The Nicky and Mark show hits Monmouth
Tim Butters
SWING is the thing that will sing-a-ling-a-ling at Monmouth’s Savoy Theatre tomorrow night when actor Mark Moraghan and radio and tv personality Nicky Campbell bring their own brand of ‘new songs in the classic fashion’ to prove once and for all, as the title of their 2009 debut album states, ‘Moonlight is Back in Style.’
Chronicle reporter TIM BUTTERS caught up with one of the biggest swingers in town to discover just why an old ‘Watchdog’ has picked up the mic and taken to the stage to become a ‘cool cat’.

“I’m in love with songs, it’s that simple,” explains Campbell, the driving musical and lyrical force behind ‘Moonlight is Back in Style’, when asked about the genesis of the album that was released last year.
And it was Campbell’s devotional love of songs which led directly to the critically-acclaimed album of style and swing which was written by Nicky and sung by Mark and which has thrust the unlikely pair into the spotlight and a nationwide tour that has razzled and dazzled many a happy audience.
The tale of the two troubadours with an affinity for that ‘big old-time sound’ began when the award winning radio presenter met former Brookside and Holby City actor Mark Moraghan on the BBC series, ‘Just the Two of Us,’ where they discovered a passionate penchant for swing, big bands, and show-stopping ballads.
It was a meeting of musical minds and the chemistry was instant.
The pair decided to fulfill their mutual musical ambition to make an album that would show that they do still sing ‘em and write em’ like they used to.
Campbell is no stranger to music, and has been writing professionally on and off since he was 21. It started with radio and TV jingles in the eighties and he continued to write music for Radio One in the nineties, garnering a Sony award for his efforts.
Yet until last year, most people would have associated the name Campbell with the playing of records rather than the making of them.
So was the writing of a record, whose lyrics, figures no less than Sir Tim Rice have called “annoyingly good,” the realisation of a lifetime ambition or just something that swung the swinger’s way at a convenient time?
“I love writing music and always have,” revealed Campbell. “I think a good song is sacred, because anything that can encapsulate a story or message in the space of three or four minutes, whilst taking you to a magical place that touches a chord within, is perfection itself.
“So to actually write an album of songs that people feel are worth listening to is definitely the fulfillment of a long harboured ambition.”
Although catholic in his musical tastes which range from the Beatles to Bowie and from the Rolling Stones to Elvis Costello, Campbell’s songs on this particular musical offering are on the whole about love - whether being in it, being abandoned by it, finding it, fleeing it, losing it, being broken by it or finding redemption in it. The ‘L’ word looms large undercover of the ‘moonlight’.
“The songs are basically about human relationships and all the emotions and passions inherent in that, and which are familiar to anyone who has ever loved, lost and lived,” Nicky told the Chronicle.
Taking the winning formula of ‘Moonlight’ and applying it their second-album which will be called ‘Empty Bottle, Broken Heart’ Nicky and Mark are of the attitude ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’
“We’re half-way through the second-album and it’s going to be very much a case of more of the same,” said Nicky.
“As for the difficult third album, that’ll be the time to get experimental, and Mark and I will probably appear naked on the cover like John and Yoko,” joked the Moonlight maestro.
Liverpudlian Mark Moraghan, who is the Roge