One-man rock band Cam Cole is hoping Camden's licensing team don't show up at his PowerHaus gig next month.

The last he remembers, he owes them £10,000 in fines for busking outside Camden tube station.

"The open area near the HSBC - that's been my busking spot for 10 years," says the 29-year-old.

"Busking has always been half free, half not free, depending on the council. I once tried to get a licence with Camden Council - I paid my £50 and they took details, just so they could fine me. It's £200 every time they catch you, but I ignored them all, and I've never given details to councils ever again."

Happily for Cole, viral YouTube footage of his brilliant Camden street performances reached Hollywood star Jason Sudeikis, who cast him as a busker in hit comedy Ted Lasso - about an American football coach training an English premiere league team.

"He needed a hippy busker for a couple of scenes, typed in 'London busker,' watched me, and said: 'I want that dude.' Luckily that was when I had a manager so there was an email to contact. It was quite surreal meeting a Hollywood A lister, but he is exactly the same as his character in the movies, funny and brilliant."

Despite also featuring in a documentary about himself, the rocker has no ambitions to act: "I just want to get on with my music stuff, I've so many things I want to do."

Cole was just seven when he bought his first guitar in a car boot sale for £4. He customised the bass into a regular guitar, which he took with him when he moved to London aged 18, "to pursue my dreams of being a rock star."

Originally hailing from Surrey, he channells his love of Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, The White Stripes, and Nirvana into original bluesy rock songs which he plays with distinctive Farmer foot drums - he previously strapped a tambourine to one foot and a bass drum to the other, but says these work better.

Cole has other London busking spots and often plays at protests and rallies. When Police try to move him on, he apologises, and takes his time packing up, "they usually go and I just carry on."

During the pandemic he took to streaming gigs live from the van where he lived somewhere the long arm of Camden's licensing laws couldn't reach him.

"It depends where you park up, you can get away with two nights in certain places, only one in others, sometimes you can park in a layby. The further away from London the easier it is."

The PowerHaus gig - in the old Dingwalls - is part of a 15 date Albion tour and a homecoming of sorts; Cole used to work at nearby Lock 17 pub and would slip in to see bands.

"It's an amazing venue I've been wanting to play there for years."

Unsurprisingly, he has plenty to say about the sanitization of Camden Town: "The people who come want to see a dirty place with punks and squats and hippies, but it's been gentrified. They like to see someone like me, rocking up in the street because it's quite a rock n roll, punk experience. They thank me for making their day, but the council's just trying to commercialise it and make it like any other shitty place. I don't get it."

He recently toured America for three months, and has taken his music to Mexico, Sweden and The Netherlands. This tour features songs old and new, including some from second album Crooked Hill to be released next year.

Songwriting involves writing ideas, riffs or melodies: "finding something that works".

"Sometimes they stay on the phone for years, sometimes they come all in one go. I  listen out to what it makes me feel inside. Songs are emotions, it's all about the vibe of a song and how it makes me feel."

As ever the PowerHaus gig sees him playing alone: "On the one hand it's a lot easier playing to people who already like my songs - I don't have to stop anyone whose never heard my music before on their way to work, on the other, there's pressure. I have to deliver, I want to exceed expectations."

Cam Cole plays PowerHaus on December 10. https://powerhauscamden.com/gigs/cam-cole/