Radio X DJ Chris Moyles tells all about Lincoln show
Millions of people have woken up to his dulcet tones – but now he’s taken to entertaining throughout the night and told reporter Kat Wakefield all about it...
Radio DJ Chris Moyles, who was once hailed as ‘the saviour’ of BBC Radio 1, brought his new 90s Hangover show to Lincoln on Saturday night.
Having discovered he’s a bit of a hit on the decks during lockdown, Chris, who now hosts the breakfast show on Radio X, plans to have the Engine Shed crowd dancing all night long with a mixed bag of iconic tunes from the decade.
“It’s just a big school disco where we’re all dressed slightly better, or slightly worse in some cases, and we play a little bit of everything,” Chris said.
“There’s the cheesy pop sing-a-long stuff, there’s great dance music and there’s some Britpop, rock and indie stuff, so I try and cover as much as we can over the hour and a half.
“I bought all of the equipment in the January of 2020, put it upstairs in the mancave and would just play and learn.
“Then when lockdown came, I did a DJ set on Instagram and it went down very well, so after that every Friday I would go on and DJ for an hour.
“Life was crazy at that time – I can’t believe it’s three years ago – and I would really look forward to those sets.
“In the comment section there was a really lovely little community and I absolutely loved it.
“We’d have over 50,000 people tune in over the hour and the reaction was incredible, even from friends who were shocked I could DJ like that. People used to comment that I should do it live one day and I thought that would be nice.
“From that, we ended up putting together this 90s Hangover which is a proper produced show and I play all of the music live – it’s not premixed or anything – it’s all me and I choose what we play.
“We’ve also got Kay, our brilliant warm-up DJ, who just plays everything and so, by the time you roll out of the Engine Shed, maybe a bit tipsy and singing whatever song got stuck in your head, you’ll have had a really, really good fun night.
“Everything I play you’ll just remember it, whether you’ve not heard it, people sing-along. It’s a really good atmosphere and so much fun. I really love doing it and what’s not to love?
“I’m on stage playing songs that people scream ‘yeah!’ at.
“It’s not just songs, it’s a bit funny in places, I’m messing around with the crowd a lot.”
Chris, who caused a bit of a storm after complaining about the lack of taxis in Lincoln 2021, is looking forward to a family reunion at the show.
“My brother lives in Lincoln so they’ve gone all out and got a babysitter,” he said.
“A few drinks might be had before, during and after the show. I genuinely love it – I’ve not done live DJ-ing for long enough that I’m just turning up, doing it and going home again.
“The Engine Shed is a legendary venue and it’s had some great people play there.
“My sister in law basically has a season ticket – she’s always there. I bought her tickets to see gigs there and a month later I was booked to play which is amazing.
“I’ll make sure I have their riders ready.
“I absolutely love it. It’s like a whole thing, we go up to the venue, do the soundcheck, have a couple of drinks, go on stage and then by the time I come off stage I’m absolutely wired because the atmopshere is so good.
“You feel a bit like a rubbish rockstar. The last thing I want to do is get in the car and go home – I want to stay out and get a few drinks.”
Chris has promised a few ‘surprises’ ahead of the show, which he has already taken to The County Ground Northampton and Pub in the Park in Marlow this month.
“We change the set a bit – we started the show last year and we did a handful of gigs, it works really well and I’ve not done it enough that I’m bored of it,” he said.
“We’ve changed some of the songs and added some.
“Some songs we won’t play in full, just to keep it bouncing and keep it fresh. There’s some surprises in there too which I’m looking forward to. It’s a really good energy.
“There was a guy at one show in the front row with a Muse band t-shirt on and I thought ‘you might be a bit disappointed fella’ but by the end of the show he was singing his heart out to one of the cheesiest songs from a 90s boy band and I was absoutely delighted.
“That’s what I want. I want people to enjoy it.
“There’s no musical snobbery allowed – there’s some songs in there that aren’t the coolest in the world but you know all the words and you’ll end up singing at the top of your voice.
“I hope everyone comes to see it. It’s really flattering that people are buying tickets to see it because I’m not known as that sort of DJ, so it’s nice that people are coming out.”
Before heading off to a late lunch with some of his former I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here campmates, Chris had an exclusive reveal just for us.
Regular listeners to the Radio X show might be disappointed to know that a favourite sound effect of Chris and his team won’t be popping up in the DJ set.
“I can give you the exclusive that there will be no fart sounds in the show,” he said with his tongue firmly in his cheek.
“If you listen to the show you get it, but if you don’t it’s just weird and probably not funny.”
There are still a few tickets left for tomorrow’s show, which can be found at https://engineshed.co.uk/
The tour will head to Sheffield on Sunday before a date in Cheshire in July and Cornwall in August.
