I’M standing with Jay Osmond, looking up at the Bradford Live building. I tell him the Beatles played there, and the Rolling Stones, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers. I tell him that people loved this place so much they organised a mass ‘hug’ of the building as part of their campaign to save it.

“That says everything about the power of music - the music we grew up with. It never leaves us,” says Jay.

The nostalgic pull of music is at the heart of a feelgood new musical, which starts a week-long run at the Alhambra tonight (October 15).

NOW That’s What I Call a Musical is inspired by the NOW phenomenon which began in 1983 as a compilation of 30 hit singles from that year. The NOW That’s What I Call Music! concept became an instant hit - it was the first time singles had appeared together, like a mix tape, on one LP - and the franchise continues today, 116 albums and 200 million copies later.

In the musical we meet Gemma and April who, as school pals in 1989, have their heads full of pop magazines and Rick Astley. Twenty years on, we catch up with them at a school reunion. With a score of 80s hits from the likes of Wham, Cyndi Lauper, Spandau Ballet and Whitney Houston, the show is directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood and stars Nina Wadia. Jay is a guest star, playing himself, giving Gemma and April advice - performing a song or two along the way.

A school reunion scene from the show A school reunion scene from the show (Image: Pamela Raith)

There would be many a teenage girl, back in the day, who’d have fainted at the very idea of Jay Osmond stepping down from the poster on their bedroom wall. When Jay and his brothers were storming the charts in the 1970s, fan hysteria - Osmondmania - reached a level not seen since the Beatles.

The brothers from Utah started out as a barbershop quartet - Jay, Alan, Wayne and Merrill - singing to raise funds for hearing aids for their two older brothers. Supported by Walt Disney, they landed a residency on the Andy Williams Show, and went on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide. With hits including Crazy Horses and Love Me For a Reason, the Osmonds amassed a legion of fans, still devoted after half a century.

“Our fans are like family,” says Jay. “Some have been with us since the 60s. It’s wonderful to see them singing along, I know how much those songs mean to them. There’s nothing quite like music to take us back.

“In this show, we see the girls as teenagers, through flashbacks. The songs they grew up with take them back in time.

“It’s a show about music and friendship, and how we might lose our way a little when we grow older, but we always have those songs.”

The show captures a time when we cherished LPs. “You listened to the whole album, it wasn’t just streaming a song,” says Jay. “The 80s was a really transforming time for music; that’s all there on these compilation albums. In the States we had K-tel albums.”

The Eighties was a decade that Jay says was challenging on a personal level: “The 60s were magical, the 70s were a whirlwind and the 80s were turbulent. We were brothers, with a group identity, but we went through a lot of changes: rock ‘n’ roll, pop, country.

“In the 80s I was Jay, on my own. I got my own apartment for the first time, I had freedom but I no longer had my brothers. It was a very turbulent time of my life. Today I have that group identity again, with my band. They’re like brothers.”

Does he still see the other Osmond brothers? “When we can. We saw Donny recently, we spent four hours in a restaurant catching up,” smiles Jay.

What music did he and the boys listen to, as kids? “Michael Jackson was our friend, we loved his music. I liked Neil Diamond and John Lodge from the Moody Blues, he’s a good friend,” says Jay.

“I told his wife, ‘I listened to your husband when I was growing up’ and she said ‘I listened to yours when I was growing up’,” smiles Jay’s wife, Karen.

The couple are delightful company, and are keen to return to Bradford next year for Jay to do a show here.

“My wife has a mind like a jukebox - a song will instantly trigger a memory for her,” says Jay: “We both have a favourite song - I Know You’re Out There Somewhere by the Moody Blues. We both loved the song, before we even met each other. I told Justin Hayward, who wrote it, and he cried. That’s the power of music.”

Jay is reminded of the nostalgic power of music every time he meets his fans. He wrote a musical about the Osmonds as a love letter to them. When it came to the Alhambra, in 2022, there were many diehard fans in the audience, wearing Osmonds T-shirts and waving banners.

“I meet fans after my shows, I did one just the other day, and they tell me their stories,” says Jay. “Some still remember the time they were kids and their parents were fighting, and they’d go into their bedroom and put a record on, to escape.

“Our childhood was very disciplined - we had great parents and we couldn’t have achieved what we did without them, but it wasn’t a regular childhood and I didn’t go to regular school. But when I’m with the fans, it’s like our high school reunion.”

* Now that’s What I call a Musical runs at the Alhambra from tonight until Saturday, October 19. Call (01274) 432000 or visit bradford-theatres.co.uk