I've I've

David Essex23:56

If I hadn't been a musician, I suppose one of the other things wa would have been to have been a footballer. I used to play for West Ham boys, and that that was a big passion.

David Essex24:03

Um so and the helicopter thing.

David Essex24:07

I think I was uh there used to be a T V programme called uh Whirly Birds, I think it was called.

David Essex24:13

And ever since I saw that I always wanted to fly helicopter and uh I had some time off just before mutiny and went and learned.

Presenter24:21

And you're you're learning, it seems, to relax. That's what this is all about, is it just stopping work a bit and putting a bit of play in there?

David Essex24:28

I

David Essex24:29

I think so. I mean, uh, I said earlier that that I I quite like to travel alone and uh just

David Essex24:35

I came out of mutiny on on the show I did on on the Saturday and went to India on the Tuesday.

David Essex24:42

And um and after wandering round

David Essex24:46

India for a while. I I I started to think that I hadn't really stopped for must've been sixteen years and and came back and decided to do a bit more of of

David Essex24:56

to be a bit more selfish in in

Presenter24:58

Mm.

David Essex24:59

in things I did rather than just keep working all the time.

Presenter25:02

Well, at the age of forty, knocking on forty one, you're

David Essex25:04

Huh.

Presenter25:05

But you've got a new album I know you're making and you've got a new single that's just come out.

Presenter25:11

But what more is there in you? What more do you want to do? Is there something there yet?

David Essex25:17

I think so. I mean, I still feel that I've said it before, I still feel I'm on page one, you know, and um.

David Essex25:23

I've made up a a film idea,'cause I always hate that when people say I've written a film.

David Essex25:29

You know, I I make up tunes and I I did a made up show, Mutiny, and now I've made up uh a film.

David Essex25:36

And I you know when you get the feeling you you what you're really good at you've not quite done yet. And I I just for some reason get the f the feeling I I I could be a rather good director. And I don't even like saying it,'cause every actor says I want to direct. I don't particularly want to direct, but I actually think I I'd be

David Essex25:55

Re you know, quite good at it.

David Essex25:57

So I might do that.

Presenter25:58

Let's have your seventh record.

David Essex26:01

Right, well this is uh this is a song that I've got uh uh what's called a loft in New York, which is basically uh a warehouse that's been converted and you have to have have a an artist's certificate to buy one. And so I've got one and it's it's downtown, which is where really everything creative happens. I mean it's just New York's my favorite city, it's a city of cities.

David Essex26:25

And it's just full of music and dance and theatre.

David Essex26:28

And uh I like to spend a lot of time there as much as I can. And every time I go there it seems that this record's on the radio and and for me it it kind of conjures up New York.

David Essex26:39

It's a a singer called Cindy Lauper and the song's called Time After Time.

Speaker 326:45

You lost, you can look, and you will find me

Speaker 326:50

Time after time

Speaker 326:52

Before I will catch you, I'll be waiting

Speaker 326:57

Time after time

Speaker 327:00

If you're lost, you can look and you will find it.

Speaker 327:04

Time after time.

Speaker 327:07

If you fall, I will catch you Where will we wait? Time out to turn

Presenter27:13

Cindy Lauper singing Time after Time.

Presenter27:17

Pads in Manhattan. New York is my favourite city. It's jolly trendy stuff, this.

David Essex27:22

It's glamorous, isn't it? Yeah.

Presenter27:23

Yes. I mean, does that matter to you? Are you materialistic? Do you like all that?

David Essex27:26

No, not really. I'm not I I had a a an uncle, gypsy uncle, who said um

David Essex27:33

You know, what really matters i is the being able to see the sun come up, the sun go down, and the natural things in life, and of course.

David Essex27:41

At the tender age of nine I thought, What a nutcase you know, give me give me a a portion.

David Essex27:47

And all that. And and then you really do realize that uh materialism is is very transient and and quite pointless. Of course it's terrific having a few Bob and and being able to have a place in New York and all the rest of it, but fundamentally it's not really the reason. I don't think it it it tends never to be the reason why why people become uh performers or musicians, I think.

Presenter28:10

Is it the need for recognition? Is it the fame that you like?

David Essex28:13

Uh

Presenter28:13

Yeah.

David Essex28:14

Um

David Essex28:15

Well, I think respect and pride are are probably parts of me, you know, that that

David Essex28:20

that are quite strong, but but fundamentally it's the music.

David Essex28:23

Um I've just had this constant love affair with music of all kinds.

Presenter28:29

And and what really I mean, professional things apart, what really matters to you in life more than anything else? What are you going to miss most when we cast you away?

David Essex28:41

I think probably um

David Essex28:46

probably all all the small things of of of England.

David Essex28:50

Um plus of course friends and the children, that would be tricky.

David Essex28:56

Hopefully I uh

David Essex28:58

A letter had come in a bottle from Danny and Verity, you know.

David Essex29:02

saying that she's got three A levels and

David Essex29:05

Danny's just about to play for Surrey Colts or something at cricket.

David Essex29:09

stuff like that. So if I get the the letter in the bottle that won't be so bad.

Presenter29:13

Let us hear your last record.

David Essex29:16

Right, well this is uh he's one of my favorite sings of all time, this gentleman, and I've uh I've met a lot of people, you know, I've met uh the Queen and um

David Essex29:25

They were all very important folk, but I've only really been nervous once.

David Essex29:30

I was in New York when

David Essex29:32

when I went round to uh to meet little Richard for the first time and uh I I was really nervous and he was bi he's a total nutcase, you know, and uh but marvellous singer and and such a unique style and a big influence on on a lot of musicians that started in the sixties.

David Essex29:49

And but the only thing is you've got to introduce this.

Presenter29:53

Just because I shall say Little Richard singing Toottie Frutti.

David Essex29:57

Yes, this is Tootie Fruity by Little Richard.

Speaker 330:02

Wab bomb loom balop bam bam to the doom Oh

Speaker 330:07

Doodle boo, oh boo.

Speaker 330:10

Oh rude, to the food I'm rude.

Speaker 330:17

Oh my baby mama bop bar got a girl named Super

Speaker 330:22

To know just what to do.

Speaker 330:25

I gotta tell you.

Speaker 330:27

To know that what

Presenter30:29

And I refuse to give you the back reference to that record, but maybe Essex will. Go on, you do it.

David Essex30:34

He has to defeat it by Lil Richard.

Presenter30:37

So this is the moment where where we cast you away. Which of the eight records are you going to covert more than any of the others?

David Essex30:45

Um, I reckon pomp and circumstance, I'll take that.

Presenter30:49

Good old England.

David Essex30:50

Yeah.

Presenter30:51

And and we offer you a book. I mean, you know you have the Bible.

David Essex30:54

Which you've read,'cause you've done it.

Presenter30:54

You

Presenter30:56

That's cheap.

Presenter30:57

The complete works of Shakespeare. Read them?

David Essex30:59

Read them?

Presenter31:00

Well you well keep it going, but what about your choice?

David Essex31:04

Well, I'd like to take the Guinness Book of Records, please, because um th then I can refer to all these wonderful things people have done, and and then I th that'll spur me on to do great things and make this island special.

Presenter31:17

You're a real boy racer, eh?

David Essex31:20

Uh

Presenter31:20

What about your luxury?

David Essex31:22

Can I have a helicopter?

Presenter31:24

No, of course you can't. I mean, you could escape in it.

David Essex31:27

Yeah.

Presenter31:27

It has to be of no practical use at all.

David Essex31:31

All right, well then it would be a set of cricket stuff with a cricket net please, and then what I would do is I would practise very hard and become as good a bowler as Malcolm Marshall, and because of the sun I'd probably have a very dark complexion, and then Viv Richards would call me up to play for the West Indies when I get back.

Presenter31:51

Two.

David Essex31:51

Bishop

Presenter31:52

Uh

Presenter31:52

You shall have all of that, and may you enjoy it very much indeed. And David Essex, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island disc.

David Essex31:59

It's been a great pleasure, Sue. Thank you.

Speaker 232:09

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.