The man they call the “Godfather of Southend Rock” is returning to his home town for his annual concert series, playing two shows on Friday, June 13 and Saturday, June 14.

Mickey Jupp, who has released more than 20 albums and compilations, will be appearing at his old stomping ground, Club Riga, at the Cricketers Pub, in London Road, Westcliff.

Tickets are now on sale at the venue, at £10.

Mickey will be supported on Friday by the Hard Blow Blues Band, and on Saturday by the Blues Spiders.

The performer and songwriter has recorded for major record labels like Arista, Bell, A&M, Stiff and Vertigo, and has seen his songs covered by acts like Rick Nelson, Nick Lowe, Elkie Brooks, Delbert McLinton, the Judds and Darrel Higham, not to mention local heroes Dr Feelgood.

Just turned 70, Mickey now lives in Cumbria, playing live infrequently, but returns to Essex occasionally with CD compilations featuring his own compositions.

Mickey says he enjoyed his 70th birthday party in March, which he celebrated with a show at his local pub, the Woolpack. Fans flew in from all over Europe for the show – and one long-distance fan came all the way from San Francisco.

He said: “I always look forward to coming back to Southend to see old friends.”

He closed down the gift shop he had been operating for the best part of 20 years in the picturesque Lake District last year and now concentrates on his songwriting.

He said: “I’ve got one song I’ve been working on for four years, although most of them come along a bit quicker than that.”

Much of Mickey’s material has been reissued on CD, but German label Repertoire is planning a multi-CD box due for imminent release.

“This has also taken some time to put together,” said Mickey, who has had greater commercial success in Germany and Scandinavia than in the UK.

Mickey’s musical partner and fellow Cumbrian resident Mo Witham, also originally from Southend, will be playing guitar in the band, along with Dennis Masterson on bass, while Mickey plays both piano and guitar.

The musical history of Mickey Jupp is a long one. He played in several Southend bands after leaving art college in 1962 and was in the R&B group the Orioles (1963-late 1965), which included Mo Witham (guitar, vocals) and Bob Clouter (drums), but the band never recorded.

After a break from music, Jupp formed Legend in 1968, and signed to Bell Records. They released a self-named album Legend, a mix of pop, rockabilly and blues-rock styles, recorded acoustically. A second line-up, with Witham on guitar, John Bobin on bass and Bill Fyfield on drums signed with Vertigo in 1970.

Confusingly, their second album was also called Legend, but is referred to as the “Red Boot” album, after the cover picture. Fyfield left to join T.Rex (where he was renamed Bill Legend, after the band he had left, by Marc Bolan), and was replaced on drums by Clouter, who had played with Jupp in the Orioles. This lineup recorded the second Vertigo album, Moonshine, issued in 1971 (and re-released on CD in 2007).

Returning to Southend, Jupp formed the Mickey Jupp Big Band, which featured Bob Fish, later of the Darts. The pub-rock revolution, featuring local bands such as Dr Feelgood, for whom he wrote the hit single Down at the Doctors, created fresh interest in rock ‘n’ roll.

Mickey signed to Stiff Records in 1978, and they initially released a compilation album of the first three Legend albums, which was also called Legend, the third album with this title. It was subsequent to that release that the influential NME magazine dubbed him “the Godfather of Southend Rock”.

This was followed by his first solo album, Juppanese. The follow-up album Long Distance Romancer was produced by Godley and Creme, of 10CC, and he worked with a number of big-name producers. Despite music industry acclaim, Jupp always managed to give mainstream success a swerve.

Jupp went on to release a further seven solo albums, some appearing on Swedish and German labels, before his last commercially-released CD, You Say Rock, in 1994.

JOHN HOWARD