How many bass-players does it take to change a lightbulb? None, the keyboard player can do it with his left hand.

This is the sort of content you might expect in a show from a session bassist turned stand-up. But luckily Guy Pratt, as well as having played bass for everyone from Pink Floyd to Madonna, is also a natural and witty raconteur.

"I've always been a bit of a storyteller anyway," says the 45-year-old, "and because of my job I have all these bonkers anecdotes about famous people. That's why I had two choices - I was either going to be that bloke in the pub who everyone desperately avoids, or I could try and do something with it."

A highly personal take on life on the road packed with backstage insights into numerous pop legends, Pratt's comic autobiography, My Bass And Other Animals, was published last week. The show of the same title was a hit at Edinburgh 2006.

"It's terrifying," says Pratt of taking centre stage for the first time. "As a bass player you have to be cocking up really quite badly before anyone else notices."

Having toured the world with the then massive Australian band Icehouse at the age of 19, in the mid-Eighties Pratt was thrust into the global premier league of bassists when David Gilmour asked him to play for Pink Floyd.

"There's nothing to compare to playing with Pink Floyd," he says. "It's just the biggest spectacle anyone's ever put on. Sixty trucks, 300 crew, planes and flying beds and mirror balls that opened up to reveal a light brighter than God. I was always stage left in Roger Waters' old spot, although it's not so much about where you stand as how well you're lit."

Pratt ended up marrying keyboardist Rick Wright's daughter, while Gilmour has egged him on in his new venture.

"David's the person I worried about being unfaithful to the most," he laughs, "but he's actually accused me of not going far enough.

He said, You're way too nice about everyone, Guy. Come on, you know where the bodies are buried!'"

Pratt has worked in LA with Madonna and Michael Jackson, recorded back home with everyone from Tom Jones and Iggy Pop to The Orb and Elton John, and written and produced for Robert Palmer, Marianne Faithful and Jimmy Nail (the latter's Ain't No Doubt was "the only hit I ever wrote in my sleep").

He feels genuine affection for the vast majority of them, Michael Jackson being one notable exception.

"He was being such a twat that he was actually hiding behind the mixing desk when I recorded with him," he laughs. "It was 1989 and I think it had to do with the state of his face at the time."

Madonna once called Pratt at 4am in the morning, demanding "I hear you're funny, make me laugh!" with "the head-splitting voice of a New York waitress". But he admired her supreme professionalism and enjoyed sparring with her about religion.

"I started doing this when I felt that part of my life was over," says Pratt, who is currently touring with Bryan Ferry. "But it seems the moment you get on stage and start poking fun at pop stars, suddenly they start hiring you again.

"I think on the whole I just don't really fit the type of a session musician, which is basically quiet and obedient.

I used to behave appallingly. It has only recently occurred to me that as a session musician you're actually a highly-paid professional who's been hired to do his job to the best of his abilities, whereas I just kind of thought that you'd basically been asked to join this gang."

  • Starts at 9pm. Tickets cost £8/£7, call 01273 647100