Snooker legend turned DJ Steve Davis admits it is “ridiculous” that he will be supporting Blur for two Wembley Stadium concerts in July.
The Essex supergroup will play concerts set to be 90,000 sell-outs in London with Paul Weller, Selecter, Slowthai, Self Esteem and Jockstrap also in the weekend line-up.
But Davis, a six-time snooker world champion in the 1980s who has enjoyed a successful second career in music, was a surprise inclusion to do sets between the acts. Now 65, Davis is wildly excited about the gig having never been to see a concert at Wembley before.
And the last time he was there was almost 36 years ago as a goalkeeper for Coventry City against Tottenham in a celebrity charity match ahead of the 1987 FA Cup Final.
Davis’ musical journey began as ‘DJ Thundermuscle’, but he soon teamed up with experimental musician Kavus Torabi in the band The Utopia Strong.
Davis said: “What a journey into the unknown Wembley will be, I am absolutely delighted. Strangely I have never been to any concert at Wembley in my life. And I missed the Leyton Orient play-off final when Barry Hearn was in charge nearly 10 years ago.
“So the last time I was there was playing in goal for a Coventry City celebrity team against a Tottenham team in a charity match before the 1987 FA Cup Final. I think it was seven and a half minutes each way, and me and Dennis Taylor played for the Coventry team.
“That is the last time I was at Wembley, although obviously the stadium has been rebuilt since then. I do remember Dennis Taylor running after Daley Thompson for the Spurs team, which didn’t seem a very fair fight. I think Dennis fell arse over tit.
"And Rod Stewart lent me his shin-pads because I didn’t have any, I played on his team. He passed the ball to me once, I messed it up and he never passed to me again.
“I don’t even know exactly how this came about. Somebody contacted our Utopia Strong agent and asked what we were doing on July 8th and 9th. Kavus couldn’t make one of the days, and the other day I will do it with John Doran. I believe the first day is already sold out.
“I am just absolutely chuffed – how much fun will that be to do. There are probably other DJs that should be a lot higher up the pecking order for something like this. But whoever decided they liked this strange thing we are doing, I am grateful. Maybe there is some Essex connection with Blur – I am curious to find out.
“I do know I will be doing the DJ sets between the acts. I was very into soul music when Blur were huge in the 1990s, but of course you were very aware of it. There was this north-south divide between them and Oasis. But if you asked me if I was choosing Wonderwall or Song 2, I’d definitely pick Song 2 for the fun of it.
“Having DJ-ed the one thing you know is that everybody likes different things and nobody is right or wrong. So I appreciate that, whatever my tastes. But the ‘Woo-Hoo’ song as I call it is in your blood, and I can’t say how much I am looking forward to seeing 90,000 people singing that at Wembley.
“It will be very different to being a punter – just mad. Glastonbury was just mad when we got asked to that, and this is ridiculous. The party atmosphere from DJ-ing is great fun and I have done it enough that I don’t get too uptight about it and just enjoy playing music that maybe turns people on to different music.”
