"I seem to occupy a funny sort of position in the music business," Nick Lowe says with a trace of a grin and a sigh. "I'm considered to be something of an eccentric, so people kind of indulge me and my flights of fancy. I've always felt like an outsider and that's really the way I like it. It leaves me free to sort of snipe away on the outskirts. I earn a living; I have my mates; I have a certain measure of respect from people I respect, and that's the way I like it."

This philosophical shrugging hasn�t come easily. Lowe has usually made more of a mark on pop history than on pop charts with his work as producer, songwriter and musician (not particularly in that order). That can be frustrating for both the ego and the wallet. After two brilliant albums, Pure Pop For Now People and Labour Of Lust (1978 and 1979), then a disappointing group effort with Rockpile (�the outfit most likely to who never did�) in 1980, Seconds Of Pleasure, Lowe released two more disappointing LPs: 1982�s Nick The Krife (occasionally brilliant but mostly inconsistent) and 1983�s The Abominable Showman (the title backfired).