TAKING IT TO THE PEOPLE: Stories and Songs, Jimmy Nail, Settle Victoria Hall, 16th July 2026
Jimmy Nail, Stories and Songs, Settle, 16th July 2026
Taking It To The People
The world’s oldest music hall, Settle’s Victoria Hall, has seen some things over the course of its 173 years, but esteemed filmmaker, director and producer, Steven Spielberg, playing a part in getting actor and musician Jimmy Nail onto its stage on 16th July 2026, is surely amongst one of its more unusual highlights.
The Victoria Hall, Settle (Image: Damien Wilkinson)
Taking the stage to a sold out crowd, Jimmy Nail set the scene on his Stories and Songs 2026 tour explaining how the influence of Spielberg had come to be.
When Nail and Sting’s musical The Last Ship was running on Broadway, Spielberg, through his friendship with Sting, advised that the show would only truly come alive if it was performed in the very cities and regions impacted by the shipbuilding industry the musical portrayed. In other words, Spielberg directed Nail, that ‘taking it to the people’ was the way to go. This sound logic became instrumental in helping format his career retrospective tour; nearly 50 dates travelling around some of the more remote venues and parts of the UK.
Which is how we all found ourselves in Settle on a hot night (not quite in the Lake District though, Jimmy!)
Nail has chalked up seven decades in showbusiness (bursting onto the scene in 1969 aged 15) and wanted to share some of the key events, stories and songs that have influenced his remarkable journey since then.
An Intimate Evening with Big Jim
With a firm emphasis on the intimacy of the evening, a strict no cameras and photography edict in place, Nail perched on a seat centre stage, accompanied by long time collaborator, Tony Davis, who provided some excellent musical embellishment to the many songs performed by Nail.
Perhaps not unexpectedly, Nail’s acting breakthrough was given much prominence in the early part of the show.
The ITV classic Auf Wiedersehen, Pet established Nail in the early 80s and he gleefully recounted auditioning for the part of Leonard ‘Oz” Osborne (“I was pushed along and didn’t really want it, and told them so!”). Unexpectedly being cast, he found himself playing a lead role in a series showing to 17 million on a Friday night primetime slot. Nail hummed the Central Television jingle before launching into Breakin’ Away, the show’s closing credits outro song, originally performed by Joe Fagin.
Even from this song, Nail’s voice, which has lost none of its timbre over the years, sparkled and beautifully resonated across the old music hall.
Nail spoke passionately of the strong friendships that were appropriately, cemented, amongst the band of brothers thrown together for the TV series and there were emotional tributes to both Gary Holton and Pat Roach who both sadly passed away in 1985 and 2004 respectively.
Not wanting to be typecast saw Nail branch out into Spender, created and written with Ian La Frenais and also starring the late Sammy Johnson playing ‘Stick’ (later immortalised with the Sunday for Sammy ongoing tribute shows held in the North East).
Nail grew up playing music in Newcastle in the 70s, brushing into Sting, Mark Knopfler and Brian Johnson along the way. Not wanting to lose his musical direction saw him release Love Don’t Live Here Anymore, a cover of the Rose Royce song, in 1985, which Nail deliciously recreated on the evening.
Roger Taylor had produced the original song and Nail established a friendship with the Queen drummer (“a proper Rock Star”), famously turning down a backstage invite from him to Live Aid, to spend time with his family in Anglesey instead!
His next TV outing, the immensely popular Crocodile Shoes, was the next subject of reminiscence. Originally conceived as a BBC2 film, Nail was enamoured when its was instead upgrade to a series on BBC1. He treated us to both the title track and the equally popular Cowboy Dreams with its ‘Yippi ay yeah‘ refrain.
If such things still exist, Jimmy Nail’s Rolodex is chock full of famous and interesting names.
George Harrison was the next to get the anecdotal treatment - an unlikely friendship forged over the ukulele, which Nail, an avid Beatles nut, initially bluffed his way through, securing a follow up visit to the ‘music side’ of Harrison’s sprawling LA residence.
Perhaps even more unlikely was the tale about George Michael and an emergency requirement to borrow £20 from the then Wham singer in a nightclub. George obliged with Nail frequently trying to repay him over the subsequent years.
Despite this I’m sure George would have been touched by the rendition of Praying For Time, that Nail and Davis exquisitely despatched.
Wrapping up the first half recalling his audition for Alan Parker’s Evita film, the videotape not rolling and missing the initial, wondrously spot on, first take, Nail sang A Night of a Thousand Stars, and with a deep breath, held the seven bar climax for the enthralled crowd.
The second half of the performance followed a similar engaging and captivating pattern.
Nail began by recounting the launch of the Last Ship musical, written in partnership with Sting, which he is immensely proud of; a story which champions the struggles of the Geordie shipyard workers from his home stamping ground.
Before long we returned to Evita and more importantly Madonna, having to win her over after a disastrous first day on set, literally knocking her onto the floor! She eventually grew to like him after further chats and another unlikely friendship emerged for our Geordie protagonist.
The Rolodex kept spinning and more tales unfolded. Jamming with Ronnie Wood, playing Faces and Rod Stewart songs whilst musing over difficult rhyming words when songwriting (Nail’s mate Raymond hilariously solving Wood’s ‘oranges’ dilemma!).
Paul Simon also featured heavily - more stories emerging after an unusually long phone encounter between Simon and Nail. The Sound of Silence was played in tribute to the diminutive but groundbreaking songwriter.
The rebirth of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet on BBC was covered with Nail also dipping back to the second series to sing Merle Haggard’s I Can’t be Myself, in his view somewhat incongruously shoehorned into the TV series to showcase his vocal talent.
Paddy McAloon and Prefab Sprout received several mentions across the evening. Nail has worked with him on a number of projects with McAloon writing several songs for Nail’s albums. Playing a sumptuous version of Blue Roses, Nail advised us to check out McAloon’s excellent back catalogue.
Meeting Stevie Wonder at Carnegie Hall, being drafted in to sing harmonies with him, was another sterling memory, again highlighting the star studded company Nail has kept over the years.
Despite all of this Nail came across with tremendous humility, telling us George Harrison himself had advised him to never take the audience or success for granted.
Poignantly he sang The Young Man Who Used To Be Me, from his Tadpoles in a Jar album, arguably one of his most autobiographical songs, outlining the changes from his childhood, turbulent adolescence and early manhood to the man he has now become.
Returning to a more upbeat nature saw Ain’t No Doubt, his number one single from 1992, re-morphed into an audience singalong - the chorus split neatly between male (‘she’s lying’) and female (the more wordy bits!) participants. Assuring us it was the best so far (‘he’s lying’ quipped Davis!) which the crowd lapped up fervourently.
After a baying Settle audience called him back for an encore, Nail said he would leave us with one of his most emotional songs, Big River, which was delivered with considerable aplomb. The strong memories of his shipbuilding worker father interweaved with the River Tyne and growing up in the North East fittingly drew a heart-rending line under the evening as Nail and Davis departed to yet more rapturous cheers and applause.
Back to the Future
We started with Spielberg and it seems appropriate to return to the great moviemaker to sum up the evening.
With such a varied and impressive roll of credits within the film, TV and music industries, Nail occupies an almost unique position. He has pretty much done it all across his seven decades.
It was such an enjoyable evening. Nail’s excellent and engaging way of recounting some wonderful memories melded with his wonderful singing acted perfectly as a time travel machine for the audience to fully embrace the impressive career of this much loved and cherished Geordie entertainer.
If you can get a ticket for a date on the rest of the tour, do so!
