At Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, David Essex returned to “Hold Me Close,” a song that once made him one of Britain’s biggest stars
On 19 September 2026, inside Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall, David Essex stood before an audience more than half a century removed from the moment when “Hold Me Close” first changed his career. The performance was part of his Thanks for the Memories tour, a 21-date UK tour celebrating a remarkable career across music, theatre, film and television. For David, Liverpool was another stop on a tour that began in September, but hearing him return to one of his most beloved songs carried a particular sense of history. “Hold Me Close” had reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in 1975 and remained there for three weeks, becoming his second and final British chart-topper. Fifty-one years later, the song still had the power to bring that distant era back into the room.
The extraordinary thing about watching David sing “Hold Me Close” now is how much history sits behind those familiar words. The song was written by David himself and produced by Jeff Wayne, and it appeared on the album All the Fun of the Fair, later becoming closely associated with the stage musical of the same name. In 1975, David was still in the heart of his extraordinary rise. Only two years earlier, “Rock On” had reached No. 3 in Britain, while That’ll Be the Day and Godspell had established him as a performer capable of moving effortlessly between music and acting. Then came “Hold Me Close,” a warm, romantic song that showed another side of the young man whose face had become almost impossibly familiar across Britain.
But the David Essex walking onto the Liverpool stage in 2026 was not the young heart-throb of 1975, and that is precisely what makes the performance so affecting. He has spent more than five decades moving through different worlds of entertainment. His career has included records that sold millions, films such as That’ll Be the Day and Silver Dream Racer, theatre productions including Godspell, Evita and Aspects of Love, his own musicals, television roles including Eddie Moon in EastEnders, and two autobiographies. His official biography describes a career that has continually crossed boundaries rather than remaining confined to the pop-star image that first made him famous.
There is a wonderful circular quality to hearing “Hold Me Close” in a concert hall in 2026. In 1975, the song belonged to a young artist at the height of his fame. Crowds around David could resemble Beatlemania, and his appearance alone could cause excitement wherever he went. The Liverpool audience, however, was hearing the same song from a man carrying an entire lifetime of experiences behind it. The melody may have remained familiar, but the voice now carries the perspective of someone who has watched fashions disappear, musical tastes change and generations of listeners grow older. The song therefore becomes more than a trip back to 1975. It becomes a meeting between the David Essex people remember and the David Essex who actually lived all those years in between.
That is also the spirit behind the Thanks for the Memories tour. David announced the 2026 series specifically to celebrate his monumental career, following two previous UK tours that had sold more than 65,000 tickets across 39 dates. The Liverpool performance came almost exactly where a fan might want it to sit in such a retrospective: not as an attempt to freeze David in the past, but as part of a living catalogue that still includes the songs people came to hear.
And when “Hold Me Close” comes around, there is no need to pretend that 1975 has returned. The years are part of the performance. The young David with the famous eyes and smile is still visible in the memory of the audience, but standing on that Liverpool stage is the man who has spent more than fifty years earning the right to sing the song again. The first notes bring back the 1970s, the chart-topping single, the posters and the extraordinary excitement surrounding David Essex. Then the song continues, carried by a voice that has travelled a very long way from the moment it first reached No. 1.