What are you up to this minute?

“I’m about to give a flying lesson. I’ve been doing it for quite a few years and I love it as much as I love music.”

You’ve been doing that for longer than you’ve been in the air.

“Just a bit. I was in ELO, before that I was with Magnum. In the distant past there was the Uglys with Steve Gibbons, and many others.”

More or less right from the start of the scene in Birmingham then?

“I began with Jeff Silver and the Four Strangers. Jeff left and the Strangers had to carry on without him, which is where I started singing. Then in 1967 I joined the Uglys alongside Steve Gibbons.”

You’d have known some future legends – Steve Winwood, the Moody Blues and the like.

“Would you believe that Steve and I had never met until quite recently? I see him quite often now but back then we moved in different circles. Our bunch of groups played the Cedar Club and Steve’s bands were always at the Elbow Room so we never met. That was one of the differences between, say, Birmingham and Liverpool. The Liverpool sound was homogenous. All their bands had that rough and ready sound that came from the American blues whereas Birmingham music came from different sources.”

Then there was Balls, the Birmingham supergroup that featured at various times Steve Gibbons, Denny Laine, Trevor Burton and Alan White, who went on to join Yes. How would your life have changed if they’d been successful? Would you have become a Hollywood superstar like Jeff Lynne?

“I never think of it but Balls – that name just sums up what the group was about. It was an absolute balls up. Me and Richard Tandy got kicked out, Steve Gibbons left and they never really did anything. The band itself was a concoction of the manager Tony Secunda. He wanted to pick a Birmingham supergroup out of the best musicians in town.

“They tried to create a supergroup and they picked individeuals but groups aren’t like that. Groups are about people who enjoy being together and playing together. This was top down management.”

Then you played with Magnum. Would it be fair to say you left then just as they were breaking?

“I don’t know about that. When I was with them they were playing a residency at the Rum Runner in Birmingham, then they toured with American artists such as Del Shannon. It was only after I left that they started to develop their own style and took off. I wouldn’t say they were about to break when I was with them but they did go on to become massive for a long while.”

Then five years with ELO. When you were with them they were more of a studio band.

“Yes and no. We did two big tours and inbetween times we made the album Secret Messages. The tours were a great time. I enjoyed playing the music and going from staying in all the seedy hotels, carryingy our gear around in a knackered van to touring in private jets and five star hotels. All you had to do was get up and play. It’s a lot easier to do that than all the work humping your own gear around and having to set up.”

They’re playing in Birmingham on Saturday. Have you heard much of their new work?

“It’s absolutely great, especially the singing. I’ve never heard it done so well. Jeff’s got the vocals absolutely on. When I was in ELO they only had three of us singing, now there’s six and they sound great. The music’s so good as well. Jeff’s got what he’s always wanted now, he’s got that recorded sound on stage.

“They’re bigger now than they’ve ever been. People are realising how good the old songs are and how well they’ve lasted.”

A purist would say that it’s not really ELO as there’s only Jeff and Richard Tandy from the old line-ups.

“It’s Jeff’s band. He’s done the donkey work of writing and singing and Richard’s been alongside him for most of the way. If the two of them are up there with a bunch of musicians doing what they’re doing, if Jeff Lynne’s there then it’s ELO and he’s doing it better than ever.”

Before then you’re playing with your band and Steve Gibbons at the mac on Friday. What’s that going to be like?

“We’ll be doing a lot of my tunes, some of them off our album and a couple of rock’nroll classics plus a few ELO songs. Steve will come on and do his stuff then we’ll get up again and do a lot together.”

Steve should really have a preservation order on him.