When musician Mike Hurst was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he decided to raise some money for research.

To his great delight, his famous friends rallied round and will be joining him for two nights at the Kenton Theatre in Henley in September.

The show, called Mike Hurst — with a little help from his friends, will feature guest stars including Shakin’ Stevens, Sir Tim Rice, P P Arnold, Mike d’Abo and Jane Asher.

The celebrities will play music, sing and share showbiz stories.

Mike, who is 81 and lives at Bix Bottom, says: “When I got Parkinson’s a couple of years ago, I realised that nobody really knows anything about it. They can’t tell you what causes it.”
 

“They can tell you about what it does to your brain but not why some people have shaking hands and why others don’t and why some people find it difficult to walk and some others don’t. It’s really quite strange. I suddenly thought, ‘They have to find a reason for this’ and I wanted to do a show to put money into Parkinson’s UK.”
 

“I thought I would go to a lot of the people I’ve produced and worked with through my life and ask them if they’d do it and, damn me, they all did. I thought I’d phone these people and I’d get some saying, ‘I can do Saturday but I can’t do Sunday’, or ‘I’d rather not do two days. But I’d hardly got the description of the event out of my mouth when every one of them said to me, ‘Oh, we’ll do both’. I thought, ‘My god, that is fantastic’.”
 

“It is a good line-up and there may be more, a couple of surprises here and there. It’s a labour of love. I mean, all the artists, they’re not getting a penny for this any more than I am but, for example, a young musician in the backing band, bless his heart, he wants his travel costs covered and I don’t blame him.”

“By and large, the whole idea is to put on a show in Henley that Henley will remember. I’d like that.” Mike has a very long association with the New Street theatre and music and performing is in his blood.

“My relationship with the Kenton Theatre has gone on for more than 50 years now,” he says. “My mother [Flavia Pickworth] started the Henley Children’s Theatre Group and when she died in 1981 I took it over and then my daughter Muffin took it over in 1993. Then, from about 2000 onwards, I did an annual rock ’n’ roll show at the Kenton, which lasted for 12 years.”

Mike’s family holds the Guinness World Record for most theatrical members of a family to appear on stage (24 people), when they performed in Puss in Boots at the Kenton in December 2003. He and his wife Marjorie were joined by their six children, Tim, Alexis, Muffin, Bryony, Jonas and Adam, their children’s spouses, Lynsey, Nathan, Ben and Ruth, and their grandchildren, Ben, Ellie, Aisling, Cassian, Liberty, Flavia, Emerald, Tabitha, Antigone, Polyanna, Madeleine and Amelie.
 

Their ages ranged from one to 63. Mike continues: “The Springfields is where I began in the music business. I’m the only one left because Tom and Dusty have gone. Then I became a record producer and I produced a lot of people like Cat Stevens, Manfred Mann, Spencer Davis, Showaddywaddy, Shakin’ Stevens and the Move.”
 

His diagnosis has not put Mike off his stride musically.

“I’m lucky with the guitar because I don’t have tremors in my hands,” says Mike. “I have muscular pain in my thumbs but that’s nothing. I’m really grateful that I can still play guitar as it is therapeutic. An interesting thing about Parkinson’s is that your short-term memory — and I mean really short term — is very iffy.”
 

“Another thing that does affect Parkinson’s people, including me, is it changes your voice. Both Neil Diamond and Linda Ronstadt have Parkinson’s and they have said this. You don’t have the power in your voice that you had previously and that’s terribly sad if you’re a singer because you know it’s not what it was. I feel that I can still get by. The reason I can get by, like I’m sure the others can too, is that it’s an adrenaline rush, sitting on a stage singing to an audience and that kind of covers it up, which is good but it’s hard.”

Mike is looking forward to reminiscing about the past.

“I mean, the Crown Inn at Pishill is now owned by Russell Brand,” he says. “I bought that pub in 1970 and we had a discotheque up there in the barn and my artists used to come down and play and get on with everybody else. It was fantastic. Anyone who remembers those days and went to the Crown when we were there would remember how great it was. “It was a rock ’n’ roll time and everybody loved it. Manfred Mann and the lead singer, Mike d’Abo, came down, Shakin’ Stevens came down and we did a party with him there.”
 

“The only one that I’ve not been involved with, but he’s come to live in Hambleden, is Sir Tim Rice. He is such a great guy and not many people know that he’s a closet Elvis Presley fan. He’s fantastic.”
 

“He’s on tour in the next couple of months with his own show. He’s just great to listen to and talk to and it’s wonderful that he has agreed to do this.”

Mike is relishing the fundraiser but admits he will find it emotional. He says: “The thing that always sticks in my mind about the Kenton is that my mother literally, virtually, died doing the show in 1981. When I say virtually it’s because we took her out of the pit at the Kenton and brought her home.”

His son is Henley estate agent Tim Peers.

“He loves everything to do with music,” says Mike. “He knows more about the Sixties than I do even though he was a little boy then. He’s a music anorak.”

Mike Hurst — with a little help from his friends, in aid of Parkinson’s UK, is at the Kenton Theatre on Saturday and Sunday, September 7 and September 8 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £65 adults, £125 VIP, which includes a meet and greet after the show (limited numbers available).

For more information and to buy tickets, call the box office on (01491) 525050 or visit thekenton.org.uk