To a wide-eyed ten-year-old, London’s East End was a world apart from sun-soaked Trinidad – but the songs filling the airwaves had a lasting effect on the young Billy Ocean.

Influenced by the calypso sounds of his native Trinidad and music he discovered after moving to the UK, from Motown to the Beatles, Billy went on to create an infectious blend of Caribbean soul, funk, pop and R’n’B earning him more than 30 million record sales worldwide.

Now the Grammy, Brit and Mobo award-winning singer has drawn on songs that have held a special meaning in his life and career for new album Here You Are, which includes such tracks as Bob Marley’s No Woman, No Cry and Frank Sinatra’s It Was A Very Good Year.

Billy comes to Bradford next week, blending songs from the album with his own hits, including When The Going Gets Tough, Get Outta My Dreams (Get Into My Car), Red Light Spells Danger and the Motown-inspired Love Really Hurts Without You.

“I will always do those songs because audiences expect them, and they mean a lot to people. I have no time for that self-indulgence of only performing new material,” says Billy, 63. “The older and wiser I get, the more I enjoy touring. There’s less pressure now, and if I enjoy myself it transfers to the audience.

“The songs on the album mean a lot to me, each one reflects a different stage in my life.”

After a stint in a teenage band with Elaine Paige, Billy shot to fame in the 1980s with the million-selling Number 1 single Caribbean Queen for which he won a Grammy.

It was followed in 1985 by Suddenly, the first of Billy’s killer ballads, and he spent a year in the US charts, where the single went double platinum. In 1993 Billy decided to take a break to spend more time with his young family. The break ended up lasting 15 years and in 2007 he returned to a very different industry.

“There’s this culture of people expecting to become famous overnight on a talent show. To me, it’s more about serving your apprenticeship, like with any other trade,” he says. “I slept in the back of vans and played in all kinds of places – and if I had my time again I’d do exactly the same.”

Billy spent his early years in Trinidad, listening to his father’s music. “He was a singer and, like many families back then, he made his own music,” says Billy. “The steel pan calypso sound was what I grew up to, but the first song I heard on my father’s little battery-operated radio was (Nat King Cole’s) Of Time and the River, which I’ve recorded for my new album. I don’t think I was aware of it as a little boy, but that song went into my subconscious.

“When I moved to England I got into the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Otis Reading and Sam Cooke. A couple of years ago I became a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, where I met Paul McCartney. He had a big influence on me growing up, it was great to meet one of my heroes.”

Adds Billy: “My taste in music became very wide, which reflected the kind of songs I later recorded. There was no division in music back then, and that’s still my approach to songs.

“You never stop learning in this business, I’m still on an apprenticeship.”

  •  Billy Ocean is at St George’s Hall on Wednesday at 7.30pm. For tickets ring (01274) 432000.