Cliff Richard Talks Touring At 82, Christmas Album
Cliff Richard has spoken to Ken Bruce of BBC Radio 2 about the strain touring puts on his voice and his new Christmas album.
The 82-year-old singer will embark on The Blue Sapphire Tour next November, with eight shows kicking off with a mini-residency at the London Eventim Apollo between November 6 and 12.
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Cliff said: “It’s not a very long tour. The heavy touring is a real strain, particularly on the vocal cords. You wake up in the morning hoping your voice will be OK for tonight so that’s a stressful thing, so I’m only doing about eight concerts next year and it’ll be fun. I like it and it’s nice to be in front of the public. It’s a mutual love. You’ve got to be a bit dignified when you’re 82.”
He went on to explain his aversion to the word “retired”, ““Stop is a good word. I might stop one day. I don’t want to retire. Once you’ve retired you feel you’ve got to stay away and if you do want to do something it’s called a comeback. And every time I hear somebody has done a comeback I’m thinking they’ve run out of money.
Talking about his new album Christmas with Cliff, the singer said’: “It’s a fun album and I hope people like it. Unusually, I used two producers because I wanted to have a dynamic… and they gave it to me. They were fantastic producers – different styles of music but connected because of Christmas.
“Recording is so much fun, if I could record every day of my life I would. It’s always a challenge because every time you do an album, there is something different about it.”
“The backing tracks were done in LA and I put my voice on in Miami. I found a studio the Bee Gees used to use and I’m a big fan of the Bee Gees so I said, ‘Yeah, lets do it there’.”