Feargal now sports the full leg. A change in apparel in tune with his career realignment of the last year or so. He's also a father, a car owner, has rear of collar occluded by a trailing spiral of hair and is given to chain smoking (pausing only occasionally for a cigarette).

Pouring his parking meter money out onto the table and exhaling a small, one-man cloud of blue smoke, he ponders the achievements of his old firm:

"One of the reasons I left when I did was that I wanted to preserve the Undertones for people as something special. Listening to people saying 'I was in a bad part of my life and listening to your album helped me through it' is a great feeling. That's the biggest achievement I've ever had, to affect people's lives. If people get that sort of satisfaction from what I do in the future I'll be quite happy.

"It's basically integrity. That's what people are getting around to. I myself will put people up on pedestals and look up to them. I think that's quite good because everyone has to have some form of escapism. No matter what you do, your life will eventually fall into a certain routine and it's good to get released from that for three and a half minutes.

"I got the impression that although people looked up to me, at the same time I was accessible enough not to be so far out of reach it became false. What's important is retaining that little thing where people say 'yeah, he is a human being after all, he does have breakfast'."

Feargal a human being? Of course! A porridge, toast, four eggs and double sausage breakfast eater too! While there's often something of a Ramone-esque cartoon pop star quality about him, he's certainly not the pedestal kind.

"I don't see why you can't have your Duran Durans and Whams, a lot of people buy their records and get satisfaction from them so who am I to say they're wrong. There's enough scope in the spectrum of pop music to have the two and live quite happily."

For those who know not, the Record Company Biog is a fact sheet handout pertaining to given artists immediate past and current vinyl ventures. They cater to all walks of media and (thus) are famously dull. Feargal is challenging the system!

"I was reading about Oscar Wilde. There was a chapter written by different people, in the notable literally circle of the time, about Oscar. A lot of their views really conflicted but they give you 20 perspectives on the same person. That's the approach I tried on my biog to make it more interesting. It will eventually be concertina-d like a tourist book."

Fabulous but if it catches on I'll have to start buying notepaper! In it, Vince Clark said of Feargal, "sings a nifty song."

"Coming from Vincent that's a helluva big compliment."

But amplify it beyond context and... Are you taken seriously enough?

"I think people take me very seriously which at times frightens me an awful lot. Simply from some of the questions I get asked in interviews. I get the impression that some people think I'm some sort of philosopher which I never intended to be and never really wanted to be. If people are asking for my reflections on the human race then obviously they're taking me very seriously.

"Maybe to an extent in the Undertones career, even though we tried to fight it, a lot of people were still trying to treat us like 16 year olds making pop music. That would upset us quite a lot but I can't really see how there's any parallel between what I'm doing now and what I was doing four years ago. Apart from making records."

But do 'the Youth' hang on to the utterances. The Pop Star as The Guru (a mediocre Indian restaurant in Slough)?

"I don't think the youth actually take it all that seriously. When I was a teenager reading interviews by people I was impressed with, if they made some profound statement about humanity I didn't react upon it, it was just their opinion. The majority of people who buy records only read the interview afterwards because they've become interested in the person and it's another angle into your life.

"They're not really all that interested in the deep and meaningful things you may have to say and they aren't going to go out and act on it. Rock and roll has been trying to change the world since it was invented and has yet to succeed. There is a place for it, it's good that people get up and say specific things about certain incidents but I'm not under any illusions."

You have donated your chest (he wore a big T-shirt) to that anti-heroin campaign.

"Up to a few months ago I wasn't all that concerned about it. I was aware that it went on but because I wasn't part of it I felt it didn't really concern me, which is a bit of a callous thing to say but it's human nature. It wasn't until I saw a TV programme simply making the point of two teenage girls who might normally have grown up listening to records and getting interested in boys but weren't. They were heroin addicts... it made me feel this is wrong.

"People are either going to exploit kids like that to feed their own habit or else make commercial gains out of it. That's bad news.

"In general I wouldn't agree with that type of influencing thing but on this occasion it deserved it. There are other things I feel strongly about but I wouldn't go out and influence someone. Six months ago no one knew there was a heroin problem in this country now people are aware of it and are doing something abut it. You can only sit on the sidelines for so long, you have to stick your neck out once in a while."

With neck still intact Feargal looks radiant and business-going-well healthy. The Assembly recording with Vince Clark introduced him to studio techniques unencountered during his previous five years merely as a singer in a band ("the singer usually turns up two weeks later to try and sing over all this noise. With Vince the song was built around the vocal"), its success and his increased recognition as an able-throat brought undreamed of offers ("basically I had to decide between becoming an extravagantly paid session musician and getting on with my own career. I plumped for the latter").

He recorded 'Listen To Your Father' with Madness, cutely tailoring the seven inch to sound good on cheap record players ("which most of the people I know outside the music business have") and has signed a long term deal with Virgin. Furthermore, Feargal has been the recipient of tapes mailed from bands ("none of which sound like the Undertones, mercifully") keen to have him produce them.

"It's that conflict again of putting off your own career to work on someone else's. There was a band I was seriously thinking of putting my album back to produce. But I say that now and three years ago I couldn't have said that, I wasn't in that position. I'm quite happy that I do have that conflict."

How do you measure success?

"Top 5. When I was getting interested in music all I ever paid attention to was the top 5. To me, that was A Hit."

So if your record only gets to 6 it's a dismal flop?

"If it only gets to 6 I won't be running around slashing my wrists, in fact I'd be quite pleased! Personally I demand an awful lot from myself. At heart I'm probably really lethargic and lazy so it's something I've learnt. No-one else is going to help me so I've got to push myself. I'm a firm believer in leadership through example and I try to do my best and make my best better than everybody else's. At the moment I'm maybe pushing myself too much. When I get home at night I'm tired and look peaky but if there's work to be done I'll do it no matter what time of day or night.

"I try to split my lifestyle up into two different things, writing songs in the studio is my 'art' but you have to face the realisation that what you're doing is a commodity.

"It sounds really callous but that's what it is and it took me a long time to get over that. The biggest hang-up that most musicians have is that they spend a lot of time and effort and sweat in making a record but as soon as it comes out, that little piece of them has become a catalogue number.

"A lot of people find that hard to accept. Since I've started thinking like that I've felt a lot happier about things, I can accept it much more. If you can't accept the whole thing you shouldn't be doing it. I've a lot of admiration for people who just want to make records full-stop, but for me that's not enough because it would mean me only working three months every year and all the sitting around would drive me nuts."

Aside from Oscar Wilde and heroin, what inspires you?

"At the risk of sounding like a laid back Californian, life in general. I know there are people living on £25 a week but I'm finding things quite exciting. The fact that there's a certain quality of record coming out. There's a big extreme between the garbage and good stuff but not much actually inbetween. The fact that I've worked with so many people in the last year. The new deal.

"I'm worming my way into quite a few things. It's a main ambition to get into acting. Not on the level of using my notability as a public figure but I've joined the Actors Centre in Covent Garden to find out what it's exactly all about. If I haven't got the talent I don't want to do it. I've been offered a few parts none of which I've accepted. I don't want something which is going to be whimsical. I'll avoid anything to do with music. I'd imagine a character role of some kind... if I feel I can do it. It doesn't matter how much money or prestige is involved, it's not worth getting up there for two and a half hours and making a fool of yourself."

Trampling down the stairs, post interview, we bumped into Thomas Dolby but manfully controlled ourselves. Once in the street we set about removing the wheel clamps from F's Lotus Eclat. Task accomplished we sped towards west London and the setting sun.