Sir Cliff fears today's singers don't get same support

Sir Cliff Richard has praised today's musicians but fears they lack the support he had as a fledgling star.

In an interview with The Wireless, Age UK's radio station, Sir Cliff also expressed amazement at his 100th album getting into the top 10 of the album charts.

Speaking on the station's 20 Questions which goes out on DAB in London and online at 6pm on Saturday 21 December, he said: ‘When you think about it, even the losers on X-Factor are good. I mean, they're really good singers these days.

‘When you think of One Direction, 5 of them, they all lost. None of them won X-Factor and they're the biggest boy band in the world at the moment.'

However, he expressed some concern about how bands are supported: ‘I don't think the new groups and young singers have the same support system.

'Today you can have a number 1, if your next record's not number 1 sometimes they won't re-sign. It's because they don't have the same faith in the artists that my producer and manager (sic) Norrie Paramour and Peter Gormley had.'

He also expressed amazement at the success of his 100th album, The Fabulous Rock ‘n' Roll Songbook, saying: ‘I cannot believe how this could happen to me. I look back and think, you know, I didn't have all those lessons and classes and stuff. I had nothing to fall back on. I mean this is ludicrous. And if people don't understand why, join the queue, I'm at the head of the queue; I have no idea why.'

‘I'm not sure that retire is really in my vocabulary'

At 77, Sir Cliff still insists that retirement isn't part of his 'vocabulary', but he is open to having a break: ‘If I say I retire, I'd have to come back out of retirement. I don't want to come back.

'I'd rather just stop and maybe 2 years later I'll phone up my office and say: "Now listen, I want to build a new extension. How many concerts can I do to earn the money to make that?" Then I can have fun, because I do like… I mean recording is fabulous. Going live is so much fun.'

At the moment, Richard is enjoying his continued success and considering a follow-up to The Fabulous Rock ‘n' Roll Songbook. He says: ‘If this album sells well enough for the record company to have made money, and for me to have made some money and have enough money to make another album, I can't wait to get back to Nashville. If I can get the same 5 musicians, I would and just do another volume 2.'

Sir Cliff Richard was speaking on 20 Questions, a regular show on The Wireless by Age UK. The show will go out at 6pm on Saturday 21 December on DAB in London and is available to listen online.