WHAT is the new element in the 2012 version of 80’s Mania at the Grand Opera House, York, tonight at 7.30pm?

“I am!” says legendary Top Of The Pops and BBC Radio One presenter Mike Read, who will be your Video Roadshow Host in a show that is in its fourth year of recreating 25 Eighties pop legends in one show, “They contacted me last year and said, would I like to see it and what were my thoughts having seen it?” Mike says.

“I felt that to keep the magic going it needed a TV/radio presenter to make announcements. So they asked, ‘Would you do it?’, but I couldn’t do it at each show.”

The solution, as suggested by the producers, was to film Mike as if he were in the Top Of The Pops studio, as himself on one screen, interviewing “Bob Geldof” and impersonating Sir Jimmy Savile on another.

“I think we’ve streamlined the show, but the key thing is to keep it moving. I’ve never been to a show before where the audience are on their feet from the start.

“They’re great pop songs, great dance songs, with lots of variety from a time when pop artists were recognisable and different. Now you wouldn’t recognise today’s pop acts on the radio, but if Boy George or Adam Ant came on, you know it’s them.”

Duran Duran, The Human League, Kim Wilde, Culture Club, Wham, Madness, Madonna, Spandau Ballet and Cyndi Lauper songs will feature, but so too will the one-off big hits of Nena and Toni Basil.

“Remember Mickey by Toni Basil? Everyone knows her song; everyone knows her image!”

Box office: 0844 871 3024 or book online at atgtickets.com