No sooner had Australian entertainment icon and bonafide national treasure, JASON DONOVAN announced his “Doin’ Fine 25” tour and the tickets were flying out the door.
This exciting tour will take fans on a journey through 35 years of hits on stage and screen accompanied by his live band. It will be a spectacular celebration of his remarkable career in music, theatre, TV and film.
Known for his versatility as an actor, singer, and all-around entertainer, Jason has captivated audiences worldwide. Doin’ Fine 25 is a celebration following the legendary Doin’ Fine 90 tour, still vividly remembered by fans.
The 1990 tour followed a frenzied few years of success. Jason’s debut single, “Nothing Can Divide Us,” shot to number 5 in the UK charts in September 1988. This was followed by the iconic duet with Kylie, “Especially For You,” which topped the charts for 14 weeks. The hype around Jason Donovan continued with his first solo UK number one, “Too Many Broken Hearts,” and the chart-topping album Ten Good Reasons in 1989.
With an armful of awards for his acting and a growing pile of platinum-selling records, 1990 proved to be as much of a career whirlwind as Jason released his second album, “Between The Lines,” and continued to dominate the UK charts with singles like “Hang On To Your Love,” “Another Night,” “Rhythm Of The Rain,” and “I’m Doin’ Fine.” In June of that year, Jason embarked on his “Doin’ Fine 90” tour, performing to thousands of enthusiastic fans in sold-out venues worldwide. Doin’ Fine 25 hopes to invoke some of the memories from that special moment in time.
We caught up with Jason recently for a chat about his visit to Cardiff on the 14th February (Valentine’s). Of course, he’s no stranger to the theatre having played recently on the Rocky Horror tour just a few weeks ago.
JASON DONOVAN heads out on his Doin’ Fine tour which kicks off at the New Theatre in Cardiff on Valentine’s Day, February 14th. Tickets are selling really fast and if you’d like yours, go HERE.
It feels like there hasn’t been a time when Jason wasn’t in our entertainment lives in some form or other.
His break came with the role of Scott Robinson in ‘Neighbours’ which turned him into an international star, gaining every Australian major award including ‘Most Popular Actor’. The series went onto to become one of the highest rating shows in the UK which led to Jason’s association and huge success with acclaimed producers, Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget when I worked on the Hitman Roadshow tour (many years ago) with the major acts of the time – Big Fun, Sonia, The Reynolds Girls and of course Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan. Although they didn’t play the tour together, I remember our towns and cities being gridlocked with fans, desperate to catch a sight of Jason. Introducing him on stage was a challenge in itself with the volume of screaming fans.
His debut album ‘Ten Good Reasons’ was the biggest selling album of 1989 adding to impressive career sales of 13 million albums and 4 UK No.1 singles. Music was always a constant in Jason’s life, as was his passion for acting and theatre. This combination became a natural transition for what was to become one of his definitive roles – Olivier-nominated portrayal of Joseph in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ at London’s Palladium. This sell out 18-month run in 1991 produced a number one single and best-selling soundtrack album, and is still known for being one of the most successful revivals of all time.
So let’s come on to a few of those hits just to get you in the mood……….
Jason has gone on to star in The Rocky Horror Show, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Priscilla, Annie Get Your Gun, Sound of Music, The King’s Speech and Million Dollar Quartet. He’s never too far from our TV screens wither. He’s featured in I’m A Celeb (2006) and Strictly Come Dancing (2011), Who Do You Think You Are (2011), ITV’s Superstar (2012) and Piers Morgan’s Life Stories (2012). He also appeared in ITV’s drama ‘Echo Beach’ (2008).
In a recent series of Dancing On Ice, Jason showed those younger contestants a thing or two, or at least he was until he was forced to quit through injury. He may have a year or two more experience as a singer/entertainer, but that seemed to have only helped his performance on the ice.
When we asked whether getting older has an impact, Jason told us……..
“Not for me. I don’t feel my age, I still want to be active and I’ve talked about this before; mental and physical health go hand in hand; this is one of the reasons why I took the job; it provides structure, focus, skill, keeping fit.
It’s interesting, ice skating and dancing because it combines two things, it combines entertainment and athleticism and very rarely do those things sort of combined together into a show”
“What I’m focusing on is the entertainment side of it because I want to tell a story in my performance and that’s my skill. And I think, I think I can move on my skates as well.
But I think what does help is, the components of being a performer sometimes and Strictly, that stage was the most awesome stage I’ve ever been on in my life, 11 million people Saturday night TV with Bruce Forsyth, it’s full-on and this will be a similar experience except it’s Sunday night.”
Finally, one of our favourite things Jason has done over the years is the voice for the Playstation game BUZZ. Seriously, we have had hours and hours of fun with it and he is really good as the question master. It’s a bit retro and old school now but we reckon it could do with a modern re-boot with JD in the role again.
You can keep up with all that Jason is up to HERE.
