IT'S 20 years since Ronnie Mayor last played a gig... and he's a little nervous.

In the late 70s Ronnie was lead singer with Tours, arguably Dorset's most notable footnote in the Punk Rock Story. They recorded and self-released a single called Language School which went on to provide the nascent Rough Trade with an early (cult) hit before being released by Virgin and gaining endless airplay. Copies of the single are now highly collectable.

When that band imploded, he formed the long-lamented Biz who scored an underground hit with On the Beach, was asked to join early 80s club fiends, Blue Rondo a la Turk, got sacked from Biz and went to Australia on holiday. He never came back... until now.

"The last gig I played was the Biz Christmas Party in 1983, so, yes, it's all a little scary," says Ronnie who plays the Blue Boar in Poole tomorrow night.

"I'd had enough of the record business, of England, of Thatcher. I went to Oz and stayed, basically. I got offered a job in the pub I went in on the night I arrived, then got offered another job the next day and before I knew it I was living the most fantastic lifestyle in a land of wonderful weather. It was great out there."

Although he has made flying visits back to his Poole home over the years, he's never hung around very long.

But having been in the UK since Christmas, he has decided to step out on stage again and has hooked up with long-time friends Pete Christie and Conrad Barr to play a set at the Blue Boar.

"It'll mostly be new original material with a few covers. No, we haven't rehearsed Language School, but I still write pop music. Pete and I will play guitar and Conrad adds keyboards but we've worked up some interesting three-part harmonies.

"If it goes well I'll see where it can go - I never got top make an album remember - so there may be some other gigs, but it's very informal at this stage."

Unsurprisingly Ronnie, a youthful 51 years old, never fell out of love with music. In Australia he found a fascination with the music of the South Sea Islands and other indigenous sounds from around the globe. He was a regular at festivals around Sydney and saw Beck appear as a busker at one event, only to return a year later as headline act.

"They call it world music now, but then it didn't have a name, you had to really search to track down the records.

"I've spent some time in Brazil as well and picked up their music - although one time in Brasilia I came across these local guys playing their guitars and doing Beatles tunes, it was a wonderful moment where you really appreciate the universality of that music."