Behind the scenes with Alistair McGowan

Alistair McGowan rose to fame with his Bafta-winning TV show The Big Impression, featuring his uncannily accurate impressions of well-known public figures, and is best known as a comedian, actor, impressionist and writer. He is also a talented musician, rediscovering his love for the piano later in life. In 2017, he released The Piano Album which topped the classical charts. He talks to us about his love of classical music…

Who inspired you to first start performing?

My mother was a keen amateur actress and pianist. I get it all from her. I started the piano, at her urging, at the age of eight. But gave it all up at the age of nine. It clashed with football practice! I was then impressed at university, in Leeds, by a student called Piers Nichols who told me he’d spent a year playing the piano around France in various bars. I always envied everything about that idea. A chance meeting in 2015, with an accompanist called Lucy Colquhoun gave me belief that it was never too late to learn. I’ve yet to work my way around France by playing in the bars but you never know…

What have been your music career highlights so far?

Being asked by Sony to make a CD. I could only play two pieces all the way through at the time of their offer (they didn’t know that) and I worked like mad on 34 short pieces over the following six months. I loved every second of it and learnt so much from my mentor for the project, Anthony Hewitt, and from the producer, Chris Hazel. Recording was terrifying but such a great goal. And editing is a wonderful thing! When it got to number one, I’ve never felt more ecstatic.

What advice would you give upcoming artists wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Start young. I wish I’d carried on at that young age. I’m very hampered by the huge, 40-year gap in my musical knowledge. I love learning pieces and performing them but it takes me so long and they always hang on a knife-edge! I wish I felt I knew how music really worked and could rely on my fingers. Only years of experience give you that.

What do you hope the audience in Harrogate takes away from your performance?

My poetry book and a CD! But artistically, I hope they all hear one piece of music they’ve never heard before and I help them fall in love with it.

Describe your programme in 3 words.

Funny, poignant, transporting

Do you have any pre-concert rituals?

I find a dash of lavender under my nostrils helps calm me.

What do you most enjoy about performing live and why is it still important in our digital age?

There’s nothing like a shared experience. Between members of the audience and between performer and audience. The feeling that anything could happen. That it could ‘go wrong’ adds an extra keenness to a performance.  And I love to hear the odd gasp or even a tearful sniff during the music. An ‘ahh’ at the end of a poem is hard to beat. And the joy of hearing people laugh at my comedy is unsurpassable. When a new joke or ‘bit’ works, there is really nothing like it.

If you could collaborate with any other artist, past or present, who would it be and why?

I’m actually very happy working alone. But I’d love to meet Erik Satie.

What music are you listening to at the moment?

I very rarely put on anything by choice. I don’t know how to stream. So, I generally listen to Radio 3. I love the surprise of it – not knowing what’s coming next. It’s like panning for gold. I have scribbled notes everywhere of pieces I’ve heard that I liked and which I mean to play one day. But they play far too much Beethoven, seem to think we must have Dvorak quartets with our lunch every day, and does anyone actually like Haydn?!