IT all comes down to Conor Mellor's stepdad.

"Eighties' soft rock is his area of music, so two years ago we went to see Journey, supported by Thunder and Whitesnake, though Whitesnake stole the show," says Conor, now sporting the de riguer mane for his role as aspiring rock star and resident loo cleaner Drew in Rock Of Ages at the Grand Opera House, York, from tonight.

"Then I went to see Journey, Foreigner and Styx, again through my stepdad. He was always listening to Eighties' rock in the car on the way to the seaside or just around the house. So, when the Rock Of Ages movie came out, it was always a musical I dreamed of doing and now I have the opportunity."

Conor also had seen Ben Richards and Noel Sullivan star in the 2014 tour of Rock Of Ages at the Grand Opera House. "It was my first shift working front of house there that week, and of course my stepdad said I had to see the show with him!" he says.

The "poodle rock" of Journey, Whitesnake, Styx, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, Jefferson Starship, Europe and REO Speedwagon roars through this American musical, set at the tail end of 1980s' Hollywood, where the party has been raging hard at the Bourbon Room on Sunset Strip, as sex machine Stacee Jaxx takes centre stage and scantily clad groupies line up to turn their fantasies into reality.

Cleaner Drew longs to be the next big thing and aches for the affection of small-town girl Sherri, fresh off the bus from Kansas with stars in her eyes, but the rock'n'roll fairytale faces its final curtain when German developers plan to turn the fabled Strip into just another capitalist shopping mall.

Here comes the perfect excuse to dust off the Eighties' rock epics Don’t Stop Believin’, We Built This City, The Final Countdown, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Here I Go Again, Can’t Fight This Feeling and I Want To Know What Love Is. "Of course they're all guilty pleasures, but then there are lot of guilty pleasures in this show all round, and unashamedly so," says York Stage Musicals director Nik Briggs. "It's a show that throws everything into the mix."

Unlike Conor, Nik has never seen Rock Of Ages. "I'd always wanted to catch it, but I never got the chance, either in London when I was there, or in York, but when I was offered the performing rights to stage it, I thought, 'do you know what, let's do it," says Nik, who is accompanied in the production team by choreographer Jessica Hardcastle and musical director Stephen Hackshaw.

"We'd done a lot of shows recently with women's roles to the fore [9 To 5, Hairspray and Sister Act] and thought we should do a show to show off the men in our company, but then I discovered it's a show where the women put the men in their place, having the power in every relationship, although the rock gods may not think it!"

That said, Rock Of Ages does indeed have plenty of roles for men. "We've got another stellar cast for this show, and it's great that we keep adding to our company. Richard Upton, from Harrogate, is playing Stacee Jaxx after doing Brass with the National Youth Musical Theatre at the Hackney Empire," says Nik. "Chris Knight, from Huddersfield, has joined after I saw him playing Seaweed J Stubbs in Hairspray at the Grand in Leeds, when his energy just shone across the stage. He's playing the narrator for us, so he really drives the show."

Then add in BBC Radio York afternoon show presenter Adam Tomlinson, whose theatre work more often finds him with his back to audiences in his capacity as musical director. "He'll be playing the German developer Hertz Klinemann, and he's been hilarious in rehearsals," says Nik. "I don't think we've got through one where he's not added an 'Adamism', keeping everyone on their toes. Coming from a radio background, he's very quick-witted, he reacts very quickly, and I think people will love seeing him as his German alter-ego!"

Conor, by comparison a YSM regular, sums up Rock Of Ages as a "classic boy-meets-girl story but with the added lustre of rock songs". "It's a quite an edgy version of boy meets girl!" cautions Nik. "Being a rock musical, it's that old adage of sex and drugs and rock'n'roll, and we give you all of them!"

York Stage Musicals present Christopher D’Arienzo and Ethan Popp's Rock Of Ages at Grand Opera House, York, tonight to April 15, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york