WHILE his on-screen persona is in no mood for a knees-up of late, Ian Puleston-Davies is hoping to get the party started at a Prestwich club night on Friday.

The actor, who plays burly builder Owen Armstrong in Coronation Street, will be guest DJ at the next instalment of Prestwich Bop Local at Heaton Park Social Bar, Bury Old Road.

As the 55-year-old prepares to make his DJ-ing debut, he admits picking the perfect playlist is proving to be slightly more tricky than expected.

He said: “I’ve got the worst music taste in Manchester.

“It sounds great in my bedroom on a Tuesday morning.

“I’m going through some of my favourite Northern Soul tunes now.”

He is planning on picking the brains of his co-stars, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Jennie McAlpine, who have graced the Bop Local decks before him.

Another option is to call on the expertise of Graeme Hawley, who played serial killer John Stape in Corrie, and Jeff Hordley, who plays Cain Dingle in Emmerdale, as the pair DJ and launched a record label last year.

Ian, who lives in Chester, said: “I could cheat and ring them and say, give me your five best tunes but I’m going to wait.

“They’re the last resort.

“I was at the Soap Awards recently and Graeme was doing the DJ-ing and God, that lad worked.
“People just normally go to these things and want to talk and show off.

“For the first time, I was listening to how he did it because I knew I had this gig coming up on Friday.

“There is a little mountain to climb.”

It was while at a screening for Elaine Constantine’s film, Northern Soul, that Ian met the Bop Local organisers and was invited to follow in the footsteps of Julie, Jennie, Jeff, Graeme and other guests DJ including TV chef Simon Rimmer and presenter Terry Christian.

He said: “I was there with a glass of wine in my hand, had just seen a movie about Northern Soul and felt like I could conquer the world.”

He is planning on coaxing people onto the dancefloor with a mix of music, including Lisa Stansfield and Simply Red, with Fairground being one of his favourite songs to dance to.
He said: “I do love Motown. I love a bit of Northern Soul.

“I’m just going to choose the tunes I would get up to dance to.

“Obviously a couple of Manchester bands, The Stone Roses, the obvious ones, the Happy Mondays.

“I wish I did have a bit more of a selective taste.

“I wouldn’t mind a bit of Beastie Boys.

“I’ll get a bit of Bowie in there.

“I stop at grunge and heavy metal.”

On screen, life is no party for Ian’s character Owen as he recently found out his partner Anna Windass was blackmailed into having sex with predatory Pat Phelan, to banish the dodgy businessman from their lives.

He said: “I don’t know what’s going to happen.

“He’s lost his yard, his pride, his girlfriend, he’s lost his dignity.

“I think Owen needs to get himself together and hopefully come back a wiser man.”

Currently on a break from filming, Ian is planning to turn his attention back to writing after the success of 2004 film Dirty Filthy Love, starring Michael Sheen as an architect living with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome.

Ian, who has spoken about his own experiences as an OCD sufferer and is a patron of charity OCD-UK, said: “I’ve got a bit of a break now which is great.

“I think I need to recharge my batteries.

“I love (Coronation Street). They’re a great bunch of people.

“It ticks all the boxes, it’s nice to have a regular job as an actor.

“It’s nice to have a bit of a break, it really is, I’ve never been in a job for so long.

“I think you can have overkill but I don’t think there’s been overkill with Owen.

“I’ve got a lot of writing to catch up with that’s easily going to fill the Corrie gap.

“It sounds a bit romantic but I’m going to disappear to a hotel on the Welsh coast for a couple of weeks and write.”

Tickets for Prestwich Bop Local cost £5 and are available from Pinto’s, Fairfax Road, Prestwich, or visit ticketline.co.uk.