From childhood summers on the beaches of the Algarve to chasing the Northern Lights on songwriting trips to Iceland, Chesney Hawkes has spent a lifetime shaped by movement, music and the road. In this episode of Routes from LNER, the singer joins Jenni on the train to Dundee to talk about growing up in a rock 'n' roll household, the whirlwind of pop stardom, and why travel has always fed his creativity.
Chesney reflects on a childhood surrounded by musicians, from learning piano on an instrument once owned by John Lennon to stepping over sleeping guests to get to the cereal cupboard. He shares memories of running wild as a "feral kid" during long family holidays in Portugal, and traces his journey from a first gig in a Brownie hut to starring alongside Roger Daltrey in Buddy's Song, the film that led to his breakout single "The One and Only" in 1991.
There's plenty of talk about travel too, from backpacking around the Seychelles and falling for the otherworldly landscapes of Iceland, to family trips to the Maldives and the Bahamas, and taking each of his three children on one-on-one holidays around Europe. Chesney also opens up about touring life, favourite haunts in Berlin and Munich, dropping his daughter off at St Andrews, and the renewed success of his latest album, Living Arrows, which has brought him back to Radio 2's A-list more than thirty years after his first hit.
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