YOU can't keep Aussie Jason Donovan away from Yorkshire.

The Eighties' soap opera heartthrob in Neighbours has a series of engagements in the Broad Acres in the days, weeks and months ahead, led off by his Ten Good Reasons and Greatest Hits concert tour playing York Barbican on Sunday, Sheffield City Hall on Monday and Hull City Hall on Wednesday.

He will be looking glam as Tick/Mitzi Del Bra in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, The Musical at Sheffield Lyceum from May 23 to 27 and joining Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley, Rick Astley and Pat Sharp on the East Coast for the Legends Of Pop night of Eighties' nostalgia at the Scarborough Open Air Theatre on August 6.

This week came the announcement that Jason is to play "the father of rock'n'roll", Sun Studios' record producer Sam Phillips, in Million Dollar Quartet. Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux's Tony Award-winning Broadway musical and West End hit will play Leeds Grand Theatre from November 7 to 12 on its first British tour.

Inspired by the famed recording session where Sam Phillips assembled Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, Million Dollar Quartet brings that night to life with the likes of Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog, I Walk The Line and Great Balls Of Fire.

York Press:

Jason Donovan as Tick/Mitzi in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. Picture: Paul Coltas

Already, Jason has appeared at the Leeds Grand in The New Rocky Horror Show in 1998, The Sound Of Music in June 2011 and The King's Speech, in the role of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, last May. He was last in York in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert at the Grand Opera House last December.

On his return this weekend, the focus falls on the Ten Good Reasons and Greatest Hits solo tour, wherein Jason performs his five times platinum-selling 1989 debut album in its entirety with its number one singles Too Many Broken Hearts, Sealed With A Kiss and Especially For You.

"The basis of the tour is very much the Ten Good Reasons album, which was highly successful in 1989," says Jason. "I haven't toured for six years, and if your catalogue isn't current, you never feel happy just doing a greatest hits show, when you haven't been in the studio, but this new show is a good reason to do a show, playing some of the songs live for the first time."

Looking back on his days as Scott Robinson in Neighbours, Jason says: "What happened to me was that this show was in your living room every day and then I made records that complemented that show and that was the perfect storm.

"The thing about music and now the tour is that it puts you in a time and place like no other; music is like a drug, it becomes your god, so that once you have made an emotional connection, it never leaves you. Ten Good Reasons was a defining moment for me and my fans. It was the perfect marriage between music and personality. I was 21 at the time...wow!"

Please note, Sunday's show will start at 7.30pm, not 8pm as first stated, and the support act will be Mon Amie. York tickets can be booked on 0844 854 2757 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk; Sheffield and Hull, 0844 338 0000 or bookingsdirect.com; Scarborough, 01723 818111 or scarboroughopenairtheatre.com; Priscilla, 0114 249 6000 or sheffieldtheatres.co.uk; Million Dollar Quartet, 0844 848 2700 or leedsgrandtheatre.com

For more information on Million Dollar Quartet, visit milliondollarquartetlive.co.uk/