SOME people are born to greatness, while others have greatness thrust upon them.

There is also a third category of people who somehow manage to do both things, and musician Andy Fairweather Low is an excellent case in point.

In the late 1960s he founded the band Amen Corner, who hit the Number One spot with (If Paradise Is) Half as Nice in 1969 and also enjoyed success with three other successive Top 10 hits.

When they split Andy formed Fairweather, which he stayed with for a year before finding solo success, releasing five albums up to 1980 on A&M. These spawned further single chart success with Reggae Tune and the Christmas hit Wide Eyed And Legless.

Andy has also made his name as a session musician and touring band member with the likes of The Who, Eric Clapton, Roger Waters and Bill Wyman.

But despite four decades of non-stop success and recognition - and the fact that he is currently undertaking a hugely successful tour with his band The Low Riders - Andy still fears he will be forgotten and out of work.

"It is typical artistic paranoia!" he laughs. "Yes, I am very busy. If I get a quiet month, then that's good. But if it stretches to two months I start to worry that the phone will never ring again.

"The, of course, as soon as I book a holiday you can bet yourself 100 per cent that the phone will ring with the offer of a job!"

He adds: "I was successful in the 1960s, the 1970s were also successful in the UK and since then it has been other people's success that I have been involved in."

Andy's current tour is a very best of' celebration, which means fans are in for a real treat with a playlist peppered with global hits including Wide Eyed And Legless, Reggae Tune, Bend Me Shape Me, Hello Susie, (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice, Gin House Blues, Natural Sinner and many more.

"I love touring," he says. "I get withdrawal symptoms when I'm not playing.

"This tour is a bit special because we are concentrating on smaller venues, which I love. I have just come off 26 years playing arenas and you get to these places and do the soundcheck and realise that they simply were not made for making music in.

"Yes, they do sound better when they have thousands of people in, but they are not the same as smaller venues or clubs. The money's not as good, but the tour is brilliant!"

Andy's Damascene conversion to music came in 1964 when he saw The Rolling Stones play live at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff.

"I can still see and hear them now," he says. "I can even remember what they were wearing when they sang Talkin' About You. I was finished after that. My education was finished. All I wanted was to be a musician.

"My parents had other ideas, of course. But every morning I would leave the house and hide round the corner. As soon as my mum left to go to work I would go back home, put on a Rolling Stones record and practise all of my Keith Richards riffs." His dedication paid off and has left him with scant respect for today's one-minute wonders who expect to find immediate fame through reality television.

"You have to have an ear and a passion to follow it come what may," he says. "You have to work, to practise. You can't expect to go on a show, win a competition and become famous as a result. That's just ridiculous."

Andy Fairweather Low and the Low Riders are playing at the Tivoli Theatre in Wimborne tonight at 8pm. Tickets are £17 on the door or from the box office on 01202 885566.