FOR Louis Clark, music was all he ever wanted to do. “I started I suppose when I left school, the Beatles were out then and I thought it was the best thing I’d heard – all I wanted to do was play music,” says the conductor and arranger.

“I bought a bass guitar, because I thought that was the easiest thing to play. I grew up in Shropshire and I thought ‘I’m going to move to a bigger city’, and I played in various bands and had two or three hits back in the early Sixties.”

It was arranging that captured Louis. He worked with the Electric Light Orchestra as well as producing his own cult records, Hooked on Classics, which saw classical music arranged over an electronic sound.

First released in the early Eighties, the records were a huge commercial success, and Louis is currently reviving the live version of the music, which comes to the Cliffs Pavilion, this weekend.

Featuring the English Pops Orchestra with Louis behind the baton, it’ll be a an exciting fusion of styles.

Louis says: “It’s been a long time since Hooked on Classics was recorded, more than 30 years ago, and we hadn’t done a concert for years until just before Christmas when we did it in Bournemouth and it was a big success.

“It’s a full symphony orchestra and we also have a choir which adds a new dimension.”

He adds: “I’ve done it about three times in Southend before, about ten or 15 years ago, and it’s always a good audience.”

Louis’s talent for arranging developed after he wanted string sections to his own band’s music, and saw the work the drafted-in arrangers were doing.

“I saw these arrangers come in and I thought ‘that’s something I want to do’. I bought myself some books and did some of my own arrangements for the band.

“Then I realised I probably should get some formal education and I did a three-year course at the City of Leeds College of Music and it was probably the best thing I ever did.”

His status as a top arranger was sealed when he met members of the Electric Light Orchestra, when he was working in the same studio complex in Birmingham. His string arrangements gave them a sound that would cement their place in musical history.

Hooked on Classics Cliffs Pavilion Station Road, Westcliff Friday, 8pm, From £23.50 01702 351135