Alfie Boe tells reporter Aimee Seddon how his Fleetwood roots have made him the artist he is today
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00:00can you maybe just summarise a little bit for me how growing up in Fleetwood you were inspired to
00:04become the singer you are today? Yeah, when I was growing up my dad had this incredible record
00:10collection. He taught me a lot, you know, he gave me a lot of information musically
00:20from different artists, country artists, big band artists, classical singers,
00:26and it was folk artists, Irish folk artists, and he educated me a lot.
00:35Then my brothers and sisters had their own interests, so I learned a lot of their
00:40sort of music, and then their boyfriends and girlfriends came into the household and brought
00:44their interests. So, you know, my sister's boyfriends were into like lots of rock music
00:53and things like that, so I started educating myself with Led Zeppelin and ACDC and Pink Floyd
00:59and Rolling Stones and all that growing up, and it was fabulous, you know, the Beatles, and
01:06it was really a world of a plethora of music that educated me. So I've got this catalogue of
01:17incredible tunes and incredible memories that I can try and recreate on stage for the audience
01:25to just show them what my life was like growing up in the Northwest, you know, because I come
01:32from a working-class family, you know, and my feet are still firmly on the ground, despite,
01:38you know, where I've been and what I've done, my feet are firmly on the ground, and I love
01:43deeply the Northwest to a point that I'm wanting to move back there, you know,
01:49I'm wanting to like pack my bags and get on a train and come back up north again. So
01:55it's amazing what happens when you get older and those sort of feelings come back, you think,
02:00I need to get home, you know, and it feels lovely.
02:06Were your parents musicians in any way, or did they just enjoy playing it?
02:11No, they weren't. My dad sang, my dad was a good singer.
02:18No, they weren't, we didn't come from a musician family, there was no musicians,
02:23professional musicians in the family, but yeah, they loved music, they just loved music. It was
02:32the first thing that went on in the morning, no television, literally the radio went on,
02:36and or when I'd come home at night, I'd walk through the door, and the record player would
02:42be playing. And then if it was a Friday night, and the record player went on, say,
02:48five o'clock in the afternoon, I knew there was going to be a party. You know, my mother would
02:53like be on the phone ringing around all the friends, come over for dinner, we're gonna have
02:57a bit of supper, we're gonna have a dance and a drink, and it was fabulous. Those spontaneous
03:02parties were great, you know, and I loved it. And that was my life, it was totally
03:12a surprise. My life has always been a surprise. I don't know what the day's gonna hold for me
03:20when I wake up in the morning, and it's lovely, it's really nice. Because I love what I do for
03:28a living. And it does bring surprises and brings last minutes of opportunities and chances and,
03:36you know, and associations. I meet so many people that become
03:40lovely friends, you know, and I've got so many beautiful friends in the Northwest
03:47that I still keep in touch with. And yeah, like I say, I really do want to get back there,
03:54want to get my roots back there.