THINGS have changed since Jess Conrad, OBE, was a teen idol back in the Sixties, but one thing is the same – his popularity with diehard fans, who, thanks to his recent addition to a touring show, are getting to see him perform his classics once again.

Jess, who had hits with Cherry Pie, Mystery Girl and Pretty Jenny among others, has joined the cast of tribute show Buddy Holly – a Legend Reborn, alongside Buddy, Connie Francis and Big Bopper lookalikes.

The show comes to Westcliff’s Cliffs Pavilion next week. Explaining how he came to be involved in the show, Jess says: “I went to see Cliff Richard at the O2. Not many people get into his dressing room, but I did. I’ve been a friend of his since we did a film together called Serious Charge.

“I played the leader of the gang. It was Cliff’s first film.

“He called me his rough diamond and wanted me to become a bit religious and everything. We’ve been friends for a long time and I told him how good he was.

“I hadn’t seen him live before. I said, ‘You were better than you needed to be’ and he really liked that.

“In the VIP area near his room I bumped into a producer called Mike Taylor and he said, ‘Hi Jess, I haven’t seen you for a long time.’ He rang me a couple of days later and said, ‘Do you fancy going on tour’? ”

Intrigued, Jess enquired who he’d be on tour with.

Jess says: “Mike said ‘Buddy Holly, Connie Francis and the Big Bopper’. I said ‘They’re all dead’, and he said ‘I know, it’s a lookalike show. I had a brilliant idea when I saw you of putting a real Sixties icon in the show as well’.

“Lookalikes are so popular now, so I joined the show. I had no idea whether mixing original guys with lookalikes, would work, but it has worked fantastically.

“On the first night one of my first gags was that I’d met a woman in the foyer and she said to me ‘Are you the real Jess Conrad or are you a tribute’? That got a big laugh.

“It was wonderful. I’ve realised it’s not so much the lookalikes that are the craze, it’s the fact that it doesn’t matter who sings the music – that generation loves it.

“The over-fifties are pretty starved of entertainment, so it is nice for them to hear these wonderful songs music, or go to the theatre and see lookalikes because there’s not many of us left singing Sixties stuff.”

Jess leapt to fame after appearing in TV play Bye Bye Barney as a pop star. He attracted so many fans that he was quickly roped into TV series Oh Boy, and signed to Decca records, becoming a bona fide pop star as a result.

He’s looking forward to returning to Southend. He says he has a strong connection to the town as when he was a lad he’d visit the town, travelling down from London.

He says: “All the cockney people used to go down to Southend. All the posh people used to go to Bournemouth. We used to call going down to Southend going down the cobbles as most of the road from London to Southend was on cobblestones, which makes me sound like I’m from Dickens, but it really was like that.

“When we went with our families – grandads and uncles, we stopped at nearly every pub on the way. We liked that because every time they got a beer you got a packet of crisps.

“Then by the time you got there it was nearly always raining and it was time to start the pub crawl back.”

Jess has visited since, as well as playing Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, he also took on the mantle of Prince Charming in controversial comic Jim Davidson’s adult pantomime.

His very first outing in panto was at Westcliff’s Palace Theatre before he was a household name.

Jess Conrad in Buddy Holly – a Legend Reborn Cliffs Pavilion, Station Road, Westcliff May 17, 8pm, £19-£24 01702 351135