Dave Dobbyn says that since day one, he has had a tune in his head. He’d be twiddling the dial on the radiogram, “travelling the world in music”. Across the road was a church, full of songs in which to hide.

A shy schoolboy, he blossomed into a peroxided popstar in his first band Th’ Dudes, formed with his schoolfriends in the late ‘70s. Taking centre-stage with his next band DD Smash, Dobbyn made history when the debut album rocketed to No 1 in the first week of its release. As a solo artist his ‘Sli