Hugh gets to grips with his Stranglers past

Not content with playing songs from his 2008 album Hoover Dam, the 60 year-old is also performing The Stranglers critically acclaimed debut Rattus Norvegicus in its entirety. Cornwell, who spent 17 years with the band, producing such classic songs as No More Heroes, Walk On By and Golden Brown, is playing both records with his band, bassist Caroline Campbell and drummer Chris Bell.

"I often end up playing most of Rattus Norvegicus anyway, so my record company said, 'Why not play the whole album'?

"It only meant playing another three numbers and I thought it was a good idea and actually they sit very well next to each other," he says.

Despite the fact that it's 20 years since he left The Stranglers, Cornwell is happy to revisit his old songs.

"It's such a monumental album and I'm enjoying it because the two albums

kind of bookend my career – not that my career's over

yet, but it's the latest and

the first."

Cornwell is in the middle of a UK tour which calls in at the Cockpit, in Leeds, later this month and anyone who goes to the gig will have the opportunity to buy a live double album of the two records, which isn't for sale

in the shops.

"It was the record company's idea, so that rather than just having the same crowd, we get people interested who perhaps wouldn't normally think about listening to me.

"It's a bit of a loss leader like they do in supermarkets to get 'em in."

You could be forgiven for thinking that most of his

fans are Stranglers fans, too, but Cornwell says that's not the case.

"There are some Stranglers fans, but I get a lot of people coming up to me and saying they're not fans of the band but they like my solo stuff."

Cornwell was surrounded by music from an early age.

"I was brought up in a very musical household, my

dad listened to classical music all the time while my brothers were into jazz and people like Eddie Cochran and Hendrix, so I had a very rounded musical experience growing up."

After finishing university, he joined Jet Black and Jean Jacques Burnel to form The Guildford Stranglers in 1974.

The following year, Dave Greenfield completed the quartet and they became

The Stranglers.

Having started out as a

pub rock band their aggressive, uncompromising attitude leant itself to

the punk scene that exploded, even if their music drew on many other disparate styles.

"Times were hard and the UK was a tough place to live back then," remembers Cornwell.

"There were power cuts and in London there were no rubbish collections, you had rats running in the streets and it was bleak and that created this reactionary attitude out of which came punk's bleak vision of the future."

It was a vision, he believes, captured the zeitgeist.

"It was a very creative period but you don't realise

it at the time because you're too busy.

"But when you look back 30 years later, you appreciate the impact it had. It's actually become more important because nothing since has had the same kind of significance."

Cornwell left The Stranglers in 1990 because he felt the band had reached the end of the road artistically and, although they are still

going strong today, he says he doesn't regret his decision.

"I had a great time in The Stranglers and it's testament to the strength of the songs that they're still popular now.

"But it's like they've become a tribute band, and I could see that coming."

Since leaving the band, he's established himself as a solo artist with Hoover Dam his eighth, and some say best, album to date. "I'm always collecting ideas for songs

and after a while I go

back into the studio

and make an album and people seem to really like

this one."

As well as his tour, he's writing his first novel and is already working on his next album, Totem and Taboo, named after a book by Sigmund Freud.

All of which suggests that despite more than 35 years in the business, his enthusiasm remains undimmed.

"I enjoy making records and playing music, I mean what else would I do?"

n Hugh Cornwell plays the Cockpit, Leeds, on May 28.