“As a musician you hope maybe to be part of one great band in your lifetime,” Noel Gallagher once said. “Ian McLagan was in two. The jammy b******.”

He was, of course, referring to The Small Faces and The Faces. But the keyboard player’s story stretches far beyond his role in two of the defining acts of the 1960s and 1970s.

Prior to joining the Small Faces, McLagan’s first group, The Muleskinners, worked as backing musicians for visiting US blues legends such as Howlin’ Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson.

Following the demise of The Faces in 1975, he joined the Rolling Stones’ touring band and played on their 1978 US number one, Miss You. He later went on the road with Bob Dylan and played on Bruce Springsteen’s Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.

After moving to LA to work as a session musician, he eventually grew tired of the “violence, the earthquakes, the posing and the smog” and relocated to Austin, Texas, 14 years ago.

His latest release, Never Say Never, was completed after the death of his wife Kim in a traffic accident in 2006. They had been married since 1978.

“I didn’t know if I’d ever want to play again, let alone record,” he says. “But I found myself playing a song I wrote for a dear friend of mine when his wife died. It’s on the album, called Where Angels Hide.

“I was playing it every day, because it helped me. Eventually I realised there’s a power in music I hadn’t totally understood. I found it was healing.”

Never Say Never was recorded with the legendary Glyn Johns, an old friend from McLagan’s Small Faces days, and combines poignant moments with the more raucous material he’s famed for.

“I really didn’t want to make an album about grieving,” he explains. “There’s no reason to do that. I don’t want make anyone unhappy or make them think about my grief.

“Some songs I’d written years ago but I found a new meaning in them. The whole album turned out to be about obsession and loss in equal measures. Really, it’s all about love, when it comes down to it.”

Although McLagan has played live with all the other surviving members of The Faces over the past few years, no more than three of them have appeared together on stage at any one time. That may be about to change, after Rod Stewart announced last month they are discussing a possible reunion.

“All I can say is never say never. I want it to happen. I’ve wanted it to happen since the band broke up,” he admits. “And now Rod may be on board and if that’s the case, there will be no objections from anyone.

“But Noel [Gallagher] got it wrong – I’ve got The Bump Band as well. I’ve had it for 26 years. Don Harvey and Scrappy Newcomb have been with me for 14 years – that’s longer than The Faces and Small Faces put together. And you don’t stay in a band unless you’re having fun. You can’t ask for any more than that.”

  • 7.30pm, £13.50, 01273 673311. Please note this gig was originally due to take place at the Barfly.