Andy Fairweather Low has admitted he has an addiction - touring.

The 61-year-old guitarist, who shot to fame as Amen Corner's front man in the 1960s, has just begun his third tour already this year having been to Germany with The Low Riders band and being part of the Eric Clapton set up in May.

"I panic when I don't work," he says despite more that four decades in the music spotlight.

"I can take a break of a couple of week but by the third week I think I have to work and if I sit down I am playing the guitar.

"You would have thought because of that I would have been eager to get this tour underway but I was actually very nervous.

"It was the first time since I can remember when we were doing a gig without a keyboard player.

"There's a lot more space in the playing and I love Nick Pentelow the saxophone player we have got, it allows me to play more as keyboards take up quite a lot of frequency.

"When the keyboard player left I thought about replacing him with the sax but until we did the first gig I wasn't sure but now I'm very sure.

"The interplay and the dynamic was really good."

Andy, who after Amen Corner split had a brief career with band Fairweather and then went solo with hits like Reggae Tune, can list the who's who of the music world in the back catalogue of artists he has collaborated with.

Not least among that bunch is Clapton, having spent 13 years as part of his band and being reunited with him for the tour earlier this year.

"I play with him every New Year in a charity gig but have not been part of his band since 2004," says Andy "I loved playing at the Albert Hall but I didn't really enjoy the arena gigs because of the size.

"I am used to playing in clubs and theatres where you can control and determine what you do but you lose that control in the arenas.

"The only consolation you can take from it is that everyone else sounds like that there too."

Andy is currently working on material for a new album that he says will come out when he is good and ready, but for now he is enjoying touring far too much.

"You should get better if you do something a lot and I feel better about myself now then I ever did," he says.

"Thirteen years I was with Eric and I spent that whole time waiting to be fired.

"I loved the gig that much I was in fear of losing it.

"Somebody should have shook my be the shoulders and told me just to enjoy myself."

Andy Fairweather Low & The Low Riders, Botley Hill Farmhouse, Limpsfield Road, September 19, 7pm, £20. Call 01322 664551 or visit botleyhill-farmhouse.co.uk.

Also at Epsom Playhouse, September 24, 8pm, £18.50. Call 01372 742555 or visit epsomplayhouse.co.uk.