John Otway may only have had two hits in a career spanning more than three decades, but the Southfields-based singer songwriter certainly isn't short of fans.

The 56-year-old will most likely sell out the Halfmoon on Saturday for the umpteenth time having been doing shows there for the last 20 years, before going off to play the cabaret tent at Glastonbury on Sunday afternoon.

"The Halfmoon has been a regular gig for 20 years," he says.

"it's just one of those great gigs and I don't think there is another venue I have been doing longer than that one.

"This gig is a bit of a Glastonbury warm-up before I go down there the next morning.

"I've been at Glastonbury something like 13 times out of the last 15 years and I always get a good crowd there - it's almost as good as the Halfmoon.

"It's just got a good atmosphere, though to be honest I don't really like it when it's muddy."

Otway's career took off in a big way in 1977 when his performance on the Old Grey Whistle Test caught the eye of the nation and spawned a top 30 hit in Really Free.

Unfortunately, that was to be his only hit for the next 25 years, when, following a prolonged campaign to mark his 50th birthday, the song Bunsen Burner got him into the top 10 and back on to Top of The Pops.

"The show just before that had centred around me being a one-hit wonder and I think the fans were getting a bit bored of that so we thought it would be a good idea to have another hit," he says.

"It was a very difficult thing to do without any record company backing and we basically had to run a war campaign for 18 months but it was a great success.

"Getting back on Top of the Pops was great, I had always wanted to do that again."

Recalling his success on the Old Grey Whistle Test - which largely centred around his calamitous fall from the top of an amp - he says: "When I leapt across the amp and landed on the delicate parts of my body it changed my life - I haven't had to do a sensible days work since.

"I was an overnight success. Having been playing to a crowd of two dozen we were getting more than 100 at our gigs.

"I had been waiting for that success for a long time and then I spent 25 years waiting for a follow up."

John Otway, Halfmoon, Lower Richmond Road, June 27, 8.30pm, £10. Call 020 8780 9383 or visit halfmoon.co.uk.