A forthright, straight talking Texan, PJ Proby has always walked the walk and talked the talk – and if you want a good chat about the music business, ripe with big name surprises and rock ‘n’ roll anecdotes, then PJ is your man.

When the book is written, and there is talk of an autobiography, it should be a no-holds barred, riotous read. A true 60s survivor, PJ will be performing at the Fairfield on Tuesday, December 9, part of a bill that includes The Troggs, The Ivy League, Herman’s Hermits and Mike Pender’s Searchers.

With the concert fast approaching, I asked PJ if the excitement of touring was still the same: “I was getting more excited when I originally heard that Gerry [Marsden] and I would be working together again, until he found this terrible heart problem – see, triple heart bypasses seem to be the in-thing, these days – I just went through a check-up to see that I was fit for the road and he told me there was a slight heart murmur; but I told him it was something I would look forward to, because who wants to drop dead in bed alone, when you can do it on stage and make a meal of it!

“I went back and the nurse said they had made a mistake and there was no murmur – which was fantastic news because I had already died of a heart attack in 1992! I dropped dead on a beach in Florida and then five more times on the way to hospital – and I haven’t had a drink since that day, almost 11 years ago. I was nowhere near a stage so I guess it simply wasn’t my time!” Even though Gerry won’t be on this tour, PJ is still using the Pacemakers to back him, so I wondered if he had worked with the other groups on the forthcoming bill; PJ chuckled: “Well, Charles Blackwell and I invented the Ivy League back in 1964, because we needed some high female-sounding, falsetto vocals for a record I was cutting; in those days the girls in the industry were already stars, there were no girl backing singers, apart from The Vernons, who were being used by everybody and weren’t available – but I haven’t seen the Ivy League since that Decca session back in 1964.

“I haven’t seen Herman’s Hermits since we all got drunk together at Wayne Fontana’s house in 1966 and it must be at least seven years since I saw Reg Presley, so it’s going to be great to get together again.” A previous visit to Croydon was famously the first time the Proby velvet trousers split on stage – January, 29, 1965 at the ABC Cinema, Broad Green – the opening night of a package tour with Cilla Black and Tommy Roe, but PJ provides an extra surprise: “Hell, that was all a political thing, you know…they already had Tom Jones lined up waiting in the wings; it was a done deal that he was set to replace me, trouser-splitting or not. The powers that be were just looking for an excuse and I would have been off that tour anyway – the trousers and the reaction from Mary Whitehouse gave them the reason, but they were just waiting to put Tom on, it was a business deal.” Within weeks of PJ’s nationwide ban, Liberty Records released I Apologise as the next single.

“Yes, but I refused to plug it, because the last thing I wanted to do at that time was apologise to anybody – just for showing my ugly knees! If I had anything pornographic to show, I would have gone off and made millions of pounds in the porn business! That’s why I didn’t think there was any big deal – boy, if I had a big deal, I’d have been a proud walking man!” Unfortunately, his forthright, yet honest opinions have led to a stalemate with EMI Records, who have shelved a recent album, produced by Marc Almond and withdrawn most of his back catalogue.

“So my manager John (Morris) and I built our own studio and opened our own record label.

The stuff that goes on in the big record companies today, where they have total control over people who can’t even sing, who just go out and mime to a tape – it’s a recording industry that I’m not familiar with anymore.

“So I make real records, just like we did in the 50s and 60s – and if they sell, they sell and if they don’t, well… so what!” Tickets for Sixties Gold at Fairfield are £17.50 and £15.50 from the box office on 020 8688 9291.

The show starts at 8pm.