Last night of the proms: Blackpool and Fleetwood's star tenor Alfie Boe says 'it's always a joy' to return to Lancashire ahead of Lytham Hall event

“It’s always a joy to get back to the North West, to my roots and to that crowd – especially in Lancashire – it’s home from home when I play there.”
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Star tenor Alfie Boe is returning to his home county and hoping family, friends, and fans are ready to pack their posh picnics for an exclusive Last Night Of The Proms concert at Lytham Hall.

The Blackpool-born international singing sensation, who grew up in Fleetwood, returns to Lytham to headline the one-night Proms special presented by Lytham Festival, on Sunday, August 28.

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The Lytham Hall performance will be Alfie’s first show on the Fylde since the huge homecoming gig at Fleetwood Town FC’s Highbury Stadium in 2018 – and his first Lytham show in a decade, since he took to the stage at the original Lytham Proms in 2012.

Star tenor and TV personality Alfie Boe is returning to his home county of Lancashire to perform at Lytham Hall's 'Last night of the proms'Star tenor and TV personality Alfie Boe is returning to his home county of Lancashire to perform at Lytham Hall's 'Last night of the proms'
Star tenor and TV personality Alfie Boe is returning to his home county of Lancashire to perform at Lytham Hall's 'Last night of the proms'
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The Blackpool-born , Fleetwood-raised, tenor is excited: “I do hope to see some familiar faces for this one… If there’s nothing good on the telly, then my family might come out to support,” Alfie joked of his large family who still live in Fleetwood, ahead of his much-anticipated return to the Fylde.

“Everybody seems to appreciate you making the effort to come home and play back in Lancashire and just being there is wonderful.

“Fleetwood is where I was born and brought up, and I don’t think you can ever class the place where you grew up as anything other than ‘home’.

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“But actually, for me, ‘home’ is a number of things. It’s not necessarily a region or a town, not necessarily a house; it’s the people you’re with and that can be anywhere around

the world, whether you’re with friends, children, a partner, whatever.

“I spend a lot of time on the road, I’m living out of bags right now, but when I get to be with my children – that’s ‘going home’ for me at this time.”

Joined by fellow Les Misérables star, John Owen-Jones, for the exclusive picnic party at Lytham Hall, Alfie’s promising a ‘huge celebratory concert – full of music to get people on their feet’, while raising money for the ongoing restoration of the Grade I-listed property.

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The Lytham show follows a summer tour with Michael Ball, who Alfie has been recording and performing with since 2016 – and he’s looking forward to being back on stage in beautiful outdoors venues.

“We all need fun and entertainment in our lives after going through the pandemic,” the former TVR apprentice said. “It’s time we started to enjoy life again – and this summer is the perfect time to bring people together through music.

“It’s a wonderful media. To be able to put on a record, to play music, to see music played, we need that. It’s good for people’s mental health, it’s therapeutic.”

And the former Cardinal Allen Catholic High School pupil-turned-stage-star, who chanced upon his musical career when a customer heard him singing while working at the TVR garage in Bispham, has had his own share of therapeutic events this year.

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Alfie was one of eight celebrities who took part in the remarkable TV show Freeze The Fear With Wim Hof, filmed in the Italian Alps in January.

Each week, they faced a series of mental and physical challenges, and reaped the rewards of cold- water therapy and Wim ‘The Iceman’ Hof’s extraordinary breathing techniques.

Alfie credits the experience of Freeze The Fear with helping him find a new direction in life, during a difficult period in his life.

“I didn’t really know what to expect!” Alfie admits. “I was asked if I’d be interested and volunteered after reading up a bit about Wim Hof and his methods and watching videos of what he does.

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“I thought it was something I could really benefit from and needed in my life at that moment. So I took the plunge – literally. And it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, I really mean that.

“It was pretty intense in terms of the cold therapy, and a really emotional time. I fixed a lot in myself, I healed a lot, but also found a strength somewhere inside, and a direction in life of where I wanted to go and what I want to try to be moving forward. It was a learning process.”

Among the challenges, the stars undertook cold water submersions and their final task saw Alfie and six of the group take a leap of faith from a 500-foot-high bridge.

“On a practical level, I still take cold showers and I do a bit of fresh-water swimming now,” said Alfie about the experience and how it has changed him.

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“But more than that, I want to do some fundraising events – putting my body to the extremes in cold weather – for mental health charities.

“The power of the challenges and the cold, it brought something out of me in terms of sharing my experiences. My story, and my being able to open up to talk about things, if that helps someone watching, it’s done the job.

“The responses on social media after that episode in particular, have been overwhelming and I would like to thank everybody for their comments.

“I know now, I want to be an advocate for mental health. That’s something really important to me.”

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Alfie Boe has forged a reputation as being one of the best classical crossover tenors from the UK. Best known for his theatre performances, Alfie is most recognised for his portrayal of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables. He has achieved two Number 1 albums and amassed multi-million, multi-platinum record sales.

Tickets for ‘Last night of the proms’ at Lytham Hall on August 28 are on sale now from www.lythamfestival.com