IT’S been a long time since Nick Lowe had a chart hit. He made his mark in the 1970s with singles that included I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass and Cruel To Be Kind, but gave up playing live in the UK when audiences started waning.

Now he’s taking to the road once more with a nine-day tour that includes Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall, and is promoting a new album.

“If you’ve been doing it as long as I have, you’re no stranger to a thin house, but there came a time when I was driving up to Leeds just to play to five people and a dog and you think ‘OK I’m being told something here, I’m not going to do this’,” he explains.

“I was re-inventing myself and I knew it would take time to do it.”

As a producer – most notably on Wirral singer/songwriter Elvis Costello’s first five albums – he was partially prepared for this moment, he says.

“I had a foot in both camps – I was down with the musicians but also I could yuk it up with the boys on the 13th floor – so I could see the signs of when artists’ careers were slipping

“But still, no matter how ready you are it’s still a jolt when doors have been opened for you all over town and you’re being phoned for quotes and then suddenly they couldn’t care less.”

Lowe responded by throwing himself into songwriting, with many of his pieces covered by famous musicians include Johnny Cash, Diana Ross and Solomon Burke.