FORMER Beautiful South guitarist David Rotheray has been making a name for himself on the folk scene.

He will be heading out on tour in March to promote his latest album, The Life Of Birds, which has been described as “strange, lovely and intriguing” and “a warm, collaborative affair tinged with the Beautiful South’s droll humour”.

Accompanying him will be collaborators Bella Hardy and Jim Causley, who featured on the album, written by Rotheray after an ear infection left him confined to a chair for a fortnight with little to do other than to look out over his garden and ponder the fluttering creatures.

Support comes from another album collaborator, Eleanor McEvoy.

* David Rotheray is at The Met, in Market Street, on Wednesday, March 23. Tickets £10, 0161 761 2216; Metal in Edge Hill, Liverpool, on Sunday, March 27.