It’s going to be a busy weekend for Steve Winwood. On Saturday he plays the world’s greatest music festival, before heading to Kent for a day at the seaside. Helen Geraghty reports.

When Steve Winwood belts out hits like Back in the High Life and When You See a Chance at Margate and Glastonbury this weekend, you can be sure of one thing – he’ll still be loving every minute.

Steve burst into prominence 50 years ago, aged 15 with the Spencer Davis Group, whose hit singles included Keep on Running and Gimme Some Lovin’.

A product of a musically talented Birmingham family, the young singer-songwriter/musician went on to form Traffic, who had landmark albums with the likes of Mr Fantasy and John Barleycorn Must Die, confirming them as one of the most important British groups of the 1960s and 1970s.

Around the same time, Steve also found time to form Blind Faith – dubbed rock’s first supergroup – with Cream guitarist Eric Clapton, drummer Ginger Baker and former Family bassist Ric Grech.

After going solo in 1977, tracks such as Back in the High Life, When You See a Chance, Valerie and Higher Love added themselves to the list of songs eternally demanded whenever Steve steps on stage.

The 65-year-old said: “I do try and cover the whole of the spectrum, starting from the mid and early 1960s and going through the Traffic days to stuff from the 1980s and up to the ‘noughties’. So I do try to do a fair representation. Nowadays, with social media, I certainly find out in no uncertain terms if I haven’t done enough new stuff or early stuff.

“I can’t do everything in an hour and three quarters, but I try to keep everything evenly spaced over the 50 years.

“Sometimes we try to re-arrange some of the stuff that was played a lot so that we give it a new injection, which is partly so that we aren’t just going through the motions. What I mean is, we enjoy playing new things, and hopefully people like to hear something live rather than just exactly what was on the record.

“I always play songs like Gimme Some Lovin’, Mr Fantasy, Higher Love and Keep on Running. People don’t like it if I don’t!”

After 50 years, couldn’t Steve be excused for putting his feet up with his wife and enjoying summer at his home in the Cotswolds, rather than packing himself and his band off on a tour that takes in Berlin’s historic Admiralspalast and New York’s Madison Square Garden?

“I like playing live. It’s just a question of how you do it. I used to tour in the old days, sleeping on people’s floors or in the back of a van. Nowadays, I like to be a bit more comfortable. A decent hotel makes all the difference now.”

Steve Winwood will be at Margate Winter Gardens on Sunday, June 30, at 7.30pm. Tickets are £29.50. Special guests include Brazilian-born guitarist Jose Neto and jazz musician Paul Booth, both band members. Call 01843 292795. The day before, Steve plays the Acoustic Tent at Glastonbury at 8pm.