ON June 18, 1972, British jazz legend George Melly took to the stage at the famous Ronnie Scott's club in London to record his first album, and completely failed to do so on account of being drunk out of his mind.

The booze was free that night, and speaking to Melly it seems no one in the audience or on stage was even remotely sober.

"I thought recording the album went wonderfully well," said Melly, below, vaguely recalling the incident.

"I thought it was a wonderful evening and so did the audience. But in the morning when we were a bit more sober we listened to the recording and it was awful. We were all far too drunk.

"So we recorded it again in a studio and by some clever editing the engineers got in all of the audience noise from the night."

Nowadays, Melly's show, which he is bringing to Worcester's Huntingdon Hall, is somewhat different, but he still has many fond, frequently booze-soaked memories of his days with John Chilton's Feetwarmers at Ronnie Scott's.

"We used to fall off the stage and slip off the piano," Melly recalls.

During one show Melly even appeared on stage in full drag as his Aunt Georgina.

"My wife and her friend helped me into the Edwardian dress and it looked pretty awful," he said.

"I don't think anyone was taken in for too long."

Melly seems unstoppable. He may be 76 years old but he has just embarked on a new show with a new band, Digby Fairweather and his half dozen.

This brought to an end 20 years of performing with John Chilton's Feetwarmers.

"John was getting tired of travelling," said Melly.

"He is over 70 after all. But then so am I. I just never got tired of it.

"So we decided, perfectly amicably, to split up and go our separate ways."

During the two decades, Melly and Chilton conquered the world, touring every inch of the UK and covering Europe, Australia, New Zealand and America.

"The American audiences were fascinated with this slightly posh English man singing jazz standards," he said.

"We got over the middle aged hump and are very well preserved, or, in my case, pickled."

The line-up may be different, but the source of the music, from the 20s, 30s and 40s is still the same, as is Melly's inimitable growling style.

As well as being a musician, Melly is an artist, a journalist, picking up the IPC Award for TV Critic of the Year, a lecturer, and a fly fisher.

He is also well known for his razor sharp wit. When Mick Jagger said his wrinkles were laughter lines, Melly famously retorted with, 'surely nothing could be that funny'.

"These days I'm not such a risk," he said. "I think people think of me as harmless because there are quite a few universities that have given me an honourary degree."

But music is the particular string in Melly's bow that he is focussing on at the moment, and he is looking forward to his visit to Huntingdon Hall.

"I'm very fond of Worcester, it makes my favourite sauce. My father used to put it on everything," Melly said.

Singing and Swinging the Blues and some other songs featuring George Melly and Digby Fairweather and Digby Fairweather's Half Dozen, is at Huntingdon Hall, Thursday, April 10 at 8pm.

Tickets are £12, £11 concessions, available from the box office on 01905 611427.