He was early and it wasn’t the voice you might expect.

It was a soft, well-spoken news-reader-type voice.

‘Are you really Jasper Caerott?’ Isn’t the best way to start an interview.

“Shall oi moik it moor loik that then?” he says in a comfortable Brummy brogue.

“Years and years ago I had an accent, to a point, but having travelled all over the world and all over the country has taken the burr off my voice,” he explains.

After a 13 year gap, he’s back on stage and with a completely different style of show.

He’s teamed up with his old rock star mate Bev Bevan to create Jasper Carrott’s Stand Up And Rock.

This sees Jasper back telling his funny stories and Bev and his band playing classic hits from the sixties seventies and eighties.

It comes to The Sands Centre next weekend.

A folk singer who set up his own club and MC'd with funny stories, fame arrived by accident.

Jasper was told to make a single to get his name known more around the Midlands and was given £1,000.

He recorded Funky Moped , a funny novelty song, for £700 and used the rest to buy a guitar before realising he had to provide a ‘B’ side as well.

He dug out his spoof version of legendary children’s TV show The Magic Roundabout that he’d recorded previously and that was that.

Funky Moped did moderately well, selling around 30,000 in the Midlands, then two nightclub DJs from Essex contacted his record label and said they loved The Magic Roundabout and wanted 200 for themselves to play when they took a break.

“The label then pushed the ‘B’ side and it became a nightclub classic and made it into the charts.

“I say a swear word during it, so I told everyone it was banned by the BBC which helped. It wasn’t banned, but it helped the sales!

“It sold 840,000 copies, was in then charts for 15 weeks and was beaten only by the Bay City Rollers at their peak.”

That was 1975. The record earned him a pilot TV show with London Weekend Television which became An Audience With Japser Carrott and the Brummie folkie with funny stories became a national TV star.

His humour was different from the usual stand-ups with their one-liners and mother-in-law jokes (though his tale about being driven by his mother-in- law was a fans’ favourite).

He told funny stories, observational comedy.

“I’m very proud to have been part of that scene along with the likes of Max Boyce and Billy Connolly," he says.

He was a mainstay of TV schedules throughout the eighties and nineties.

The peak was appearing alongside his good friend Robert Powell in the sitcom The Detectives which ran for five series from 1993 -1997, including a Christmas special.

“We were friends before we did it and in the years we spent making The Detectives we had so much fun," he remembers.

“After we recorded the first series, the crew used to fight to get on the show because it was such fun.”

He continued to work on TV (six series of the gameshow Goldenballs ran from 2007-2009) but he stopped performing live.

His latest role is the comeback kid. Though it’s less of a comeback and more of a saunter back into centre stage.

But at the age of 70, he’s rediscovered the fun of performing live again.

He’s certainly not back for the money.

He was a partner in Celador (which owned the rights for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire ) and he reportedly made more than £10 million when Celador was sold.

“I got a bit...I don’t know what the word is... bored, dissatisfied,” he says.

“I was on stage in South Africa and I thought ‘I don’t really want to do this.

I never wanted to do it for the money, I’ll take 12 months off’.

“And it lasted 13 years.

“When Bev asked me back two years ago, I got back into big-time.

“I have never worked better in my life.

“I’ve got some old material that I’ve revamped, but there’s a lot of new stuff.

“It’s like being reborn. There’s no weak material with swear words or jokes about orifices.”

He refuses to say much about his material, but it could include The Magic Roundabout , his skits on zits and Hare Krishna.

The new show was a hit in Birmingham, so they decided to rejig it a bit, do a few more and take it across the country.

They played 60 dates last year, packing out venues across the country, rather than just the midlands.

This year they’re playing 70 dates, The Sands Centre is one of the last.

The show was created by former founder member of The Move and Electric Light Orchestra Bev Bevan who has been a close friend of Jasper’s for 60 years.

“I do half an hour of comedy, then there’s music and after the break I do another half an hour of comedy and I get involved in the music in the second half,” he says.

“And the music is all hits from the 60s, 70s and 80s, it is a fantastic show.

“We have discovered an audience that isn’t really catered for.

“The show is over two hours long and we never let up. We get a genuine standing ovation every night.

“It is a winning formula that we have stumbled upon.

“We have so much fun, we’re not just going through the motions to pick up a cheque.

“I’m out there because I really love it to pieces.”

The band includes Rockin’ Berries lead singer Geoff Turton and celtic rock band Quills lead singer ‘Joy’.

Jasper is looking forweard to a return to the county and says: “I must’ve played Carlisle countless times. I’ve been coming to Carlisle for donkeys years.

“In the early days I was doing folk clubs in Carlisle and Egremont and Workington.”

Jasper Carrott Stand Up and Rock, The Sands Centre, November 15. Tickets £25 plus booking fee.