He was forced to cancel the last few shows of his farewell tour earlier this year due to an unrelated illness – but after realising he felt more healthy than he'd expected to, he's added more live dates. He performed in a home crowd at Southend-on-Sea at the weekend.

Wilko tells the Guardian: "I thought I should try to get an album out before I die. But this is a rather indeterminate time for me, so sometimes I do wonder what the bloody point is.