PETER Kay has announced plans to host seven three-hour charity danceathons at venues across the country.

The Bolton funnyman will act as the DJ at the Dance for Life events, which will be held in Bournemouth, Newcastle, Cardiff, Aberdeen, Liverpool, Belfast and Birmingham next year.

The venues will be transformed into huge dancefloors, with state of the art sound and lights.

Peter revealed his plans to Chris Evans on Radio 2 yesterday morning.

He said: “I had an idea Chris, and the idea is Peter Kay’s Dance for Life. It’s like Race for Life, but it’s dancing.

“I have booked seven arenas next year and we are going to have a three hour danceathon party challenge.”

Chris asked Peter why he hadn’t booked a date in London. There is also currently no event pencilled in for Manchester.

Peter played 40 shows at Manchester Arena in 2009 as part of his record braking The Tour That Doesn’t Tour Tour.

He said: “I thought I’ll just try it in other places first, London’s a bit scary, let’s just see how it goes down.

“We were going to do Wembley Arena, but I thought let’s just see.

“It’s about the dancefloor. We can move all the seats back and create these huge, spectacular dancefloors for about 7,000 or 8,000 people.”

Peter explained that all of the money raised from the events will go to Cancer Research UK, and why he was inspired to organise the events.

He said: “I was talking to some parents at school and they said they don’t go dancing anymore, they do it once every two years at a wedding for 20 minutes.

“I just said: ‘Why can’t we have a good night out and a three hour danceathon and raise money?’ “It’s open to men and women, not just women.”

Peter said he will play a whole range of music during the shows.

He said: “I have downloaded an app, I have got some records, and we are going to be playing ABBA, Wham, Kylie, Whitney, Michael Jackson, Five, S Club, Daft Punk, Take That, Bucks Fizz, Prince, Bon Jovi, Queen, I could go on.

“We are not being snobby about music.

“When you get there will be a little bit of an aerobics warm up, and then we go for it, big clock on the screen, three hours.

“You can get sponsorship, you can text messages on screen for loved ones or support, it’s £25 a ticket.

“My friend is having her hen do there! You can have 10, 15 friends, all your mates can go, fancy dress is optional.

“You can go to the toilet and get something to eat, there’s no adjudicators going around tapping you on the shoulder. I just thought why can’t we have a lot of fun for something really important.

“My aunties like Race for Life, they are a bit shy about running but they’ll go and have a dance.”

Simon Ledsham, director of trading and volunteer fundraising at Cancer Research UK, said: “We are thrilled that Peter is holding these dance-a-thons for the charity.

“We rely on the donations of supporters to fund vital research to help us beat cancer sooner, so it’s brilliant to have his support and we hope the public all get their dancing shoes on and join him.”

A spokesman for the event organisers, SJM Concerts, added: “We’ve never been part of anything like this before.

“It’s a unique, positive challenge that Peter is organising and will raise a lot of money for Cancer Research UK.”

The Dance for Life events will be held at:

Saturday, January 30 – Bournemouth International Centre

Saturday, February 6 – Newcastle Radio Metro Arena

Saturday, February 27 – Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff

Saturday, March 5 - Aberdeen AECC

Saturday, March 26 – Liverpool Echo Arena

Saturday, April 16 – SSE Arena, Belfast

Saturday, April 23 – Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham

Tickets, priced at £25, go on sale at 10am on Thursday. The events are for over 18s only.

Tickets can be bought individual or in groups of any number.

Sponsorship funds for the event can be donated by visiting: justgiving.com/teams/danceforlife