IT was a chance remark after one of his live shows which made Richard Digance re-think his whole approach to his career.

At the time, Richard was a familiar face on Countdown where his made-up rhymes and clever wordplay were one of the highlights of the show.

“It was about five years ago,” he said, “and I was doing a live show and a woman came up afterwards and said ‘I really enjoyed it but I didn’t know you played guitar’.”

Given that Richard had spent years on the road supporting everyone from the likes of Tom Jones to the Beach Boys, it made him question whether being on TV was such a good idea.

“It just made think,” he said. “Driving home after that show, I thought I was stretching myself too far and that if people only knew me for doing silly poems on Countdown then I wasn’t really putting across the persona that I want to be which is a singer-songwriter and storyteller. So on the back of that one comment I decided to stop doing telly.”

Instead, Richard has returned to his roots and on Sunday will return to Oswaldtwistle Civic Arts Centre with his one-man show in which he celebrates 50 years of what he calls ‘getting away with it’.

Now 68. Richard has had an amazing career which has taken him from working with American comedy legend Steve Martin to playing guitar with Queen’s Brian May on his own prime time TV show.

“This will be 62nd UK tour,” said Richard. “My first national tour was in 1974 with Steeleye Span and then I went into the rock world with Jethro Tull before I did the Breakfast in America tour with Supertramp.

“I cuckooed myself. My plan was to impress people who came to see me. I thought that if I went down that route, it would attract more people than just playing in the folk clubs.”

Armed only with his guitar and his quick wits, Richard soon developed his own style which would lead to major successes including an award from the British Academy of Songwriters.

“You have to put the slog in and people have to get to know you,” he said. “I did about eight years of doing nothing but supporting people.”

Richard first decided that a storyteller’s life was for him while at college in Glasgow.

“For me to be in Glasgow at that time with my London accent wasn’t exactly a time of peace, love and Woodstock,” he said, “So I found solace in a folk club. I’d never been to one before in my life - I was more into the Stones and rock music.

“But at the college folk club there was this unknown bloke who appeared quite regularly called Billy Connolly. The thing I remembered was that after his set, blokes used to buy him pints and girls used to chat him up.

“I thought ‘that’s the only reason I’m at college so what am I doing studying for?’. So that was my education and then I found my own path after that.”

While at Glasgow, Richard’s career was also helped by his flatmate - acclaimed singer songwriter John Martyn.

“I didn’t know him at all but we met at the folk club and he needed somewhere to stay,” he said. “Sitting on the sofa watching him play, I think I got two year’s worth of guitar lessons in about three months.”

Having left Glasgow and his year’s on the road, Richard got a job at the BBC writing for satirist Bernard Braden before being offered his own show.

“If you have got away with it for 50 years, it doesn’t matter how big or small you are, you haven’t got a lot to prove,” he said. “You just carry on doing what you do. In a way the pressure’s off but I don’t want to be a cobwebbed performer. It’s not my fault I’m 68 and I can at least tell of my experiences through those years.”

For Richard, returning to Oswaldtwistle is a bit of a treat - he admits to being a bit of a nerd when it comes to the Industrial Revolution.

“I was like a train spotter when I played there a couple of years ago. I was delighted to be asked back again,” he said.

Richard Digance, Oswaldtwistle Civic Arts Centre, Sunday, July 23. Details from 01254 398319. He also plays Darwen Library Theatre on Saturday, September 16. Details from 0844 847 1664