Howard Jones is another iconic keyboard player on tour. Viv Hardwick finds out about his role at the frontier of music on the web and discovers how he’s coped with being called HoJo.

SO is he making sure that the music industry has to keep up with the Joneses, I ask Howard Jones as he swaps the 5,000- 20,000-seater stadiums for the friendly intimacy of Darlington Arts Centre.

“I certainly try things in new ways,” says the Eighties icon, bursting into laughter over my horrendous pun. But, the truth is, Jones is still at the cutting edge of creative music – currently looking at 3DiCD web broadcasting – while selecting to switch between small acoustic-style tours and the might of Florida’s Epcot Center and Oman.

“It’s interesting because I’m really keen on working at both ends of the spectrum.

We’ve done a lot of festivals with the band playing to 6,000, 10,000 or 20,000 people, but at the same time it’s very important to me to keep developing and performing the singersongwriter side of what I do and to be able to hold a small room just with myself and another musician. So I’m doing this tour to keep developing as an artist. That’s important because I don’t want to get stuck just playing people’s favourite songs of mine from the Eighties. I can’t just do that, I’ve got to keep moving forward as well,” he says.

Jones is supposed to have descended into “cultdom” in the Nineties. “I suppose that was inevitable after you have your time in the spotlight and that has to end. For a start you can’t sustain that level of attention as a person without suffering serious psychological damage.

It’s actually a kind of benevolent fall from fame really, but my drive has always been that I love writing music and working with other musicians and trying new things and I’m so grateful that I can still do that and for an audience that sticks with me, because there are a million other things that they could do,” he explains.

Next comes a live performance of two of his albums, Humans Lib and Dream Into Action, at London’s 02 Arena on November 6 and I ask him what his current inspirations are, particularly as bands like La Roux have returned the charts to the electro-pop of the Eighties.

“It’s bizarre in a way because I made those records having developed my songs 30 years ago, but they weren’t released until 1983 and 1985. A long time ago for me. Interestingly enough, preparing for this tour I’ve been going back through the old albums and listening to everything I’ve done in case there’s a song which stands out for this tour. My favourite work isn’t the first two albums. My favourite is the People album which is when I went independent.”

His visit to Darlington will include a performance from friend Duncan Sheik “probably my favourite singer-songwriter in the world” and then Jones on piano and Jonathan Atkinson on electric drums will play a selection of his hits. “I’m going to bring my laptop and a little synth with me as well because I’ve never done that before. I’m just going to experiment with that on a few dates and I’ll be playing a good chunk of the new album, Ordinary Heroes, and then the hits and some other choice stuff I’ve dug up,” Jones says.

There’s a song called Building Our Own Future, almost unknown in the UK, which he’s keen to include because the lyrics talk about it being up to everyone to create the future and not rely on the Government. “I thought that was quite appropriate at this time particularly because I wrote it five years ago,” he says.

On the 3DiCD project Jones says: “It’s something I came across through the people that manage me and discovered this guy who had written fabulous software to put albums on-line where you can virtually look through the album and flick through the pages while playing tracks, just like when you had a release in your hands. I think it’s a really cool idea and you can also have video clips and music from the album. I think it can be the way forward because you do miss the artwork you get in paper form. I’m a big advocate and I hope it takes off.”

Currently the idea is that you view the releases online and fulfils the current desire to link music and art more closely.

“I suppose I’m thinking that recorded music is becoming less important and really it’s all about seeing people live. The live experience is really valued and you can tell by the explosion of festivals that are all sold out. People want to be there and I think that they want to stop and be absorbed by the experience because we live in the culture that’s so fragmented and bombarded by information and it’s just mental. I think people can focus on one thing and get lost in it and enjoy it with a lot of other people. It’s not difficult to see the appeal,” he says.

He runs a mix of web activity but admits he’s lost a bit of faith in Myspace because he feels it’s been surpassed by Twitter and his own website.

“Twitter for me has been a revelation and it’s a great way of communicating in short bursts with people frequently. You also get feedback and I even did an online poll the other day and they replied. I’m glad Myspace is still there but you can hear loads of my stuff on the website,” adds Jones.

And does he like being called HoJo, because I hadn’t worked out it was him initially?

“It started in America and I really don’t mind. It’s the ultimate shortform,” he laughs.

■ Howard Jones, Darlington Arts Centre, Tuesday, 8pm. Tickets: £16. Box Office: 01325-486-555 darlingtonarts.co.uk howardjones.com