Almost 30 years to the day since he performed at Wembley Stadium for Live Aid, Nik Kershaw will step out in front of the Rewind festival crowd at Scone Palace in Perth.

There's little doubt that the four hit singles he performed that day will still be part of the set.

Even without the 1980s revival, which in truth began at the end of the 1990s and shows no sign of flagging, Kershaw would be living a comfortable life as songwriter and composer for television.

He admitted last year that four singles, I Won't Let The Sun (Go Down On Me), Wouldn't It Be Good, The Riddle, and The One and Only, a song penned for Chesney Hawkes in 1991, made him millions.

Despite the trademark snood and fingerless gloves, Kershaw was regarded as the real deal, a songwriter and decent player who happened to coincide with the decade that style forgot.

Rewind will be replete with Day-Glo and lace, this time just in the audience as the line-up appears looking older of course, and usually better with age. With artists like Kershaw, now 57, and Midge Ure who made an appearance last year, the surprise is always just how good those singles still are.

"It did seem to be quite a fertile time for songs," says Nik. "There was a lot going on in terms of experimentation with sound - new technologies were emerging, so it was as an exciting time to be working."

What separates the great songs from the great records is when the layers of production are peeled away and it still stands as a singalong tune, however. "There has to be a reason for that 1980s revival, and probably does revolve around the songwriting. This revival they keep talking about has been going on since the 1990s, so every time I released a new album I was accuse of jumping on the revival bandwagon, when in reality I hadn't really stopped making music."

The Rewind format comes from the big book of All Killer No Filler. Apart from the headliners, bands played for a maximum of half an hour (10 minutes when it comes to someone like Dr and the Medics) with a mini greatest hits set. The crowd don't get bored by new material and the bands enjoy a rapturous reception and, according to Kershaw, good treatment.

"There's a proper camaraderie and friendliness backstage. Rewind's been going for quite a few years now and some acts will keep returning so it's become something of a family." These are acts who are obviously not in the bloom of youth and for those who didn't have the back up of a lucrative publishing back catalogue, Rewind and other festivals of its type, can be the answer to a financial prayer.

"When that initial period of what I suppose you would call pop stardom, you carry on doing what you do. It might not be as commercially successful or take you in a completely different direction, but you carry on.

"For me that was songwriting. It's what I always did and like many other artist I'd be useless at anything else."

He left school during his A-Level to pursue music and in the late 1970s and early 1980s paid his dues in pub and function bands before recording demos on a friend's Portastudio and getting the all-important publishing deal. As a recording artist with eighties bouffant and 1984 and 1985 were busy with hit singles and multi-platinum albums Human Racing and The Riddle.

Kershaw was one of the first artists to invest in a studio set up and even though, as he says, it takes a lot less technology to produce a lot more music, having that facility on his doorstep allowed him to step straight into being a songwriter for hire.

Aside from a quick project with Tony Banks from Genesis and a throwaway duet with a guy called Elton John, he took a nine-year hiatus from recording and performing his own material. During that time, apart from the globally successful The One and Only, he has written for and with Bonnie Tyler, Lulu, Ronan Keating, Jason Donovan, Nick Carter, The Hollies, Colin Blunstone, Imogen Heap, Darius, Gary Barlow and Let Loose. His website also claims, in a highly entertaining online biography, that he has also written for Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "That's not true."

He has, however, been able to spread his compositional wings into mood music that the good Archbishop would no doubt enjoy.

"I've also been able to write quite a bit for a music library company, which goes to programmes like Coast and Location Location Location. I really enjoy that and it means I get to work with huge orchestras - that's always a buzz. It means I can pick and choose the live stuff I do. I'm also doing a 31-date tour later in the year with Go West, which I know I'll have a lot of fun with."

It doesn't mean breaking out the retro gear though, although he doesn't shudder too much at the thought of the styling. "People really got into the whole look then, they were wearing some extraordinary bits of gear. We were all part of an interesting subculture, which doesn't really seem to exist now."

There was a well-received small tour last year, where he offered an acoustic night of the songs, which stood up rather nicely.

"There's no harm in looking back as well as forward. They're my songs after all. No matter what else is happening, I'm in the studio every day. I seems to be releasing albums every five years. The last one EI8HT was in 2012, so I better get my finger out for the next one eh?"

Nik Kershaw plays Rewind at Scone Place, which this year takes place from July 24 to 26. He also appears with Go West at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Oct 16, Dundee Caird Hall, Oct 17, Aberdeen Music Hall, Oct 18, and Edinburgh Usher Hall, Oct 19.