IT'S hard to believe that on Saturday Ian Hunter will be celebrating his 78th birthday, writes JOHN ANSON.

He's just completed a short tour in the States where he now lives and is preparing to head back to the UK with the Rant Band having had some of the best reviews of his career for the album Fingers Crossed which was released last year.

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On the phone he's sparky, opinionated and genuinely funny.

"I'm probably the only one who will remember Tom Finney," he said as we talk about his date at Preston's Charter Theatre,

"It is pretty frightening the way time flies. I’m in relatively good shape but some mornings I’ll pop out of bed and it suddenly hits me when I get to the bathroom “I’m this age, that can’t be right".

Ian admits that he got a glimpse of his own mortality when Proper Records put together a limited edition box set Stranded in Reality last year spanning his entire career.

"That was a weird feeling," he said. "On one hand they were paying me a complement by doing all this work. I've been on a few different labels and they had to go and buy them all and I was very grateful that they did all that.

"I didn’t even think it was going to come off until halfway through.

"But on the other hand I thought ‘that’s it’ you know, ‘it’s all over’. But then Fingers Crossed came to fruition which proved that it certainly wasn't over. So we’ll just carry on and see what happens."

From his early days with Mott the Hoople in the seventies and through a solo career spanning over 40 years, Ian has been one of the great songwriters but he remains modest about his talents.

"You are always on the lookout for songs," he said, "but ideas just come.

"It’s like a comedian sees the joke where nobody else does and it’s kind of the same with songs.

"I just pick up on something that no-one else notices. It’s just a fluke of the genes, at least that’s what I think anyway.

"Sometimes it’s only a line or a name of a song or a chord sequence that you get. It’s what you then do with it to make it the song complete. If there is any talent involved I’d say that’s it.

"Nowadays if I'm at home I’ll put down the idea whatever time of day or night it is but if I’m away my philosophy is if it’s that good it will stay with me."

It's not a foolproof system however.

"That approach can cost you money," he laughed. "There is song on Schizophrenic (You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, his 1979 solo album) called Just Another Night which I wrote with Mick Ronson in the middle of a stupor. The following day I said 'how did that song go?' And he said 'I’m not telling you'. So I had to give him half the writing credits for the song before he’d tell me."

Ian will be touring the UK with his Rant Band with whom he has performed for 17 years.

"The key is to try to get good musicians," he said. "My guitarist James Mastro knows practically every musician there is in the New York area.

"Steve Holley the drummer has been with me 30 years so that’s my contribution to the band; James has found the rest of them.

"We've been together for 17 years now and we don't argue.

"We’ve had less arguments in all that time than Mott did in an hour!

"They were a bunch of stars, Mott, and it was all diplomatic then. Democracy doesn't work in a band. I get the final say with what we do now but in Mott nobody did and that was the problem."

Ian's not one to stay away from expressing his opinions in a song and he passionately believes in the enduring power of rock and roll.

"I think, especially in times of angst, providing you don’t preach people to death music is an escape." he said. "It’s a way to get away from reality, it’s a night out.

"We just did 10 gigs in the mid west and around NY where there was a younger audience. The older ones are either infirm or have popped off.

"It’s not like we are physically attractive, let’s be honest, but there were people standing three feet from me - girls and boys - and you should see the look on their faces. I just think it’s the spirit of rock. That’s what it does to some people."

* Ian Hunter and the Rant Band, Preston Guild Hall, Monday, June 26. Details from 01772-804444