Interview: Alvin Stardust, singer

THERE are no shortage of tales to tell of Alvin Stardust's long and varied career, but a favourite comes from a few years back when he was talking about what led to his first solo tour since the Seventies.

The story goes that, 50 years earlier Buddy Holly had signed a guitar for him, though he'd long since considered it lost. When he rediscovered the instrument, affectionately named Peggy Sue, at his mum's house after she died, he decided to get back on the road playing live again.

He'll be at the Brunton Theatre on Thursday night but, sadly, won't be strumming Peggy Sue while he performs the songs that made him famous. That's because he's had the guitar insured for 2 million - and undestandably doesn't want it damged.

"I wouldn't sell it," says the 68-year-old, whose best known numbers include My Coo-Ca-Choo, Jealous Mind, Red Dress, Good Love Can Never Die and I Feel Like Buddy Holly. "That's my teenage years and memories of my mum when she bought it for me.

"I never stop working, doing gigs all over the world but they are usually big stadium gigs with five or six famous bands like Slade, Sweet and Suzi Quattro," he continues. "I just thought, when you get to my age, you should be able to do a few things you want to do and, also, I found my first guitar.

"I thought I'd lost it. I'd not seen it for years and when my mum died I cleared her flat and put everything in the garage."

As well as a singer, Stardust, born Bernard William Jewry, is a respected name in the theatre word, playing West End and national tours ranging from Jesus in Godspell and Uriah Heep in David Copperfield to the Marquis of Queensbury in Oscar Wilde.

At the Brunton, though, it will be all about the music. The singer visits Musselburgh with own hand-picked band of musicians, and will not only be celebrating the hits that made his name but also the songs of his friends and contemporaries in the music biz, from the late 50s to the early 80s.

Alvin Stardust, Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Thursday, 7.30pm, 15 (13), 0131-665 9900