Eighties pop singer Limahl playing in Australia for first time and why he went on I’m a Celebrity

REMEMBER this ‘80s UK pop star? Does Too Shy ring any bells? He’s honest about why pop stars do reality TV and why he’s part of a retro tour.

80s singer Limahl

EVER wondered why pop stars go into the jungle on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!

If you figured it was for the money, you’re right.

UK singer Limahl topped charts globally when out front of Kajagoogoo for 1983’s hit song Too Shy, going solo a year later with his own smash hit Never Ending Story.

He’s happily toured the retro circuit since, but the UK’s I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! came knocking in 2012 and he found himself in the Queensland outback where the British version, the original show, is filmed.

“It’s the kind of show I thought I’d never do,” Limahl admits. “I didn’t really want to do it but the financial offer was too good to refuse. They’d actually offered it to me the year before and I turned it down. The next year they doubled the offer. And so I went for it.”

Limahl wound up roughing it with random bunch of celebrities, the best known being Dr Who star Tom Baker and former Pussycat Doll, Ashley Roberts.

. and Limahl and Kajagoogoo then.

Limahl now ...

“It was horrible,” he says. “You’re thrown in with a bunch of strangers and all their baggage. I wasn’t comfortable, you’ve got cameras in your face the whole time, I looked absolutely awful. I like a hair dryer and some (hair) product. But I knew I’d have to give all that up, so I did the best I could. You’re starving, you’re thirsty, you’re under stress. Why would anyone want to put themselves through that?”

Limahl “burst into tears” after three days and was voted out by an unforgiving British public.

While they may not have been impressed with his survival skills in the jungle, in the real world Limahl has been able to keep his career alive playing with fellow ‘80s acts on package tours and living off the royalties of Too Shy (which he co-wrote) and Never Ending Story — songs he calls his pension fund.

Now 57, he’s perfectly aware people are there to hear the hits and just the hits. He’ll do his first live shows in Australia in July as part of the Totally 80s tour with Martika, Berlin, Stacey Q, Wa Wa Nee and others.

“My hits were 30 years ago,” he says. “When you’ve only had a couple of hits like myself, but big hits, it’s usually in this kind of retro show where you get to perform. I’m very comfortable with that. Twenty years ago I went to see this show The Best Disco in Town Live, it was all these disco acts like Gloria Gaynor and Tavares and I had the best night of my life. There was no new music, it was just hits you loved growing up. So that’s what I do now. I think it’s fantastic. People smile when the intro starts and they recognise the song. They remember their first kiss or their first holiday or the first record they bought. That’s what keeps me going, the audience’s reaction.”

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Limahl (born Chris Hamill — his stage name is an anagram of his surname) has stopped trying to force new music on people who’ve freeze-framed him in the mid ‘80s.

“I don’t have a record deal, I’m not looking for one, I don’t have a manager, I’m not promoting anything. I just go around the world performing mainly those two big hits people love.

“Every year I think, ‘OK, no one’s going to call next year, it’s over. I’m getting too old, they’ve probably stopped playing my song on the radio’ and really the opposite is true. There’s so many oldies stations with Never Ending Story and Too Shy on their playlists, thank God. People still love the songs.

“I tried for so long to make new music. I made records that sold a thousand copies in Europe. Yeah, I could get an internet page and maybe get a thousand downloads of new songs but it’s a lot of work. I’m 57 now, I really feel like I’ve got the T-shirt. I just like performing. It’s instant. I go off, I do the show, it’s over. I like that.”

Indeed, Limahl has seen many of his contemporaries — including some who had more success than he did — struggle trying to be seen beyond being a retro act.

“The Human League made a new album a few years back but it didn’t really happen for them. Soft Cell too. It’s tough, people just see you as being from the ‘80s. We live in a world where people download everything from software to music for free, but they will still pay for the live experience. That seems to be something people really want. There’s something very special about being in a room with people all enjoying that collective experience. There’s real value in that, emotionally.”

Jungle love: Limahl in I’m a Celeb

Limahl is happy to party like it’s 1985.

While Limahl was sacked by Kajagoogoo after their first album (which also including the hits Ooh To Be Aah and Hang On Now), the band kept touring without him as Kaja, with bassist Nick Beggs on vocals. They split in 1985 after little success, with the original line-up reforming in 2003 for a VH1 Bands Reunited special. After belatedly working out a fairer royalty split for Limahl they’ve since then they’ve toured sporadically, the last being five years ago.

“There’s nothing in the pipeline,” Limahl says of Kajagoogoo shows.

“Nick (Beggs) has got so many other commitments. Nick loves prog rock, he’s touring with all these prog rock idols he loves. I respect that. But never say never. He might wake up one day and say ‘I’ve had enough of this prog rock thing, let’s get back on the road with the ‘Goo’ as we call ourselves.”

Limahl says the band remain cordial and correspond on email — recently Too Shy was short-listed for a global Pepsi ad, but in the end another song was chosen.

“We don’t message each other on birthdays or anything, it’s more about business, but we’ve all grown up. You bite your lip. Don’t say it, you’ll regret it. If you learn one thing in life you wait until the next morning or the next week. It can never be unsaid.”

At the height of his fame, Limahl was a closeted pop star who was also a teen heart throb.

“I really respect the (gay) trailblazers,” Limahl says. “Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat was about being gay. It was politically driven. Pet Shop Boys ... some people came out very late, it’s a very personal journey. Would George Michael have ever come out if he wasn’t caught in that bathroom?

“For me, I was driven by music, I didn’t want my personal life to be the immediate talking point. I was out to the band, I was out to my family but it wasn’t something we talked about every day. By the time I came out I wasn’t really that famous any more. It didn’t make any headlines which suited me fine. It’s a weird world. Today’s so different, there’s a gay character in every soap opera almost. Gay sportsmen, gay politicians ... and yet in the bigger world in places like Iran a gay person can be killed three ways by the state. You think about that and you wonder if we’ve made any progress.

“But I’m from a small town up north. My family had no money, my dad was a miner. I ran away because I was gay. I think if I hadn’t done that I would haven’t have found my way to London, I’d have probably ended up married with five kids and that’d be me. Instead I’ve had this really interesting journey.”

SEE Totally 80s tour: Eatons Hill Brisbane July 12, Jupiters Gold Coast July 14, Palais Theatre Melbourne July 15, Enmore Theatre Sydney July 16, Astor Theatre Perth July 20, The Gov. Adelaide July 21, Wrest Point Hobart July 22.

On sale now, metropolistouring.com/totally80s

Originally published as Eighties pop singer Limahl playing in Australia for first time and why he went on I’m a Celebrity