Dr Hook celebrate their 50th anniversary with tour coming to Portsmouth Guildhall | Interview

Dr Hook starring Dennis Locorriere began the tour back in 2019, and numerous reschedulings and postponements later, it finally reaches Portsmouth Guildhall on Friday, September 9.

The band, originally known as Dr Hook and The Medicine Show, formed in the late 1960s in Union City, New Jersey. They scored their first big hit in 1972 with Sylvia’s Mother and shortened their name to just Dr Hook in 1975, before reaching their commercial peak at the end of the decade with hits like When You’re in Love With a Beautiful Woman and Sexy Eyes.

When The Guide catches up with Dennis, who now lives in Worthing, he is champing at the bit to get back on the road – as he puts it: ‘I'm mostly at home waiting not to be!

‘The last few years have been so herky-jerky with Covid and everything, we've got these shows which have been moved and postponed to death in the last couple of years – like everyone else's!

Their enduring appeal

‘I've been running in place, in one spot at home, waiting for someone to say: “You're on”. It's been very frustrating.’

Talking with Dennis, who was co-lead singer and guitarist in the band from its start, it’s tough to get a word in sideways, but his enthusiasm is infectious.

‘Being the 50th anniversary it was important to me that people came out – and they have. Maybe they think it's because: “Oh, 50th anniversary, this must mean it's over!”

‘We have the kind of audience where the original fans have passed the music on to their kids, and then on to their kids, and sometimes even a fourth generation! We look out there and there are people of all ages, which is really nice.

‘A lot of times kids won't take to what their parents listen to, but there's some kind of cohesive element that passes on and elements of Dr Hook which have appealed to all generations – and trust me, pal, that's not what you're trying to do, you're just trying to sing in tune and hope somebody listens to it. It's later on it takes on a significance.

‘Maybe now acts do go into the business thinking I can change the world, but trust me, that was not my intention,’ he chuckles.

‘I was the youngest member of the band, I was just a chancer from Union City, New Jersey, I wasn't really looking for anything. I didn't really have aspirations - I liked singing and playing music. The Beatles had just come to America a short time before, and everybody my age liked that – it wasn't like I was artistically revolutionary. I had long hair and was trying to play guitar.

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‘As we went on, I think my talent was that I recognised a road – and I took it. Sometimes it was the right one, and sometimes it was the wrong one...

‘That's the thing about being around this long! You sweep up the pile at the end, and think: “Wow, we did pretty good”.’

Of course it’s the enduring popularity of their hits which has kept Dr Hook going.

Keeping the hits coming

‘Now that we've said it’s the 50th anniversary, it's kind of shined a spotlight on it. I did a radio interview the other day and before I came on they played bits of a lot of songs that were hits, and I'm thinking: “Wow!” You don't think of it that way.

‘When our first record, Sylvia's Mother, was a hit, we were in the studio and we heard that it had got to number one. We teared up and we hugged each other, and it was the greatest moment in the world until we realised – damn, now we've got to do that again!

‘And that's the nature of it.’

Over the years the band changed their sound, from country-rock to a poppier, disco-influenced sound – not always to all of their fans’ liking.

‘Well, we wanted to be on the radio,’ explains Dennis, ‘but so did Rod Stewart, so did The Rolling Stones, some of the coolest acts in the world said: how do we get on the radio? Disco beat! That's how we get on the radio for the moment.

‘It's interesting when we do a show now, because we do songs from every bit of our career and they all hang together – it's not like we have to roll in a disco ball for these songs, or wait now, I've got to go put on my bellbottoms... it's all music and it's cool.’

Although Dennis is the sole original member of Dr Hook in the band, he says of the musicians around him: ‘They’re just great musicians. I wanted to put a band together and play these songs the way people remember them, not the "yeah I'm bored with these but we still have to play them" versions. What is that? If they've lasted this long, are we going to sell tickets to it and change them?

‘The other cool thing about playing now, is that there are so many people in the audience who never got to see these songs performed live.’

Dennis’ health scare

Back in 2019, Dennis also suffered a health scare which has left him with ongoing kidney problems. However, the 73-year-old says: ‘We're not limping out there – it's a 50th anniversary tour, but there's a lot of energy, a lot of vitality and it doesn't look like: “Here's an old guy and here's his career”.

‘My health is something I deal with, but it's not impeding the shows, and the shows aren't impeding my health. When I do shows I feel more like "me". When I was sick and they said: “Oh no, you need to take some time off, you're not going anywhere”, I started to feel like the wrong guy. This is what I've done my whole life…

‘Now that we've got people worrying about food and bills, if people are willing to pay money to come and see us, it's pretty flattering that we're on the list of essentials – that's pretty cool, and it's hard to fly in the face of that. I need to take that seriously!

‘I love the people and I love the audiences, but right now, I'm all in – I want these gigs to go well and I want people to be happy.’

Tickets £48.25. Go to portsmouthguildhall.org.uk.