TO the casual music fan Neil Arthur will be forever associated with a period in the early Eighties when with musical partner Stephen Luscombe, Blancmange had a series of hits including Living on the Ceiling.

But as he prepares to bring Blancmange to Manchester tomorrow, the Darwen-born singer admits “I’m not one for nostalgia.”

Blancmange reformed after a 25 year absence to release the highly acclaimed album Blanc Burn in 2011 and since then has been one of Neil’s most productive creative periods.

“I think there have been six Blancmange albums since 2011 plus the box set (the Blanc Tapes featuring 9 CDs of out-take, demos and unreleased material) which came out last summer. Oh and then there’s the collaborative work so I had the Fader album with Benge last June and I’m just about to release Near Future in May working with Jez Bernholz.”

“But even when I was out of sight I was still working hard on film and TV scores.”

The easy approach would be for Neil to jump on the heritage bandwagon and play 80s festival around the country but that’s not just his style.

“I don’t want to hold on to a period like a security blanket,” he said. “For people that want to do that, that’s fine and for people coming to our concert they will hear some of those security blanket moments.

“But it’s 2018, that’s where I am singing. If I’m singing I Can’t Explain that’s Neil Arthur in 2018 singing it.”

Given that he’s not someone to dwell on the past, Neil admits that releasing last year’s retrospective box set was a contradiction.

“Putting the Blanc Tapes together was opening a whole can of worms emotionally which I just didn’t expect,” he said. “We spent ages going through old recordings and I opened up the archives and had loads of cassettes digitised to listen to and that’s when it hit me. I took me back to the room we were recording in, it brought back memories I’d not though about in nearly 40 years.”

Last year Blancmange released Unfurnished Rooms with the album again getting major critical acclaim.

“To be honest, I don’t read the reviews.” said Neil. “If you just sit there waiting to read what someone has written about you I think that’s a bit strange. But it is humbling to be told that people are being so generous about your work.

“The fans particularly are just amazing, they are so loyal.”

It is hard to believe that Neil will be 60 this year.

“I’m fine about that,” he said. “For me it’s the new 40.”

But fans need not fear he will be any less productive.

“I was with some mates and we’re all a similar age,” he said. “They were talking about retirement. Retirement? It’s never entered my head. My life is a creative life so I will never retire. I’ll never stop doing this unless someone forces me to stop.”

Neil is fine company and amid talking about Blackburn Rovers promotion chances, he reveals that he’s enjoying his work as much as ever.

“I’m kind of off the leash really and it feels like I can go in any direction I want,” he said. “I’ve got a blank canvas creatively.

“The fact I get to do this and be invited to collaborate with other people means I have to pinch myself sometimes. The other side of it is it is a job, it’s not a hobby or some vanity project. It’s my work and I take it very very seriously.”

Blancmange, Band on the Wall, Manchester, Friday, March 23