David Campbell has made a career out of stepping back in time to bring the music of bygone eras to modern audiences.

On the back of four top 10 albums featuring tracks from Broadway through to 1960s pop, the popular singer has again gone back to the future for his latest project.

But this time he has combined his performance background with big bands with the songs that coloured his adolescence.

His latest studio album, Let’s Go, features his takes on some of the big hits from the early 1980s, including tunes by acts such as Soft Cell, Dexys Midnight Runners, Human League and The Style Council.

“It’s me revisiting the time in my childhood when I stopped listening to my grandmother’s music, which was swing and Broadway, and started using my pocket money not to buy Star Wars toys, but to buy music,” Campbell explains.

“For this album, I wanted to put a fresh spin on some dance-pop classics with a big-band brass and string sound.

“The band and I all brought lists of songs that we love from that era. We went back to basics and jammed some of our favourite tunes from our adolescence, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.

“We wanted to leave the hair rock out of it and not touch early rap, because we knew where our limits were – and we knew we weren’t cool enough.”

Campbell said he had “really gone to town” with the stage production for his Let’s Go national tour.

“We’ve got a set, we’ve got costumes, we’ve got amazing lights. It kind of looks like a sci-fi Countdown spectacular,” he said.

“People are really loving this concept and are wanting to come on board with it, so I’m very excited.”

As for his memories of the vinyl era, the singer recalls some of the titles from his old record collection.

“One of my first LP purchases was the Suddenly album by Billy Ocean, but I think the first single that ever got given to me was Joey Scarbury’s ‘Believe It or Not’, the theme from The Greatest American Hero,” Campbell said.

“Can you imagine if anyone over 35 (years old) got in the charts today or actually got on radio? It would be unheard of.

“It just seems crazy to me that we’ve become so ageist with our pop stars.”

David Campbell and his band perform at the Norths Leagues Club at Kallangur on 6 July. 

For tickets phone the venue on 3285 2733.