JIM Capaldi is unhappy - very unhappy - with the state of the British music industry today.

This isn't just some old-timer talking about how "things were better in the old days" (although that is what he thinks) as he is still a big name in the industry, thanks to the music he has produced as both a solo artist and a member of Traffic.

Jim was born in Evesham's Avonside Hospital and spent his childhood living in Cowl Street and then Fairfield.

His family made real ice cream in the town, a product he says was far superior to other ice creams, which he says are "like the music today - all white and creamy and anaemic."

Speaking from his home in Marlow in Buckinghamshire, I could hear him tunefully tinkling away on a piano while he poured scorn on modern chart music, saying: "No one even thinks about music or musicians any more."

He recalled: "Back then in Evesham there would be a whole bunch of little groups and they were great little groups.

"We were all playing our instruments and just getting up there.

"You would have been beaten up dancing like they do on television today."

Radio cops its share of flak too. "There are lots of good little groups who can't get on because they are too busy playing Britney Spears."

Even at the age of 57 he is still writing and recording and released his new solo album, Living On The Outside, earlier this month on the German-based SPV Records.

A list of those who contributed to the album shows the high regard his fellow musicians have for his work.

Paul Weller, Gary Moore, George Harrison, Steve Winwood and Ian Paice all feature.

Given his lack of enthusiasm for today's British music, it is perhaps not surprising that Jim does not expect too much success in his home country, although he expects the new album to sell well on the Continent and in America.

"It is a good album and I'm pleased with it," he said. "I think the critical reviews will be good."

America has always been kind to him. In 1994 after Traffic reformed they toured the country, playing to more than 500,000 people in 75 shows, including 10 with fellow rock legends The Grateful Dead.

It's all a far cry from his teenage days when his band, The Hellions, used to play at the Kids' Club shows at Bengeworth cinema before he moved to Worcester to take up an apprenticeship in a factory there.

His big musical breakthrough came a few years later in the mid-'60s when he was playing a gig at The Elbow Room in Birmingham with his band, Deep Feeling.

Their early form of psychedelic rock attracted Steve Winwood, who now lives in the Cotswolds, and their friendship led to the formation of Traffic in 1966.

That was the era of Bob Dylan, The Who, Rolling Stones, Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, but Traffic, who played the first Hyde Park free concerts before either the Stones or Pink Floyd, were always associated with a different sound.

They were usually linked to what was known as the West Coast Movement along with Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and the Grateful Dead. "It was fabulous," said Jim.

After Traffic split up in the early 1970s, he maintained his success as a solo artist and performed with other bands but his greatest asset has been his song-writing ability, which has worked to the benefit of other groups too.

The Eagles' song, Love Will Keep Us Alive, is just one from his pen.

He is also a five-time winner of BMI and ASCAP awards for 'most played compositions in America'.

He has lived the ultimate rock and roll lifestyle and now devotes a lot of time to helping his wife, Anina, who is a leading light in the Jubilee 2000 campaign to help street children in Brazil.

He hasn't forgotten his Vale roots either and still comes back to Evesham from time to time to visit his father, Nick, and other family members in the area.