JASPER Carrott has a hard time saying no.

Which is why, one yes, a year and 70 shows later, he is still travelling the length and breadth of the country, Bev Bevan and his band of merry musicians in tow.

“18 months ago my very best friend Bev Bevan said ‘Why don’t we go on the road together, have a bit of fun and do a few show locally?’,” he recalls animatedly. “It started off with ten shows and it went to 20. We had a cracking time, so much so that I said ‘Yes ok, let’s continue’ and it ended up being 56 shows

“Working with other people after being solo for 40 odd years, it was so terrific. We finished last year and they said ‘What do you want to do this year?’ I stupidly said put a couple of dozen shows in and now it’s been 70.

“Right now we’re booked solid with work and with play. This summer I will make a decision on what to do next. I don’t want to be as busy next year but I’ll probably says yes to a couple of dates and end up with 60.”

Hailed as the godfather of comedy in the UK, it is hard to believe he packed in touring in his homeland 27 years ago. He continued to perform in South Africa and other foreign lands before putting his stand-up touring days firmly behind him at the start of the millennium.

“I just didn’t enjoy stand-up anymore and I would never just do it for the money. The audience don’t deserve it. I would think they’d know I was putting on an act.

“I gave myself time off to recharge the batteries. I thought that was really going to be it.”

That is until he was tempted out of stage hibernation by his school chum Bev Bevan.

The Brummie comedy genius’s career began in 1969, when he launched the Boggery Folk Club and proceeded to act compere and play ‘silly songs’.

He owes his stage moniker (he was born Robert Norman Davis) partly to a puzzling childhood nickname, partly to a youthful whim.

“I was christened Jasper by friends playing football when I was nine years old,” he chuckles. “I can’t for the life of me remember why. It stuck. Everybody suddenly took it on board. It was frightening really, even the masters at school called me Jasper. I added Carrott when I was 15.”

He rose to fame in 1975 with novelty hit single, Funky Moped. The risqué B-side, Magic Roundabout, was the real reason for shifting so many copies. Banned by the BBC, the track gathered momentum when nightclub DJs began selling the record privately.

In 1978, his TV show An Audience With Jasper Carrott firmly established him as the frontrunner of the alternative comedy scene. Doing away with the hackneyed Irishman jokes and easy digs at mothers-in-law entirely, his gutsy material propelled him to stardom.

“Stand-up in the 1970s was 10 minutes on the Cilla Black show, blokes in bow ties doing jokes about the Irish or their mothers-in-law. I was on TV in jeans and jacket. It had never been done before. There was a lot of social commentary, I talked about personal stories, used satire in the days when no-one was doing that. The impact was such that I became a household name overnight. At the time the subject matter was very questionable, just talking about the physical act, was a big thing. Now you’ve got thousands of comedians doing what I was doing in 1978, probably better.”

He went on to conquer America in the 1980s, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Seinfeld or ‘Jerry’ as he knows him and Patricia Heaton (a “good friend”), of Everybody Loves Raymond fame.

He was even featured in American Carrott, his own HBO special. Loath to uproot his family and leave his dear friends behind, he dismissed a permanent move to America.

Now back on stage, but staying firmly away from large stadiums and arenas, Jasper is fusing his two passions in Stand Up And Rock.

Half comedy show, half concert, with a catalogue of pop hits performed by Bev Bevan and co, it is his most exciting project to date.

“I’ve never worked better and I’ve never enjoyed myself more in my career,” booms the 70-year-old. “The 5,000- 10,000 seaters, I’ve been there done that. I think there is something missing in comedy when you do that. You lose that bond with the audience. When we first started out we were eyeball to eyeball with the audience. And that’s what we wanted. That’s why the smaller venues are a delight to play. The reaction is genuine. We get standing ovations every time and we have earned them. It’s so satisfying. We would get 100 per cent of standing ovations if 100 per cent of our audience could stand.”

Stand Up And Rock will take over the Wyvern Theatre on Tuesday, June 23 and Wednesday 24 at 7.30pm. Tickets are £26. To book call the box office on 01793 524481 or visit swindontheatres.co.uk.