As the recent Brits awards again highlighted, some plaudits are given for real talent, striking a chord with the nation and defining an era, other people seemingly get awards for having a haircut. And some artists are criminally overlooked despite hitting a quintessentially British tone and enjoying steady success.

Robyn Hitchcock’s music has a lineage that harks back to Syd Barrett and Nick Drake yet when he first gained recognition as The Soft Boys in 1977, the music world was obsessed with three-chord destruction. When his classic album I Often Dream of Trains hit in 1984, the general public was fixated on synth bands and haircuts. And although he paved the way for alternative music, his tone seemed too decorous, delicate and eccentric when grunge came along and smashed things up again.

Not that Robyn hasn’t been without his successes, he’s ploughed a perfumed garden of wonder and through his 37 year career has played with REM’s Peter Buck, Johnny Marr, KT Tunstall, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and XTC’s Andy Partridge. He also has gathered a loyal following which includes high profile fans such as Jonathon Ross, Adam Buxton, Robin Ince, Michael Legge and Jonathon Demme - the film director included him in films such as The Manchurian Candidate and Rachel Getting Married. Demme, who made his name with music videos such as Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense and New Order’s The Perfect Kiss, once shot a whole performance as Storefront Hitchcock.

His live sets are compelling not only for their own cameos but also his lucid and surreal monologues which delight in the telling of twisted intricate stories. On the 28th February he plays a special twin set at Village Underground , which marks his 60th birthday with a retrospective set and celebrates the release of his 19th studio album Love From London.

Dan Davies: So Robyn, time didn’t finish on 21st December as predicted and now you’ve got to face the "ashtray of the future", do you feel crenulated?

Robyn Hitchcock: No, I washed my hair and it's more wave-form now. As hair approaches the end of time it becomes agitated and sometimes stands on end, as if pleading for a swift exit. The hairs take spindly forms, like solar flares on the surface of the sun. The dancing wraiths of Elysium, capering on the bald slopes of Mt Eros. Will we notice the end when it comes?

 DD: How do you feel summoning up your old songs for your 60th anniversary, are they old friends you haven't seen for a while or have they grown up and moved on?

RH: My songs were often wiser than me, so they've been standing here for decades waiting for me to catch up with them. They're messages from the future, disguised as bottled time from the past. Time flows into the pool of the present from both the future and the past, slopping over onto the paving stones.

DD: Last time you played here on the roof and you told us tales from Village Underground in 1984, which epoch will you concentrate on for your trip through the time tube?

RH: We'll be going backwards from 'Tromsø, Kaptein' in 2010 to 1977, and the first Soft Boys recordings. 35 years in 2 hours 15 minutes, one song from each 'official' album

DD: You recently called Village Underground a “groovarium”  – how do you plan to assimilate with the hip young things who might hang there?

RH: Any young hipsters present will be absorbed by the Venus Fly-Trap and re-launched as elderly groovers while I feast on their chi. It'll be like being kidnapped by a museum. We can all share a soya cappuccino...

DD: We hear that Nick Lowe will be joining you on stage for some songs – are there any other hepcats joining the fray?

RH:Green Gartside from Scritti Polliti , John Hegley, I hope, and maybe Adam Buxton. Men of a certain age, no matter what that age is. Some of my heroes.

DD: We hear that there will be two sets, will they cover different sides of Hitchcock – like a vinyl record?

RH: See above. Side 1 is 2010 - 1991, Side 2 is 1990 - 1977. Roughly.

DD: Coming back to the precipice of now, we understand that the new album was recorded at a friend's house, do you think DIY is easier than it was post-punk?

RH: Well, it was simpler when all you had a was a 4-track cassette. Now you can have Abbey Road in your shed, like Andy Partridge has. But you need a license to fly it. It's all part of being in the age of miracles, like laser eye-surgery and drone missiles.

DD: Does your new album have a theme, or even, concept?

RH: There was a song called Love From London that might have bound it all together, but it was too long so we removed it. The songs were written in London and have a lot of love in them, so it's a very literal title - it really is what it says on the sleeve.

DD: Do you still hold a lot of love for London?

RH: More than I did. I used to feel dwarfed by London - now I'm happy to be one of its future ghosts, possibly underwater.  

The last few tickets for Robyn Hitchcock London Love are available from See Tickets.

Love From London is released 5th March.