DAVEY PAYNE – former member of Ian Dury's Blockheads and now a Falmouth resident – has been talking to What's On about Reasons To Be Cheerful, the musical featuring the band's songs which comes to Cornwall next week.

Part-gig, part-play, the show by acclaimed theatre company Graeae is a gritty coming of age tale. A live band and top-class cast will fill the Hall for Cornwall with raucous glee on Thursday, February 23 to Saturday, February 25.

Davey, the Blockheads' charismatic sax player, said: "Ian was an entertainer and the Graeae production is entertaining and more. The spirit and heart of Ian Dury, the Blockheads and fans is captured perfectly. The use of sound effects and lighting also adds to the atmosphere.

"I believe Reasons To Be Cheerful is a wonderful tribute to Ian. People related to Ian and his lyrics on many different levels. He was the Gene Vincent rocker or teddy boy. He was the Archie Rice entertainer at the end of the pier, with a touch of Brechtian musical theatre.

"He was the art school student, politically left, his mum, a doctor's daughter, Burberry, sensible shoes and a bun, and a bus-driving dad.

"For six days a week he lived the life of sex and drugs and rock and roll, and on Sundays in his Hampstead flat, he would read The Independent and drink Earl Grey tea."

Does he feel Ian's legacy has been well served since his death?

"Reasons To Be Cheerful and the Andy Serkis film Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll have portrayed the essence of Ian just as much as the Blockheads have since his death. I also believe that if Ian's first band, Kilburn And The High Roads were to perform again, they would project a natural understanding of Ian's complex nature, his surreal humour, his acute observations and compassion for art, music and people."

How does Davey feel about the way he was portrayed in Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll, which wasn't always complimentary?

"When I saw the film I commented that I would have preferred something a bit more 1960s New Wave – Nouvelle Vague – Godard, Bergman, etc but Ken Russell meets Balamory is okay ....

"In the film's first draft I was portrayed as a bit of a violent psycho, nutting people and getting into fights. I explained that during the time with the Kilburns and the Blockheads I was into an Indian religion, a vegetarian diet, no drinking or drugs. So when I saw the film they changed my lines to 'Hey mate, you ought to get in touch with your inner calm' and quoted words like 'Karma man'... before nutting them."

Davey is pleased that the gig at the centre of the action in the new musical was a special one for him.

"It was a nice surprise for me to hear that the gig they were going to at Hammersmith Odeon was the one on August 11, which was my birthday. I remember it well because I was wearing an American Indian head dress, a plastic jacket with birthday candles on each shoulder. Just before the curtain rose, Ian's friend and minder, Fred 'Spider' Rowe, lit the candles. As I stood there with the feathers moving in the breeze, the band playing Wake Up And Make Love, it crossed my mind that this could be a little dangerous. But then, we were a little dangerous."

So how and why did a rocker, albeit a karmic one, come to Cornwall?

"I grew up in North London and we went to Clacton-on-Sea for our holidays. When the family moved to Clacton we took our holidays in Cornwall and Devon, staying in Ilfracombe, Woolacombe, Newquay and Crantock.

"In the late 1980s I took a holiday with my young family in Cornwall. On a trip to Falmouth I found a large Georgian house in Wood Lane, near the art school, and made the move that my dad always talked about but never did.

"I never tire of the beauty of Cornwall – Kynance Cove, Porthcurno, the wonderful Minack Theatre where I first saw the young Kneehigh doing Tregeagle.

"There are also many good musicians down here, and a great jazz club in St Ives. Recently I guested with the Blockheads at the Water Rats pub in London and it took me back to the Hope and Anchor, Dingwalls, and Biba days, and it was great to see old faces in olde London town. But once you're standing on the platform at Paddington Station, the excitement is the same as it was when my young children stood with their little suitcases in 1986."

For tickets to see Reasons To Be Cheerful contact the box office on 01872 262466 or head to www.hallforcornwall.co.uk