After a spell in the jungle at the end of last year, Chris Moyles is making a homecoming to Leeds next week and he's bringing a healthy dose of nostalgia with him.
The Radio X presenter and TV personality is back in town headlining his show Chris Moyles' 90s Hangover at the 02 Academy on Friday, March 10. 'The Hangover' promises a dose of hits from every genre, guilty pop pleasures to Britpop and everything in-between.
One of Halton's most famous sons joined Leeds Live for a chat about his early life in Leeds and a homecoming gig that is a homage to everything 90s.
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On how a Leeds lad got into radio
"I just got completely fascinated by radio when I was young. One of the earliest things I remember with radio, there was a competition on a local station I entered when I was a kid.
"It was something like name the Christmas song or the next lyrics in the song and the DJ was asking people to call in. I asked my mum if I could do it and for once she said yes.
"Next thing, I'm on phone and I'm on the radio and the DJ asks me the name of the song and I've gone 'Jingle Bells' or something and he's gone 'oh no better luck next time'. I just remember putting the phone down and going 'that was amazing'!
"From that point on I just knew it was what I wanted to do. I was hooked."
He began his career at Wakefield's Broadcast to Hospitals Service and then Aire FM as an assistant for DJ Carl Kingston. After helping out behind the scenes he was eventually given stand-in slots as a presenter. "From the moment they put me behind the desk I just knew what to do, it all just seemed to come naturally from that point."
On a night out in Leeds
"I mean when I first started at the radio stations in the 90s I was very young, we were all too young to be out clubbing or anything like that. When I did start doing things like that my place was Mojo, that was the bar of choice.
"It was always my first port of call when I went back to Leeds in the late 90s. It's all changed now though, every time I go back all the places we used to know have got different names.
"It is a great night out still though, it has everything you could want, there are loads of bars and clubs but I'm into the pubs nowadays. Give me a proper old man pub and I'll be right at home.
"My dad was brought up just by the university in Leeds and the story goes that his dad, my grandad, used to be able to take a shortcut through a pub on his way home from work to get to their road. Sometimes it would take him three minutes, sometimes it would take him three hours."
On his beloved Leeds United
"If we had kept up the form that we started with in the first couple of games we'd be top half of the table easy, it seems like everyone is struggling a bit this season. That is the frustrating thing really, it could have been an opportunity to push-on.
"It's frustrating to be at home and there's absolutely nothing that you can do, you've got no control over things and no one can hear you either. This weekend I honestly don't know how it's going to go down.
"It is one of those where we've not been great but neither have Chelsea. Nothing would surprise me, if we won, if Chelsea batter us, nothing. I think both teams would take a point before kick-off if they could."
On his homecoming gig
"It is weird and exciting to be headlining a gig at a venue that I used to queue outside of for gigs. Back in the day, I think at the weekends, back when it was the Town and Country club there was a night called Top Banana.
"The only thing I remember clearly is the TV screens used to just have a picture of a banana rotating on them. Then there was Brutus Gold's Love Train which I think is still going or has been brought back.
"That was all the 70s and 80s classics, it was absolutely brilliant. To be playing in the O2 academy in Leeds is just really exciting for me, I've got a load of family and friends coming along. There was a bloke in the front row the last time we did this with a Muse t-shirt on or something like that.
"He was singing Backstreet Boys from beginning to end, not just the chorus either, like the verses and the lot. That is what it is all about. Get some mates down, have a couple of bevvies - whatever you fancy, have a dance around and belt out some 90s classics."
Chris Moyles' 90s Hangover show will tour the UK this year, coming to his hometown at the Leeds O2 Academy on March 10. See tickets here: https://bnds.us/61ah7v.
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