MARTIN Neely, one of the stars of Back to Bacharach, which is heading to Blackburn next week admits that the show never fails to surprise its audiences.

The show is a celebration of the work of one of the world’s great songwriters and features a live orchestra and performers who have graced the West End stage.

“You see people after the show and one of the main comments is that they never realised Burt Bacharach had written all those songs,” said Martin.

“They know the songs but don’t realise that he had written them all.”

The show includes well-loved songs such as Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, 24 Hours from Tulsa and Walk On By.

“That’s the thing,” said Martin, who has starred in Les Miserables, “his career spans such a massive number of years. His first hits were in 1958, then in the Sixties he had over 70 top 40 hits in the US and over 50 top 40 hits in UK and then he came back in the 1980s. There’s such a massive catalogue of songs.

“And they were just so good. It’s not just a question of how many there were.”

With his songwriting partner Hal David, Burt Bacharach worked at the Brill Building in New York which became a hotbed of songwriting talent - Carole King and Gerry Goffin were another successful partnership operating out of the building.

“You can look at Bacharach and David as the Stock Aitken and Waterman of their time in the way they could churn out songs one after another,” said Martin. “But the songs were of a little higher level I would suggest.”

As well as performing the songs, Martin and the other performers also introduce each number and give the audience a little of their history.

“We give a little bit of background to the songs and if there is a story about them; why and how they were written,” said Martin.

There are a number of shows which feature Burt Bacharach’s songs but, says Martin, what makes Back to Bacharach stand out is the fact that all the music and vocals are live.

“It is a fully live experience,” said Martin. “That’s the thing which is really important. You do have so many shows with backing tracks just because of the sheer cost of taking a band on tour but we have decided not to do that.

“These songs need a live orchestra.

“It’s really exciting for me to be on stage with so many talented musicians. You know you are in safe hands. These guys have done so much work over the years, it’s a privilege to be able to sing with them.”

The main problem the show faces is decided which songs to leave out.

“The back catalogue is so huge could just stay there all night and you’d still not do them all,” said Martin.

“We’ve got a setlist that is flows nicely as soon as put a different song in there it can change the whole dynamic of it so you have to be careful about what you take out and put in.”

Back to Bacharach, Thwaites Empire Theatre, Blackburn, Friday, March 16. Details from 01254 685500 or www.thwaitesempire theatre.co.uk