Paul Golder writes for the Brentwood Gazette

We had a soap legend in the studio at the weekend with a visit from John Altman, otherwise known as Nasty Nick from Eastenders!

John is well known to millions of TV viewers for his portrayal of Nick Cotton on TV. But John has had a very varied acting career, from TV to films to theatre.

He also has a long association with music – way back in 1979 John took on the role of George Harrison in the TV film Birth of The Beatles.

He is a musician himself too, and was singer in The Heavy Metal Kids, replacing his Quadrophenia co-star Gary Holton behind the microphone.

He’s also been in a band called Resurrection – which completely coincidentally, is the name of my own late night weekly music show.

It’s John’s love of music which got him into our Brentwood studio today! He has just released a brand new album, Never Too Late To Rock And Roll, which came out on Friday on Nub Music.

John spoke to our Sunday afternoon host Vicki Michelle about the album and his passion for music, and inevitably many stories about his acting career also came out too.

The album isn’t just a rock and roll album – there’s something for everyone musically, from punk to ballads. It’s a great mix of songs, fantastically scored and produced and encapsulating John’s varied love of music throughout the years.

It’s released under the name Johnny Altman – not so much an alter-ego, more to do with the fact that there’s already another musician with John’s name!

You can buy the album online from all online music stores, and our interview is up on our website at www.phoenixfm.com. And of course you can hear Vicki Michelle’s music mix every Sunday at 2pm.