Renaissance man Richard Digance - a musician, writer, singer, composer and maker of Youtube mini-documentaries - is tonight doing what he loves best: giving a live performance.

Last year Richard celebrated his Golden Anniversary with a series of performances involving telling stories, playing the guitar and singing songs. This year he has a whole new show, having shaken off the half-century nostalgic trip.

Richard has a BAFTA Nomination as TV Entertainer Of The Year and is a Gold Award recipient from The British Academy of Composers. Over his career he has done 4,000 live shows, 62 British tours, 14 books, three stage plays and 32 albums. He has also clocked up nearly four million YouTube visits.

He composed the audio book music for Bill Bryson’s best-seller The Road To Little Dribbling, and his Animal Alphabet poems, serialised by The BBC, are used as English Teaching Aids in 14 countries from The USA to Swaziland.

He supported Robin Williams at the London Palladium and supported Steve Martin in the USA. On TV he played guitar with Queen’s Brian May, Status Quo and the Moody Blues, and his guitar instrumentals are used on numerous TV productions.

Richard was born in West Ham, London, the son of a lorry driver and a sweet factory cleaner. His first love was traditional folk music, before taking inspiration from Bob Dylan and later, Ralph McTell, with whom he carved a close friendship. He went on to release his first album for Transatlantic, England's Green and Pleasant Land, followed by How The West Was Lost, which was voted Melody Maker Folk Album Of The Year.

In the 1970s he supported Steeleye Span, Supertramp, Jethro Tull, Joan Armatrading, David Essex, Tom Jones, Elkie Brooks, The Kinks, and Cat Stevens. He became a radio presenter, with his own BBC Radio 2 series for six years, before joined Capital Radio, where he presented the first ever folk programme on British commercial radio.

He left for a quieter life in Salisbury, and now composes soundtrack music in his digital recording studio as well as performing in smaller intimate venues, admired by a loyal following of fans. His show tonight is at Swindon Arts Centre in Devizes Road at 7.30pm. Tickets are £17.50. To book, call 01793 524481 or visit swindontheatres.co.uk.