And it will come as no surprise to fans of the Scottish pop-rockers that he has come up with a debut album of beautiful world-weary songs.

What Is Love For is released today on Rykodisc, and Currie is embarking on a tour to promote it.

It includes a date at Northumbria University in Newcastle on Sunday, October 14, and tickets, priced £15, are on sale now from 263 5000.

Currie founded Del Amitri in his hometown of Glasgow in 1982, when he was still a teenager.

The band went from scrappy DIY indie combo to international hitmakers, enjoying success with songs like Nothing Ever Happens and Always The Last To Know.

They racked up 15 Top 40 singles in the UK, and five Top 10 albums, but their last one, Can You Do Me Good?, stalled at No 30 in 2002.

Poor sales saw them dropped by their label Mercury, and it's uncertain whether they have split up, but guitarist Kris Dollimore and drummer Mark Price are believed to have quit, leaving just Currie and co-writer Iain Harvie.

Becoming a solo artist was therefore a matter of circumstance rather than design, says Currie.

"When Del Amitri were dropped Iain and I looked at what we'd achieved over the past 20 years, and decided we had no desire to keep making those records over and over again.

"I took a holiday in Spain, where I ended up getting stoned and listening to the Italian singer Lucio Battisti's '70s albums, and suddenly decided that's what I should do – big romantic songs with lots of strings.

"I had this vision, and I had a whole host of songs that I thought I could make work in that manner, so I came home and started recording. Then it morphed into something different, as things do.

"I don't think it's a radical departure from the way I've written in the past, and the themes are the same as ever.

"But unlike a Del Amitri album, it's not designed to showcase a band or to work as a live show. It's just an attempt to express myself openly and simply."

Because he was between record deals, Currie took advantage of the opportunity to write and record What Is Love For on his own terms.

"I was under no commercial pressure, so there were no compromises to be made. I wanted the songs to arrive in their own natural time, and not force anything just to meet a deadline.

"I wanted every song to be about a real feeling or event that I felt I owned. I must have dumped 20 songs because they didn't feel true enough.

"I played every part I could to keep it primitive, and then brought in musicians of actual talent to colour in the spaces."

Those musicians included Harvie and Del Amitri keyboard player Andy Alston, and the result is a heartfelt album full of tales of lost love.

"I'm more hedonistic, cynical and corrupt than I was when I started, and less idealistic and nakedly ambitious," admits Currie.

"But I still want to be heard, I still crave the attention of the crowd, and I'm still a self-obsessed megalomaniac. And I still desperately want to move people; that's the whole point."

* We have a pair of tickets to give away for Justin Currie's show at Northumbria University. To stand a chance of winning, tell us where he's from.

Entries, marked 'currie comp', should by sent by e-mail only please to gazette.comps@northeast-press.co.uk, by noon on Friday.