MICHAEL ON GMTV WITH ANTHEA TURNER - 1996

Anthea:  Michael with his latest album, "The Musicals".  It sounded beautifully as well.

Michael:  Thank you very much, at this time of the morning! (laughs)

Anthea:  You did very well.  They're all on here.  How did you choose?  When you think of all the songs that you sang, all the ones you got to go through, I mean …

Michael:  It was the hardest thing I've done, choosing these, there are hundreds I could've.  I kinda stuck to Musicals that either I have been in or been associated with, all that are fairly current.  And also people I've worked with, like Andrew Lloyd Webber, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Steve Sondheim.  And there are plenty of others I still want to record and I hopefully will.  But these were the ones that …

Anthea:  And I bet the whole family and everybody else all had an input?

Michael:  Absolutely, they all go "don't you DARE not do that one".  Yeah, every song is somebody's favourite from my family and friends.

Anthea:  Talking about your family, you're very glad to be here this morning, aren't you?  Well out of the way.

Michael:  I am out of the way - where's the camera?  (into the camera)  Emma, Dean - best of luck.  Emma is Cath's daughter and she's moving up to Manchester today, so … see you soon darling.

Anthea:  Leaving home, is this for the first time?  Packing up … oh it will be terrible.  Awful!

Michael:  Yeah, cheers …

Anthea:  You know I was reading yesterday that Cameron Mackintosh was actually more or less renewing the entire cast …

Michael:  I heard that, yeah.  On Broadway.

Anthea:  That's it, Les Mis.  Because they were all getting … now what did he term it,  'long run-itis' or something.

Michael:  Yeah, I can understand it.  The longest run I've done is "Aspects Of Love" which was a year here and a year on Broadway.  And I found it really hard.  And that isn't a particularly long time.  A lot of people stay in shows for 7 or 8 years.

Anthea:  What are the symptoms of this disease?

Michael:  Um, completely losing yourself, forgetting what you're doing.  It's happened to me onstage, where you've done it for about nine months and the nerves have gone, to that extent, you sort of know what you're doing.  And on a Wednesday matinee, you'll come out and for some reason your mind is thinking about where I'm going to be having dinner tonight.  But then you think: "I've done this so many times, but I have NO clue what I'm going to sing next."  And it's terrifying, and it's true!  It's happened twice with me with "Love Changes Everything".  Once on stage, because I open the show with it, and I came out and sang "Love changes everything, hands and faces, earth and sky" – it was gone - I sang the same line continuously:  "hands and faces … hands and faces earth and sky" and there was a little lady in the front row, who'd seen it loads of times, mouthing the words to me, so I got it.  The WORST one was with Andrew Lloyd Webber's "This Is Your Life".  And everybody's there, you know.  And I was the last guest to come on and sing "Love Changes" to Madeline and Andrew.  And (laughs) I invented the song!  Don Black was in there and I completely rewrote his lyrics.  ANY nice thoughts I could think of:  (singing to the tune of "love will make a summer fly, and a night seem like a lifetime") "lots of flowers and lovely feelings ... nice, yes what a lovely day" … just rubbish coming out of my mouth. And they can't retake it or anything.

Anthea:  Would you like to hear a clip of the real version?

Michael:  Oh have you got one?

Anthea: We have "Love Changes Everything" here, with the real lyrics.

(they play ‘Love Changes Everything’ from the Michael Ball Show)

Michael:  Great jacket! (laughs)  I've just re-recorded "Love Changes Everything".  Because when we first did it, which is 8, 9 years ago it was the first time I'd ever been in a studio.  And I didn't have a clue what I was doing so I've always thought I wanted to do it again.

Anthea:   It's a beautiful song.  Your voice is a very natural voice.  And lots of people who sing, they really do protect their voice and are incredibly precious about their voice.  And I know for a fact you're NOT …

Michael:  No I'm not at all (laughs) no.  Well I just never have been.  I never took lessons in singing.  Also, with the amount I sing ... if you do eight shows a week … opera singers will never sing more than twice, three times a week.  In Musical Theatre we do eight shows a week, we're hitting the same kind of notes, it’s a hard sing.  And like any muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets!  So by singing a lot you just get a bit of stamina going.

Anthea:  So you don't have singing lessons and you still go to parties and breath in the atmosphere …

Michael: Absolutely.  Breath in deeply! (laughs)

Anthea:  And ofcourse you've got a tour as well, which starts on … Monday?

Michael:  I start on Monday.  The album comes out on Monday and the tour starts on Monday.  I can't wait.  I'm playing the Albert Hall for the first time, I just heard we're sold out as well.  Apart from doing the Les Mis 10th anniversary last year.  But we're all over the country.  Doing the songs that I love.

Anthea:  Well, there are a lot of tickets sold and there will be a load of people going to watch it and more to come.  So thank you very much for coming this morning.

Michael:  My pleasure Anthea.  It has been a pleasure and sorry about the early call.

Michael:  Oh don’t worry!  My lawyers will be in touch! (laughs)