GRAHAM Parker was once rock’s supposed next big thing — and he’s still happily doing things his own way as he heads out on a UK tour this month.

His rise was ridiculous by any measure. Parker’s first live show with his best-known backing band, the Rumour, was in October 1975 at the Newlands Tavern in Nunhead, south-east London. By the start of 1976 he’d landed a record deal and was already in the studio cutting debut album Howlin’ Wind — with curious famous faces, including Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, dropping by to see what the fuss was about.

Howlin’ Wind landed in April 1976 to huge critical excitement, with the closing track Don’t Ask Me Questions singled out for its reggae-leaning bite. Later that year, after Heat Treatment arrived, Parker hit Australia and found press waiting at the airport because the coverage had people assuming he was “as big as Bruce Springsteen”, which he called “insane”. He also ended up backstage at a festival topped by Bob Dylan, who grabbed him to say how much he loved Parker’s work.

There’s even a photo of Parker in Los Angeles with Michael Jackson — though Parker says their chat didn’t exactly blossom after he mentioned he’d covered I Want You Back: Jackson’s response was simply, “Ooh.”

Parker, a former petrol pump attendant from Surrey, never became the arena-sized star the mid-70s hype promised. Instead he’s built a 50-year run as a critically lauded cult singer-songwriter, releasing 47 albums, writing fiction, and even recording an album of obscure Lennon and McCartney songs with Kate Pierson of the B-52s. His most recent album, 2023’s Last Chance to Learn the Twist, was a live-sounding set that jumps from soul to prewar pop.

He’s also made a habit of zigging when the industry wanted him to zag — from torching his relationship with Mercury in the late 70s via the withering song Mercury Poisoning, to being told by Atlantic’s Ahmet Ertegun to aim “like Phil Collins” and responding with the deliberately rough-edged The Mona Lisa’s Sister.

In 2012, Parker took an unexpected Hollywood call as a long-time Judd Apatow fan cast him to play himself in This Is 40, sharing the joke with other “losers from the 70s and 80s” — Parker’s word — alongside names like Haircut 100 and Frank Black without the Pixies.

Now he’s back to the set-up he says suits him: keeping things small, pulling a crowd without the costs of a band, and actually talking to audiences rather than “grabbing” them. The tour starts at Waterside Arts in Sale on 8 September and runs until 1 October.