JUST sitting with Mick Spencer, talking and drinking tea in the kitchen of his Blackburn home, does more to rekindle the old deep enthusiasm for rock music than the swirl of incoherent energy that is the predominant language of some of today’s X-Factor style pop gibberish.

He thumbs through a scrapbook of rock memorabilia, bulging with five-star reviews from the New Musical Express, and when he proudly shows me photographs of him embracing Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher, it makes his face beam with a boyish smile.

It is a decade since Spencer, a man with a generous spirit, was fired as lead singer of Blackburn band The Burn, just days before the gig of a lifetime — supporting The Rolling Stones in Paris.

“It took me a long time to get over it. It did shatter me but I’ve made my peace now,” said Mick, now the leader of Blackburn band The Wagon Wheels.

“I wrote a song for The Wagon Wheels, Last Man Standing, and that’s about that rock and roll life experience.

“Playing in the Wagon Wheels has fixed a lot of things for me, closed a lot of wounds.

“It has got me believing in myself again and conquering those fears of getting on that stage again. The musical spark is definitely back.”

Spencer had been with the band from its humble beginnings in their King Street rehearsal room when The Burn dreamed of making it big.

“We turned up at the record company in London and I had nothing except the clothes I was stood in,” he recalled.

“I didn’t have enough money to buy a pasty.

“We were four scallies from Blackburn who rehearsed in a little cellar with three busted microphones.

“The record company heard the demo and handed us a cheque for £78,000, as an advance on a six-album deal.

“It was unbelievable, you know. They gave us £1,000 each in cash and I went out and bought a new wardrobe of clothes in Carnaby Street. I looked like one of The Beatles.

“I threw my old clothes in the dustbin and that night we went out and got absolutely smashed.”

Spencer was living the dream. From a Mill Hill council estate and a dead-end factory job, it was life in the rock and roll fast lane.

“We supported Oasis and Noel Gallagher’s going, ‘All right boys, love your music. It was totally mad and life felt like an out-of-control washing machine on a fast spin.

“It was like a lad’s night out every night for five years. We all just hit it head-on. We were like little kids on Christmas morning.

“In the end, we were too young and naïve — we self-destructed. My memories of The Burn are in a box in the garage, but I’ll always have time for my mates from back then.”

Now the Blackburn songsmith has emerged with some great new tunes and the spokes are beginning to turn faster and faster on the Wagon Wheels train.

The seven-piece, a collection of well-known musicians from various outfits around Blackburn, have already supported Jefferson Starship, The View, Cast and their Christmas show at Blackburn King George’s Hall kicked up a real storm.

“The music industry is cruel,” said Mick. “It is full of magpies and leeches but, throughout everything that happened, my partner Emma stuck by me and told me to go out and follow my dream.

“She was my rock and still is — I have so much to thank her for.

“There’s a genuine buzz about what we are doing in Wagon Wheels.

“I’m so excited about our music. It just feels really uplifting and that’s lovely.”

  • The Wagon Wheels plus support from The Slydes, Christian Tamara Roberts and The Most Ugly Child, the Grand, Clitheroe, Saturday. Details from 01200 421599.