THE Grand Opera House brochure has it that Loudon Wainwright III's material is intended to amuse, move, entertain, educate and not necessarily in that order.

"I've been playing for British audiences for 30 years and I reckon I've got you sorted out," says Loudon, on the phone from Los Angeles. "You like the sappy stuff and you like the funny stuff. In Germany, I sing a little slower, but in England it's your language."

On tour since April 14, he arrives in York tomorrow. "I'll be playing solo, bringing the guitar and possibly the ukulele. My daughter, Lucy Roche, is opening the show and we'll be doing some numbers together.

"It's what I've done most, performing solo: there aren't a lot of overheads and you don't have to pay the bass player. I did tour with a band in the Seventies, and here in Los Angeles I've got a group I'm enjoying playing with, but it's solo in the UK."

What has he learned over the years about British audiences? "You don't want to spend too much time telling anecdotes as they can yell Get on with it'. That happened in England but I learned quickly. Like when I opened for the Everly Brothers at the Royal Albert Hall and I was trying to explain my existence, and not only did they shout at me, but they threw glasses at me before glasses were plastic."

The tour coincides with the reissue of two rare Loudon albums from the Seventies, T Shirt and Final Exam: records that "my friends at Evangeline have so graciously and insanely decided to parole and finally release on compact disc" as a double CD. Not that he will be plugging them heavily. "Albums are a bit like children. You have your favourites, but they're all your children.

"They're not the swiftest of my children, but they have some redeeming qualities. I've written some liner notes that explain my feelings: at the time they were savaged critically and commercially they died a death, but I've since come across people who love my little children," Loudon says.

"I had to listen to them again and as I say they have some redeeming qualities though none are springing to mind right now some of the songs are short the artwork is great."

So what will you be singing in York tomorrow? "I'll be dusting off some hoary old numbers. I do that all the time. Someone will shout out for a song and I'll try to do it but then I'll forget the words!" he says.

Loudon, however, will not be resorting to an autocue. "Hell no and I wouldn't have plastic surgery, either. I just go on stage and see what happens. I have to mix it up or I'd be bored and people can sense it if you're bored."

Loudon turned 60 last year, an occasion he has marked by writing a song by the apt name of Sixty, which he promises to perform tomorrow.

"Getting older is always something I'm thinking about. In moments of decay I have a nap. If I may quote myself, no nap, I'm crap'," he says.

Loudon continues to swish his tail against the modern world, as he did on Last Man On Earth in 2000, when he railed: "I don't own a computer, I hate that letter e', I don't pack a cell phone or drive an SUV."

"So many things irritate me, though since I wrote that song, I've got a cell phone, a computer and an SUV," he says.

"But God knows, if I hadn't had a guitar, I would be a mass murderer by now. I channel my rage and people pay me, and it doesn't get any better than that."

More will be seen of Wainwright this year. After his cameo as the Minister in Judd Apatow's comedy The 40 Year Old Virgin, Loudon will appear in Apatow's new movie, Knocked Up.

"I have a little acting role in it; I'm one of several gynaecologists and I have written the soundtrack songs with Joe Henry, who I first met a few years ago when we recorded a Peter Blegvad song for a charity record."

The soundtrack album, Strange Weirdos, will be released next month, when Loudon's son, the flamboyant Rufus, has a new album too. Ah, dear Rufus. Father and son have not always had kind words for each other, so with Loudon talking of the next interviewer from Sheffield being ready to start, it was time to ask how relations were at present.

"Oh dear, a man from Sheffield is calling!..."

Come on, Loudon. "No, Rufus is great, I love all my children. I love them all dearly, and they're all a pain in the butt."


Loudon Wainwright III and Lucy Wainwright Roche play Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow at 7.30pm. Tickets: £22.50, £18.50 on 0870 606 3595.