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Cliff Richard Is In Kingston On Sunday To Talk About Only Number Ones With Iain Dale
Cliff Richard turned 86 on Wednesday, had afternoon tea with about 200 fans and Ken Bruce at the InterContinental in London on Thursday, and on Sunday he is at the Rose Theatre in Kingston for an evening with Iain Dale, which is a busy week for anyone, let alone a man in his 80s. Banquet Records, the Kingston record shop, is putting it on, and the first thing to know before buying is the line Banquet put on the listing themselves: Cliff will not be performing at this event. You get the conversation, a Q&A and a playback of the new album, Only Number Ones, but no live singing.
- Date: Sunday 18 October 2026.
- Doors: 5pm, with Cliff and Iain Dale on stage from 6pm. Banquet says times are still to be confirmed, so these are the expected times.
- Venue: The Rose Theatre, 24-26 High Street, Kingston upon Thames KT1 1HL.
- Tickets: e-tickets only, emailed 2 days before the show, so anyone who has bought should have had theirs by Friday.
- Ages: 14 and over can go on their own, 8 to 13 need a ticket-holding adult, and no under 8s.
The 12 Songs He Picked For Only Number Ones
Only Number Ones comes out on 27 November, so the people in the Rose Theatre on Sunday will hear it nearly 6 weeks before everyone else. The idea came from Cliff. In his words, “I suggested to Warner Music that I record an album of songs that made it to No.1. Thank heavens they agreed!!” He listened to dozens of songs and chose 12, and this is the list, with who had them first:
| Song | Original artist | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Spirit In The Sky | Norman Greenbaum | 1969 |
| All I Have To Do Is Dream | The Everly Brothers | 1958 |
| I’m A Believer | The Monkees | 1966 |
| Oh, Pretty Woman | Roy Orbison | 1964 |
| My Sweet Lord | George Harrison | 1971 |
| Don’t Give Up On Us | David Soul | 1976 |
| Sign Of The Times | Harry Styles | 2017 |
| From Me To You | The Beatles | 1963 |
| Return To Sender | Elvis Presley | 1962 |
| I Should Have Known Better | Jim Diamond | 1984 |
| Rock Around The Clock | Bill Haley & His Comets | 1954 |
| White Christmas (2026 Version) | Bing Crosby | 1942 |
Bing Crosby to Harry Styles is 75 years of songs on one CD. Cliff singing a Harry Styles song is the one most people will want to hear first on Sunday, and Jim Diamond is a nice surprise in there, because I Should Have Known Better is not the obvious pick from 1984.
His Own Number Ones Are On The Deluxe Edition
Buyers of the 2CD deluxe get a second disc of Cliff’s own UK number ones, all 14 of them, starting with Living Doll with The Drifters in 1959 and running through The Young Ones, Summer Holiday and Bachelor Boy with The Shadows, then Congratulations, We Don’t Talk Anymore, Mistletoe and Wine, Saviour’s Day and The Millennium Prayer in 1999. Miss You Nights and Devil Woman are on there as bonus tracks, which neither got to number 1 but plenty of fans would rank above some that did.
14 UK number ones puts Cliff joint third of all time, level with Ed Sheeran and Westlife, with only Elvis on 21 and The Beatles on 18 ahead of him. The release date lines up with the 67th anniversary of Living Doll getting to number 1, too.
Iain Dale Has Been Waiting Since 1978 For Nights Like This
Iain Dale saw Cliff live for the first time in 1978, aged 16, and he has written that it was the first pop concert he ever went to. Since then he has been to more than a dozen of Cliff’s shows. He interviewed him over Zoom about his autobiography in 2021, and in 2023 Cliff’s PA rang and asked him to go on stage at the Hammersmith Apollo and interview Cliff during 3 of his 6 November concerts, with Sir Tim Rice doing the other 3. Dale had already bought tickets for those shows, and he called that weekend one of the best of his life.
So the man asking the questions on Sunday is a fan of nearly 50 years who has done this with Cliff on stage before, which should mean the questions go past the usual ones about Summer Holiday.
How The Seats And Getting There Work
- Seats are allocated in the order the tickets were bought, following advice from the local authorities, so there is no point queuing early. Whatever time you turn up, your seat is held for you.
- Everyone needs their own ticket, children included.
- Have the e-ticket ready on your phone, or print it at home.
- Kingston station is the nearest railway station, and the Rose Theatre website has the journey details for anyone coming by bus or car.
Banquet has not put a ticket price on the Facebook listing, so the Banquet Records website is the place to check for any seats left before Sunday. And if you are going, what would you ask him? 67 years after Living Doll, we would want to know which of those 12 songs he nearly left off.
