FIFTY years ago an English quintet that went under the name of Ace released their debut LP. Entitled Five-a-Side, it was the work of lead guitarist Phil Harris, rhythm guitarist Alan King, drummer Fran Byrne, bassist Terry Comer - and, on organ, piano and lead vocals, one Paul Carrack.

The memorable lead single, written and sung by Sheffield-born Carrack, was called How Long, and it was deservedly a substantial hit, reaching the Top 3 in the States and number 20 in the UK.

Ace relocated to America and released two further albums, Time for Another (1975) and No Strings (1977), neither of which sold in great numbers, and the band eventually broke up.

Of the five members, Carrack went on to have by far the highest-profile career, both as a solo artist and as the distinctive voice on hits by groups as diverse as Squeeze and Mike + the Mechanics – his is the voice your hear on the former’s 1981 song, Tempted, and on the latter’s Grammy-nominated The Living Years, and Over My Shoulder.

He played keyboards with a revived Roxy Music line-up between 1978 and 1980 and contributed piano and organ to no fewer than three songs - Reel Around the Fountain, You’ve Got Everything Now, and I Don’t Owe You Anything - on the classic debut album by The Smiths in 1984.

Many of his own songs have been covered by other artists. One of them - Love Will Keep Us Alive, co-written with Jim Capaldi and Peter Vale - was sung by The Eagles on their Hell Freezes Over reunion tour, and on subsequent tours.

Carrack has also played on sessions for B.B. King and Elton John, and for several years was part of Eric Clapton’s touring band. He played with Roger Waters on the latter’s Radio K.A.O.S. tour, not long after he had left Pink Floyd. And when Waters staged his ambitious project - The Wall, live in Berlin - he asked Carrack to sing one particular song, Hey You. In 1997 it was reported that Carrack had auditioned to replace Donnie Munro as the lead singer in Runrig.

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It has been, by any measure, an amazing career. “When I look back as a kid, I can’t believe it”, Carrack told Smashing Interviews Magazine a few years ago. “But, yeah, I’ve played with a lot of people. It looks good on paper. I guess the short story is that in my heart of hearts, I like to sing. I kind of fancy myself as a singer-songwriter, and sometimes in the bands I’ve been involved with, it has been a supporting role. But I’ve sung lead on some of these hits, which is a bit bizarre”.

Asked whether he was musically restless, he said in the same interview: “I’m not restless actually. This might sound ridiculous, but I’m loyal when I get involved in something, and I do my best. I like to get on with people. I didn’t plan the way it’s gone at all. I’m just delighted that I’ve managed to make a living from it and a life from something I enjoy and really like. It’s amazing really”.

Now 73, Carrack is as busy as ever, and is on the road again, this time with the ‘How Long’ 50th anniversary tour. It visits the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall tomorrow night - Sunday, September 15.

Paul Carrack

That 1974 Ace single remains a much-loved part of the CV of a singer who is widely known as ‘The Man with the Golden Voice’. In the view of music historian Martin C Strong, that song had defined Ace’s “all-too-brief period as England's most promising but unfulfilled act”. 

Carrack himself once declared: “‘How Long' is probably the first song I wrote. In 1974, I was in a band called Ace, in London. It was a fun band, and I wrote the song about a real situation, a situation that many people could relate to.

“Little did I know that it would become a classic and touch the hearts of so many. 'How Long' is a song that has stood the test of time, and I'm grateful for the journey it has taken me on over these incredible 50 years”.

In an online interview with US broadcaster Meredith Marx last October, he said: “It’s a very simple song, really. The structure of it … it’s basically got that strong hook, what you might call a chorus. It's just really a hook and then the verse is just a simple kind of vamp.

“I’ve never quite understood how I’ve been so lucky that that has caught the ear of so many people and that it has endured”, he added. “I had no idea that was going to happen. I’m very grateful for that because it's been around a long time and it’s always gotten played in some shape or form on the radio. It never ceases to amaze me because, like I say, I think it was a cool record …”

Carrack has released no fewer than 18 studio albums under his own name, including Satisfy My Soul, from 2000, and It Ain’t Over, from 2003. The most recent, One on One, was released three years ago this month.

He also, it turns out, has a nice line in self-deprecatory humour. Recalling the invitation to sing Hey You on Roger Waters's The Wall Live in Berlin, he told Smashing Interviews Magazine: "I got a phone call from Roger. He told me all about what he was going to do, that he was going to put on this incredible event, The Wall – Live in Berlin, no-man’s land, and there was going to be cranes and helicopters. After telling me for 20 minutes about all of it, he said to me, 'So the reason I’m calling, do you have Huey Lewis’ phone number?

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"I said, 'Yeah, but what about me? Any chance of that?' Roger said, 'Well, you’re not really famous enough, you know'. He had a lot of big names lined up. I said, 'Okay. Fair enough'. He had a point.

"But then I got another call from Roger right close to when the event was going to be happening. He’d had some problems with some of his artists. He said, 'So if you could do me a favour'. And he gave me a list of about five or six songs. He said, 'If you could listen to those, and I might just need you to do something'. One of the songs was Hey You. About three or four days literally before the event, they were already in Berlin rehearsing, and Roger called me up and said, 'I need you to get on a plane and come sing Hey You. I said, 'Okay' ...

  • Paul Carrack plays Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Sept 15. paulcarrack.net