Evil shot at fame

THE collapse of the recording industry meant that singers such as John Barrowman were dropped as an artist, in spite of releasing top twenty albums. It’s typical of the hard-working performer that he refused to accept defeat and set about financing his latest album using PledgeMusic’s Direct to Fan online platform.

The project is called You Raise Me up and has inspired his first full UK tour in four years, which includes York Barbican in May and Sage Gateshead in June.

“Those of us who were lower down in the record company echelon kind of got moved on and dropped, but I wanted to keep on recording. I went to my fans and asked if they wanted to be my producers. Then, within the first chunk of release we sold out in minutes. I say it jokingly, but people were chucking money at me to make the album. I was overwhelmed,” says Barrowman.

As a result, he decided to make the best album he could.

“We were very particular about what we chose and, what I mean by that, about the way we spent the money. I know the responsibility I had. People didn’t just give money and get nothing in return. I would do things like when people donated a certain amount they would get a big afternoon tea with everybody. I rented a hotel and did an afternoon tea and I told them all about the album and I kept them up-to-date about what was happening,” says Barrowman.

Now, more money is being pledged for another album.

“I think it might be a Christmas release and I’m going to give the fans what they want because they are going to pay for it. I don’t want to say how much, but I can say it was a lot of money,” says Barrowman.

“The album title is just a coincidence and I actually put that there as a dedication to my parents as well as my fans,” he says.

An often-mentioned point about the start of Barrowman’s career in 1989 is that he returned to the UK – he was born in Glasgow, but raised in Illinois, US – to study Shakespeare for six months, but ended up playing Billy Crocker in Anything Goes, alongside Elaine Paige.

Did he ever get to perform Shakespeare, I ask.

“It did take me another 14 years and a return to Anything Goes, but I got there. The fact was, I was a bit afraid of doing Shakespeare until I did Love’s Labour’s Lost and it was Trevor Nunn who sat me down and said, ‘You’ll be just wonderful at it because you’re musical and Shakespeare involves poetry and verse, you will do fine’. He was right I enjoyed every second of it,” says Barrowman, who played Dumaine at The National Theatre with Nunn directing both productions.

“I was one of the boys in Shakespeare, but I was a lot younger then,” he jokes.

“Sadly, at the moment I have no time (to take on more Shakespeare) and television is what I love doing. I’m contracted to Warner Brothers and the CW Network and we’re in our third series of Arrow. We've been picked up for a fourth series, and been told we could be running for many more seasons,” Barrowman says.

He is delighted to have found another fantastical character along the lines of Captain Jack Harkness of Doctor Who and Torchwood fame.

“It’s the comic book world as opposed to the sci-fi world and what’s lovely is that the people who watched me previously have switched over and come along on this big journey with me,” he says about his role of Malcolm Merlyn/Dark Archer, the series recurring baddie.

“Malcolm is one of the best villains in the DC comic book world and we all came on board thinking that season one would be a nice little show to do, but it has sky-rocketed and is massive in something like 20 countries around the world,” he says.

How good is he as an archer, I ask. “I cannot hit a bulls-eye and I can tell you that truthfully. I can shoot and I have had training but Stephen Amell, who plays title character Oliver, is a much better shot. However, having had my Torchwood training I could hit a bulls-eye with a gun. Arrows are difficult, that’s why I love CGI,” Barrowman says.

He keeps a careful eye on the Arrow comic books and has noted that Malcolm is still alive and well. “He's not going anywhere, and I know because collect these things and I know his story and he’s an integral part of the Arrow world. I’m here until the end,” says the man who is also investigating turning his villain into a comic book series with his sister Carole, who is an English professor and journalist. The pair have already launched the fantasy novel series Hollow Earth.

The showman is also planning an autumn event for his fans, which will let them into his life in “massive” fashion.

“It will involve my fans from all around the world,” he says. “In general, I don’t live in a tunnel where I think I’ve got a career in the US and a career in the UK. I’ve got a career that’s worldwide because I’m really popular in China, I've got a lot of fans in the Middle East and I look at my career as worldly. With the internet, everybody is in one place. I look at it as on-line internet, but in no way would I give up on any country or place that has been part of my career. That’s why I work so hard at giving back,” he says.

With such a long list of project on the go, including a film, more books and an internet events company, I check on Barrowman’s ability to sleep at night.

“I sleep, I go to bed at about midnight and I’m up at about 6.30am and do a full day and sometimes work a 16-hour day for TV, but it’s all mapped out and I stick to a tight clock. When I have my free time, as I am at the moment, I’m sitting by the pool looking at the mountains,” he says.

n You Raise Me Up, Wednesday, May 27, York Barbican. Monday, June 8, Sage Gateshead

n Arrow runs on Sky One, Mondays, at 9.30pm