IT'S not that George Jones is stuck in the past, exactly. Its just that the past makes up so much of the Clubsound co-founder's present – and future.
Jones is currently arranging a special tour to mark the 50th anniversary of the legendary Northern Ireland group. But that is far from his only project – his musical Rock and Roll Years and Dance Hall Days is also about to, well, rock and roll.
Added to that, the band he played in before Clubsound, the Monarchs, which also featured a local lad called Van Morrison, are heading back on the road, with a one-off appearance planned for this year's Eastside Arts Festival.
There is speculation that Morrison himself will take part in the reunion. Yet, though Jones meets his old mate regularly for lunch, he stoically refuses to comment on the rumours, which appear to be based on Morrison's support for the festival, held next month in his native east Belfast.
"I'm saying nothing," says Jones – but then he adds, enigmaticlly: "Watch this space."
Jones lives in an idyllic part of the Ards Peninsula with his wife Hilary, who runs a riding school for the disabled. Just next door are their daughter Natalie and son-in-law Jeff McCormick and their teenage grand-daughters Sophie and Jessie.
Now 75, Jones has no real need to work, but it feels like he cannot help himself.
"I have always loved it – and I still get a buzz," he tells me.
But despite a long solo run, which has also included the Up Ulster! show, tributes to the showbands era and crooners like Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, Jones is probably still primarily remembered as the face of Clubsound.
Formed during the 70s, the current line-up are now themselves in their 70s – the surviving members, that is; sadly, Billy Bingham ("one of the best singers I ever worked with", Jones says) passed away earlier this week at his Co Down home.
But Jones feels the once Belfast-based band never got the recognition it deserved. In a successful career, which also included a lengthy stint in the BBC Radio Ulster mid-afternoon slot, which ended in tears, he says this is his biggest disappointment.
"That's the saddest thing – and it's not about me, it's not for me," he stresses. "I have had a lot of recognition all my life and I'm grateful for that. But the other members have not had the accolades that they should have had.
"We brought people together in venues all during the very height of the Troubles. We had them singing peace anthems together and yet Belfast City Council, for example, has never given that recognition, though other bands have been given it.
"I was the compere so I was seen as the leader and had a higher profile. But really we were all equal – they were all equally talented."
The classic Clubsound act combined cabaret and comedy, often kicking down barriers in the tradition of the great James Young. The main writer for the material, which Jones says Give My Head Peace frontman Tim McGarry has acknowledged as a key influence, was Tommy Thomas.
The had stage characters fans will remember including 'Andy McFadden', and parody songs, such as Belfast, Belfast, which included the lines:
"The people of Belfast are friendly and quiet,
Except sometimes when they like a little riot,
Belfast, Belfast I love you,
If you're out of work, you can get de brew."
The band played the Abercorn in Belfast until it was devastated by a bomb on March 4 1972, killing two young women and injuring 130.
"The day the bomb went off brought us all down to earth," says Jones. "Our songs like Shankill Airways had shown that even at the height of the Troubles, we could laugh at ourselves."
But it wasn't the only time the group was impacted by the poisonous events of the time.
"One night at a sports club location which I don't wish to name we were told that unless we played a particular national anthem we would hardly get out alive. We had to fly out the back of the hall, jump into our van and scarper.
"But we played Orange Halls, GAA halls and venues in all areas. Most people didn't give a stuff about the Troubles, they just wanted to laugh."
After the Abercorn, Clubsound set up a residency on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the Railway Tavern in Antrim.
"They were continually turning people away," says Jones. At the time the then 'direct rule' minister Lord Peter Melchett, who died last year, presented the group with a silver disc.
"We had a minister who was a lord who was one of our biggest fans, and often on the guest list for our shows," Jones recalls. "In the run-up to Christmas and the New Year we would have been playing 27 nights out of 31 and for most of the year, had we wanted, we could have played eight nights a week."
Despite Jones's comedic gifts, the band were first and foremost musicians who could rock it out one minute and then roll into a ballad or a folk favourite the next.
Jones became a Christian a few years ago and now says: "I now realise it was God who gave me my talent."
But the plans for the anniversary tour include a possible week-long stint at a Belfast venue, says Jones, as well as a tour of theatres across the north, with special guests. A re-release of their best-loved performances from six best-selling albums could also be on the cards.
Cearly saddened by the death of bandmate Bingham, "the first of us to go", Jones recalls fondly of his fellow Clubsound members: "We never had a falling-out in 50 years. We have had heated words, people walking out of meetings, and so on, but no fisticuffs or bad language. The next day, all was OK again,"
But fans of their music just aren't catered for today, he claims.
"The older generation tend to be dismissed nowadays. Most radio stations start their playlists from the 80s and people aged between, well, for example, 45 to 90, are left out."
At the height of their fame Clubsound proved too big for Northern Ireland, busting on to the entertainment scene in England and eventually travelling to Miami where soul singer PP Arnold was their support act and the on-the-bill comic was Ted Rogers, who went on to host hit TV game show 3-2-1.
But it was an ill-fated venture. "The pound crashed against the dollar and all the British cancelled their holidays. We had two press nights in a 900-seat venue which were packed out and then, on opening night, just 90 people and it went from bad to worse. We simply ran out of money."
Core members for the anniversary shows will be bass man Jones, former Freshmen star Dave McKnight, Alan McCartney, Barry Woods and Jimmy Black. Others from the past, among them sax and clarinet player Harry Hickland and Crawford Bell could also be among the line-up.
