The Space, run by Wayne Imms, is a platform in Brighton where notable figures in the arts are interviewed. This month at 88 London Road, lyricist Sir Tim Rice is in conversation about his legendary work in musical theatre and film, and dynamic working relationship with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

It might sound an odd question, but given the nature of your appearance in Brighton, do you enjoy talking about your life and work?

People ask me to do it a lot, and I’m more than happy to do it. Wayne has been trying to get hold of me for years, so I thought perhaps the only way to stop him would be to actually do it.

You said recently that is important to have an instant recognition factor behind a musical – like Lion King, which had the film behind it. Surely this is a problem – how are you supposed to get new musicals off the ground?

It does make a big difference to the chances of a show if people recognise something from it, whether it is a recent film or a hit record or whatever. But with From Here to Eternity (his 2013 production co-written with Stuart Bayson) we made several mistakes, and one was that the title didn’t really have any resonance with people in England, whereas in America it had done. But, basically, there are no rules. You’ve got to have a good idea, and then it all depends on word of mouth in the end.

In retrospect, do you think it was a good thing that you and Andrew Lloyd Webber parted ways after such a great run of productions (Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita) between 1968 and 1976?

I think it was good, yes. We had different ideas about musicals. He really wanted to be a producer as much as a writer, and he’s done a lot of producing since. I was never that interested in the business side of it – whenever I got involved with that it was usually a disaster. Most successful partnerships in the arts tend to last about ten years, obviously with exceptions. All of our stuff is always being done around the world, so we saw each other at various meetings around the world.

People say ‘well what about The Rolling Stones,’ but they had about 10 years of being great pop stars and writing wonderful songs. Now they’re a different thing, just a great live act.

You ruled out working with Andrew again in 2012, saying you weren’t ‘relevant together as a team any more’. How do you define relevance in your trade?

Well, I don’t know. Nobody knows anything, you have to remember that. You just have to write what you like. Unfortunately as you get older, what you like isn’t necessarily what the younger theatre-going public likes. You’ve really got to consider that. But you just have to accept that the audience changes. I don’t know is the answer, nobody knows.

At this stage of my career if it works, it works, if it doesn’t work, I’m not too bothered.

Where does that come from, that cavalier attitude?

Well, old age! At the end of the day it would be lovely to get some of these things working, but enough of the stuff I’ve done worked so well that I’m not too concerned if one or two projects don’t quite make it in the same way. Who knows, my kids might make them work in 50 years’ time.

When you’re starting out you are climbing up the greasy pole, you are desperate for a success. I never quite thought things would have been successful, but they went really well.

As far as you can see, do young people go to see musical theatre nowadays?

Quite a few came to Jesus Christ Superstar. Up to about 15 or 18, people love going to musical theatre. Then they probably don’t get back into it until they are in their 30s, if they do at all. You get wonderful shows like Hamilton in New York, which is based around hip-hop, that appeal to youth to a greater degree. And that works really well, because it’s well done and the lyrics are intelligent.

When did you personally get into musical theatre?

I was never that interested in musical theatre to begin with, actually. I liked the songs from that world, but I never had any ambition to go into it and I hadn’t seen any musicals before I was about 21. I was more into pop and rock and roll, and had a pop group at school. We were never big or anything, we just did school dances. It was good fun.

At that time I would much rather have gone to see a Billy Fury show than a West End musical. It was only when I met Andrew, who was obsessed with musical theatre, that I thought it would be a good idea to have a go at it.

Speaking of rock and roll, how did you come to write a song for Elvis (It’s Easy for You, which appeared on his last studio album Moody Blue in 1977)?

I knew Elvis’s music publisher, a chap called Freddie Bienstock, who came to England quite a lot. He would tell us stories about Elvis, and he was in charge of finding material for Elvis.

I said I’d love to write a song for Elvis, and Freddie said if we wrote a demo he would see what he could do. In fact, he did choose one, he recorded It’s Easy For You. It wasn’t a single or anything, but it’s a nice song. I think Elvis did a good job of it.

Sounds like the boyhood dream of your younger self in the pop group...

Yes, definitely. When I was at school Elvis was the king. Cliff (Richard) was the British hero, and it was a fascinating time. People tend to think that pop and rock and roll started with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, but it was going quite a long time before that.

You said you wanted to do something more ‘unusual’ after you and Andrew parted ways – did Blondel (a rock opera Rice contributed lyrics for in 1983) satisfy that urge?

Well, Blondel wasn’t a total disaster, it played for a year. The sad thing about Blondel is that Steven Oliver, who wrote the music, died some years ago, and I didn’t think it was really something I could go back to. I am now working on a new version of Blondel which will incorporate all of Steven’s music.

From what you’ve said about working on Lion King, it seems to have been a fairly all-consuming process...

I had to be there all the time, pretty much, on site and in the film studio. Endless meetings and storyboards. It was important to be there quite a lot. I enjoyed it.

It was nice to be based in Los Angeles for several months every year, though, I wasn’t complaining about that! It was a refreshing new medium to be working with, and it was all great fun.

Will your team Sunderland stay up this year?

Well, I don’t know, it’s a bit worrying isn’t it. We’re doing even worse than Brighton!

Sunderland always begin the season abysmally, but who knows? I don’t think we’ll do a Leicester City, though.

The Space 88 London Road, Brighton, Thursday, September 27, 8pm, £15, thespace.uk.com