Still a hot ticket: how Cliff Richard is still filling arenas at the age of 85

Cliff Richard is back on the road, with the 85-year-old starting the almost sold out UK leg of his Can’t Stop Me Now tour in Cardiff tomorrow.

- Michael Hann

Last week, he wrapped up a run of shows in Australia and New Zealand. His UK tour rounds off at the Royal Albert Hall on 9 December.

Richard opened the British rock’n’roll era, with Move It in 1958. And after 67 years in the business and 14 No 1 hits in the UK charts, he is still selling out big rooms.

To the uninitiated, his continued presence is at best a mystery, and at worst an affront to taste. That is to misunderstand him: he doesn’t operate in the music business so much as in the Cliff Richard business.

When the man who became known as the Peter Pan of Pop disappeared from national radio, to his great distress, it was because he had long since ceased to operate in a world recognisable to the rest of pop.

The writer Richard Williams predicted this future as far back as 1980, when the singer was having a revival off the back of a run of such hits as Carrie and We Don’t Talk Anymore.