"Bradford has been good to us"

Six months on, he's looking fit and healthy and looking forward to Smokie's world tour, promoting latest album On the Wire.

"I've been building up strength over the past few months. My doctor says the ticker is doing fine, " says Terry.

"When we played Music at Myrtle last September I'd only just had the operation so I had to stay on the sidelines but now I'm ready to get out there."

Terry and the band flew to Norway on Monday and are touring Scandinavia before returning to the UK for some gigs, including one in Bradford. "It's always great playing back here, " says Terry. "Bradford has been good to us and we like to put something back."

That doesn't just include homecoming concerts. Over the past 15 years Smokie has hosted a gala dinner dance at Craiglands Hotel, Ilkley, in aid of the Annette Fox Leukaemia Fund, set up in memory of a young Bradford leukaemia sufferer, and what started as a one-off event has raised around £400,000 so far. This year's gala night - which included an auction of signed guitars from Status Quo rockers Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt - raised £35,000.

"It all started when my wife discovered she had a low white blood cell count, which can lead to leukaemia, " says Terry. "She went for treatment at an old cancer ward and we decided to try and raise money to improve conditions for patients. It started as a one-off concert, we never thought it would become one of the biggest events on the district's calendar."

The Annette Fox Fund Haematology Unit, run by Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, is based at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

The Fund supports haematology services in Bradford and provides specialist equipment, training and personal services for patients through the funds raised. Fund administrator Lisa Bailey said money raised at this year's Smokie gala will enable leukaemia patients to enjoy a dream trip to Disneyland Resort Paris.

The annual gala dinner includes a concert by Smokie. "It's always a fantastic atmosphere, we couldn't imagine not doing it and it's incredibly rewarding to know we've made a difference, " says Terry.

When he joined a band with classmates Chris Norman and Alan Silson at St Bede's School back in the 1960s, Terry never dreamed that four decades on he'd be playing across the world.

"You don't think that far ahead when you're a kid, " he says. "The first couple of times they asked me to join the band I said no, I had a job as an apprentice at Fields Printers in Lidget Green which I was happy with.

But the third time they asked me I said yes, and it went on from there."

The band signed with Mickey Most's RAK label and clocked up a series of Top Ten singles including If You Think You Know How To Love Me, Don't Play Your Rock 'n' Roll To Me and Oh Carol.

When the band became unfashionable in the early Eighties they called it a day, but in 1986 they were reunited at a fundraising concert for relatives of the Bradford fire victims and decided to make another go of the band. When Chris Norman left to go solo he was replaced by Alan Barton of Black Lace who was with Smokie until his death in a tour bus crash ten years ago.

After much soul-searching, the band continued with Mike Craft as frontman and before long they were back in the charts thanks to club comic Roy 'Chubby' Brown's memorable version of Living Next Door To Alice.

"There's an American hip-hop singer called Canton Jones who's done his own version of that, " smiles Terry.

These days Smokie are on the road most of the time, and have clocked up worldwide sales of over 30 million. A huge live act in Europe and the Far East, their 2003 greatest hits collection The Box Set - ten CDs spanning 30 years - went platinum across Scandinavia.

"Our biggest audiences are in Scandinavia, we're making a live DVD over there, " says Terry. "After that we're off to Australia, New Zealand and Korea. We're honorary citizens of Seoul after becoming the first Western band to sell a million singles there."

If you're a member of Smokie you get to see the world. They are one of the few Western bands regularly touring countries like Mongolia, Uruguay and China and were the first international band to play in Greenland - beating Blur by a day!

"We're lucky enough to have a record deal in Europe so we're always gigging, we love different countries for different reasons, " says Terry. "We try to see as much as we can, although when you're travelling a lot you don't always know what day it is!

We take the time to learn about different cultures, we've even recorded songs in Chinese and Spanish."

Smokie have fans in high places; last year they played at a ball at the Kremlin for Russian president Vladimir Putin, and at the President of Khazakstan's 60th birthday party.

"We'd played at the Kremlin theatre before, but this time we were in the President's suite surrounded by men in suits reaching for guns in their pockets. Quite an experience!" says Terry.

Smokie are at St George's Hall on Thursday. Ring (01274) 432000.