Still rocking

"I’M actually loving it. I really genuinely am,” admits Jonathan Wilkes about finding himself playing the outand- out villain, Khashoggi, in the first touring version of Queen and Ben Elton’s musical, We Will Rock You?

“This is my eighth musical and this is the first time I’ve played a real baddie. I don’t think that Frankie (from Rocky Horror) is a villain, just misunderstood. I wasn’t sure 100 per cent, I have to confess about doing it when Ben (Elton), Brian (May) and Roger (Taylor) had a good chat to me about the role.

“In every musical I’ve ever done I’ve been the leading man and carried the show. With this I feel such a release of pressure where it’s nice to go out and do something completely different, instead of relying on my ‘wink and a smile’ routine which lets me get away with murder.

“It’s nice to strip Jonanthan Wilkes back and create a completely different character. I didn’t think I could talk very received pronunciation, the way I do in this musical,” he says The touring star of Godspell, Grease, Guys And Dolls, Tommy and The Wedding Singer is still taking star billing in We Will Rock You, mainly because Canadian Alex Gaumond, as heroic Galileo, is little known outside the West End – although North-East audiences did see him in the tour of Miss Saigon.

The wafer-thin plot of We Will Rock You, linking a string of Queen hits, focuses on a future world where live music has been banned and protests met with arrest, brainwashing and death.

“Former Coronation Street favourite, Kevin Kennedy, makes a cameo appearance as veteran music rebel Pops and the singer who deserved to win TV’s X Factor in 2005, Brenda Edwards, livens up the role of deadly Killer Queen.

“Really I want to be in charge and I’m a very sarcastic, pompous person... Jonathan Ross mixed with Rhydian because my hair is blond like his. Khashoggi is a nasty character but, in the second half, when he sings Seven Seas Of Rye, he really lets rip. But I don’t get booed at all, I think I play him more like a James Bond baddie, Blofeld. He’s sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek, so he’s pretty much me anyway,” Wilkes jokes.

“This show isn’t rocket science, don’t expect it to change your life.

But I would call this a rock extravaganza with so many oneliners from Ben Elton which just come out of the blue. This show now ticks every box,” he says in response to being asked how We Will Rock You – now entering it’s seventh year in the West End – recovered from early critical savaging in 2002 to become an award-winning production.

The performer feels that the three-week run at the Sunderland Empire is a tribute to the ambition of the Wearside venue which is delivering on the promise of being “the West End of the North-East”.

He jokes about travelling into “maccam” country when he’s renowned for Tyneside appearances which saw him score the celebrity team’s only goal in The Match at St James’ Park on Sky One and, more recently, appear as a weekly guest on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway on ITV1.

“I’ve got a lot of history up in Newcastle and my best mates, Ant and Dec, are from up there and I love going to the North-East I really do. And I’m not just saying that because you’re here. I think they (people from the North-East) are the most genuine and honest people in the country... bar those from Stokeon- Trent. Others from London have told me they’re too friendly. How can you be too friendly?”

At one time, Wilkes’ main claim to fame was his friendship with megastar Robbie Williams. The two are still close, but he isn’t too keen on speculating if Williams is seriously thinking about joining the rest of Take That on tour.

“I don’t want to go deep into this because it’s Robbie’s business.

Anything I’d say would be plastered everywhere.

“All I think that people need to know is that Rob has just had a bit of time out and Take That has come back with some fantastic stuff and rightly so. There hasn’t been a better boy band since. They still are the best boy band.

“ Rob’s has had so much success on his own that people have got to remember that he’s got an album coming out at the end of the year and I think it’s the best album he’s ever written. It’s time for him to come back.

“He’s been out a few years after nearly killing himself by working too hard. He needed a break to get excited about the business again. I think people have missed him and his music and now is the right time for Rob to pop back and say ‘hiya, listen to this’,” says Wilkes.

His own busy showbiz life includes running his second annual academy in Stoke, with the winner getting a star role in a pantomime, Dick Whittington, alongside Wilkes.

“I’m a very lucky boy because I love what I do... long may it continue. I’ve got a beautiful wife who I adore and my little boy who is my everything. What more could I want?” he says.

■ We Will Rock You, Sunderland Empire, June 10-27, tickets: £12.50- £37.50. Box Office: 0844-847-2499