Peter Cox – The King of Overthinking
During the 1980s, Go West topped the charts with songs like “We Close Our Eyes”, “Call Me”, “Faithful” and “King of Wishful Thinking”, which featured on the soundtrack of the Julia Roberts hit film “Pretty Woman”.
Their debut album “Go West” sold 1.5 million copies worldwide and remained on the UK chart for 83 weeks.
Singer Peter Cox (pictured above) is surprisingly modest about his journey. In fact, he is still faintly amused by the idea that anyone might consider him famous as he prepares to take to the stage at The Apex, in Bury St Edmunds, next month.
“If you’d told me back then that I’d be making videos for MTV and winning a Brit Award, I’d probably have laughed and changed the subject”, he says with a wry smile. “I was just a bloke who loved being in the studio with his mates. That was the dream.”
Four decades on, that bloke is coming to the town centre venue with “We Close Our Eyes … And Other Stories”, where he’ll be performing the old hits and reflecting on his career, sharing stories from his new book, “King of Overthinking”.
So, what exactly can fans expect from the show? Like the book, it will take them from the early days – “smoky clubs, dodgy vans, and the kind of optimism only twentysomethings have” – to the surreal highs of international success.
There will be reimagined arrangements of the big hits and fan favourites and – for the first time – Peter will share some of the stories behind the music.
“I’ve spent a lifetime singing these songs”, he says. “Now I want to talk about them. Where they came from – what they meant then, and what they mean to me now.”
He describes the tour as “part concert, part conversation” and said: “I hope people will leave feeling as if they’ve spent an evening with me – not just watched me perform.”
Reflecting on his 40-plus year career, Peter says: “It’s been a long, thrilling, frustrating, and exciting road – and I still see it stretching out ahead of me.
“I’m grateful,” he says simply. “For the music, for the fans, for the journey. I never expected any of this – but I’m glad it happened, and I’m so glad I get to keep sharing it now.”
Go West’s Peter Cox is at The Apex on Thursday, November 12, at 7.30pm. For more information, or to book tickets, see www.theapex.co.uk or ring 01284 758000.