Belouis Some spends his nights in nightclubs and his days at 'Top Of The Pops', stars in controversial videos and loves sequencers, but claims all he really wants to do is write classic songs.

Maybe I should call him 'the late Belouis Some'. Not in any musical sense, you understand, but here I am sitting in the Parlophone press office, and he's over an hour late. This is the second attempt I've made to interview him, too: the first meeting was aborted when a Top Of The Pops appearance beckoned.

But such is a journalist's lot, and my patience is duly rewarded by the arrival of an apologetic Neville Keighley, aka Belouis Some. It's difficult not to forgive him his tardiness because he's basically, well, a nice guy.

It turns out that one of the things that's delayed him on this occasion is the visual presentation of his band.

'They looked so awful on Top Of The Pops that I've been trying to dress them', he explains. 'But they'll ring up and say: "I don't like the colour of this belt", so I tell them to get another and they want to know what colour that one should be! That's what's been happening all morning.'

But Keighley the artist is not to be taken that lightly. He classifies himself primarily as a songwriter, and cares passionately about his craft.

'I'm very serious about my music — the music is the most important thing', he says. 'I started writing at about 18, before I left school. I suppose I'd call that my apprenticeship, but even then I wanted to write classic songs. I suppose I spent about two years sat at home writing before I actually got up and did anything else at all.'

In Keighley's case, the gentle art of songwriting takes place on an acoustic guitar, and the writer claims to have little technical expertise, and even less musical understanding.

'The rest of the guys in the band hate me because I'm so ignorant, but I really think it's a good thing. You see, I think music should come from the heart and not be contrived, so I do all sorts of unorthodox things because they feel right. They'll say: "You can't put an F sharp after an E minor there", but if that's the way it feels to me, then that's how I'll do it. It does lead to some things that trip the band up, though. For example, there's one extra bar in the first verse of 'Jerusalem' that someone always manages to forget about live.'

Neville Keighley is Belouis Some, the band having been arranged around one man and his songs. Songwriters that work independently whilst maintaining some semblance of quality control are few and far between, so it comes as a pleasant surprise that the first Belouis Some album Some People is such a mature work, full of catchy melodies, neat modern arrangements and unexpected changes of mood.

'When I first started writing, solo acts were pretty unusual. But it's better this way because I'm impossible to work with: I have to have my own way all the time. When I write a new song I play it through to the band and then leave them to sort it out on their own.

'But I don't really think Some People is a particularly mature album, because it's a collection of songs that were written over quite a long period of time. Take the 'Imagination' lyric: "She lit a cigarette, both hands behind her back"... I can remember the imagery behind that.'

Personally I disagree; in spite of its confused, disjointed background, there are few albums that possess the coherence of thought that Some People displays so well. Keighley tenders a possible explanation: 'I usually write from a lyrical idea, but I write both the music and lyrics together, so they develop at the same time.'

Those with a finger on the popular pulse will probably have spotted that the success recently enjoyed by the Belouis Some single 'Imagination' hasn't been won on its first release. Even the accompaniment of a controversial promo video — which received just a solitary airing on Channel 4 — failed to make an impact when the song made its first vinyl appearance. But Keighley's faith in the song is matched by an unrepentant attitude to its promotion.

'I believe 'Imagination' is a classic song', he asserts. 'I think it deserved another chance.'

Surely the video must have affected the song's chances originally?

"We were using a DX7 for some of the basslines, but ended up replacing them with an old MiniMoog because the sound was so much better."

'No. I think it will have been seen by plenty of people, because it's a favourite request in clubs showing videos or with video jukeboxes.'

Certainly, the song was a successful dancefloor single. It climbed high in the American dance charts as well as becoming a nightclub favourite in Britain on its initial release.

Yet for an artist who spends a lot of his time clubbing and considers his vocation to be that of dance craftsman, Keighley shows scant regard for technological institutions like click-tracks and sync codes.

'I've often had DJs tell me they can't mix in and out of 'Imagination' because the speed fluctuates too much. We never used a click-track to record it because the song has a natural pace, and variations in that pace. It also has a natural length: I know a pop single is meant to be a three-minute affair but 'Imagination' works best at around six. That was the way it was recorded, then we edited it down to three minutes for the seven-inch version. Of course, live it can be anything from three minutes to 20 minutes, depending on the audience response.'

Keighley declares a general ignorance of modern technology and its workings, yet refers continually to hi-tech synthesisers, and odd details — like programming LinnDrums — keep slipping out as we talk. He sees synths as playing an important role in shaping the texture of his music and adding new tonal colours, and has pretty definite ideas concerning what he likes to see as responsible for those colours.

'I like the PPG Waveterm and the Jupiter 8, though I'm not so keen on the JX8P or the Prophet 5... you'll hate me for this, but I just don't like the knobs on the Prophet.

'We were using a DX7 for some of the basslines but it sounded awful, so we ended up replacing them with an old MiniMoog because the sound is so much better.'

The man's enthusiasm for electronics extends as far as the ubiquitous drum machine, but stops just short of recording with it.

'I sometimes write using a LinnDrum, but in general I don't like drum machines much — they sound too dead. I do quite like the Roland TR707 because of the way you can play off the buttons live, but it still doesn't replace a real kit.

'We did 'Imagination' loads of times with a drum machine, but it only came to life when Tony Thompson played on it. The bassline's a real killer, but it worked once that snare sound went in with it.

'I'm not a great fan of sync codes. I actually wiped the Linn code off one of the masters because I wanted an extra track. Then, when we came to remix it for a 12-inch, I was in trouble.

'I love sequencers, though. We haven't used them on Some People but I expect they'll be on the next album.'

But that'll mean using sync codes. Oh, well...

'What I don't like is technology being used to support a bad song. I don't like the idea of a sequencer being called in to beef up a song that's flagging. It's a bit like using a key change after the middle eight — and I gave up using key changes years ago.'

"I don't like technology being used to support a bad song, like a sequencer beefing up a song that's flagging. It's like using a key change after the middle eight."

In keeping with Keighley's studio attitude, the live Belouis Some is just that: live, with not a backing tape or sequencer to be found.

Although his name is nowhere to be found on the sleeve of Some People, the man responsible for the keyboard work on these live ventures is session ivory-tinkler Peter Oxendale. His is a name that'll be familiar to anyone who's paid attention to the live line-up of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, among many others. He's currently busy rehearsing with the remainder of Belouis Some — the band, that is.

'It's quite a straightforward setup live', says Oxendale. 'I'm using a Jupiter 8, a Korg DW8000, a Poly 800 with two EX800 expanders, a Korg CX3 and a DX7 MIDI'd to a TX rack. I'm using MIDI quite a lot, beefing up the programs in the synths and expanders. I'm hoping to add a couple of SQD1 sequencers and a couple of sampling modules to the list soon, as well.'

Oxendale first met up with Keighley when the latter was touring as support to FGTH. The keyboardsman was duly impressed by the material the singer had written, and a couple of songs in particular took his attention: 'Imagination' and the troublesome 'Jerusalem'... Oxendale's version of that particular story is different.

'It's not us that get it wrong' he claims. 'Neville always forgets that extra bar!'

He has an alternative version of the clothes story, too.

'It's awful: the band do all the hard work while Neville spends his time out buying clothes and posing in wine bars.' Proof, if any were necessary, that being a session keyboard player can be No Fun.

On a superficial level, there's a close similarity between Keighley's work and that of one David Bowie. To make matters worse, the sleeve of Some People lists some of Bowie's regular musicians as having participated in its realisation. Keighley is no stranger to comparisons with the Thin White Duke, and isn't intimidated by them, either.

'I think everyone who's heard Bowie has been influenced by him — and Marc Bolan and the whole glam-rock thing. Anyone that isn't is either a liar or a fool.

'I went to see Simple Minds play the other day, and I was thinking how much Jim Kerr's voice reminded me of Lou Reed. Then it occurred to me that there are only so many styles of singing you can adopt, so it's inevitable that you're going to sound like someone.'

And as for those Bowie musicians...

'Although it was really great for me to work with those guys, I only got into it by accident. Someone I knew reckoned he knew Carlos Alomar — actually, he just introduced himself at a party, but he agreed to do it anyway. Then Earl Slick just happened to be working at the same studio and they ran into each other, so there are a couple of really good slick guitar solos on the album.

'Anyway, I said to Carlos: "You're not going to make it sound just like Bowie, are you?", and he told me he was hardly likely to go and do that when he's been working with Bowie himself for eight years. He's worked on the songs with me because he believes in them.'

Some People have all the luck.

Belouis Some's next move is to release the title track from the LP — also a re-release — as a single and then re-launch the Some People album. Then it's a follow-up LP, for which Keighley has already laid the foundations.

'I'll be going back to New York to record and I hope Bernard Edwards will be producing, though that's not sorted out yet. I'll go into the studio with about nine songs ready written and I intend to write a couple more whilst I'm there, just on the excitement of the occasion — those will probably turn out to be the strongest songs on the album. But I really want the next LP to be an absolute classic.'

It'll be interesting, hearing exactly what Neville Keighley thinks a classic Belouis Some album should sound like.