There is no show like a Joe show

When Joe Dolan came to stay with Pete Williams and his family in 1974, the first thing Williams did was move the six-month old baby to another room.

The infant’s name was Rob. Twenty-something years later, he would be one of the world’s biggest pop stars.

“Rob was in a cot in the bedroom where Joe was to sleep. Joe would later say that we got Rob out of the bed. In reality it was just the cot,” says Pete, a veteran song and dance man who became acquainted with Dolan treading the boards of the north of England cabaret circuit, where he worked as singer, comedian and general entertainer.