There was something about Mary. For some, it was Cameron Diaz’s hair embarrassingly stuck up on her date with Ben Stiller. But for many of us that ‘something’ was The Foundations’ Build Me Up Buttercup playing over the end credits - a song first recorded 30 years before, in 1968, and which we haven’t got out of our heads since.

That was the cue for Foundations guitarist Alan Warner to re-form the band. “I must admit, I was a bit surprised,” he says. “When the Foundations originally split [at the end of 1970], I wanted to move on and do other things. But when There’s Something About Mary came out, everyone told us we should do something about it. Enough people were asking us, so we thought ‘There must be something there’.

“It’s very strange when we’re on tour, seeing all these young people in the audience alongside the oldies in the wheelchairs! I still can’t quite get my head round it.”

After initially being re-joined by original band mates Colin Young and Steve Bingham, Alan now leads the band as the sole original member of Alan Warner’s Foundations.

The mini-tour they had planned for 2012 has proved such a success that more dates have been added, including a stop at Borehamwood this weekend - a homecoming for Alan.

“I’m a Borehamwood boy!” the 64-year-old laughs. Born in Paddington, West London, Alan’s family moved to Borehamwood when he was five. He returned there after touring the world with The Foundations and after living in Ireland for a period, before settling in Edgware in 1970.

In his teens, he played in bands in local youth clubs and halls around Edgware and got a gig playing every week at the Crown pub in Borehamwood, before becoming a professional musician at the age of 16.

In 1966, he joined The Ramong Sound, a ska and reggae band which eventually evolved into The Foundations, enjoying success with, as well as Buttercup, Baby Now That I’ve Found You, Back On My Feet Again and In The Bad Bad Old Days, all of which feature on the tour.

“It’s a mixture of Tamla (Motown) and soul - all the hits of that era,” Alan says of the show. “That’s what people come to see so that’s what we give them.

“I’ve always thought [music from the 60s] had staying power because it wasn’t a ‘safe’ kind of thing. It was simpler, a bit rougher. In those days, there was a minimum number of tracks you could put on analogue tape so you couldn’t do too much because the quality would get worse. You even hear mistakes on the records sometimes.

“Nowadays, everything’s so super perfect - although now some of the younger singers are starting to go back to that rougher, simpler sound, making it less smooth, less perfect.”

Less perfect it may be, but there’s definitely something about The Foundations. Just ask the youngsters and the oldies in the wheelchairs.

Rock Around the 60s is on at The Ark Theatre, Hertswood School, Thrift Farm Lane, Borehamwood on Thursday, February 9th at 7.30pm. Details: 020 8238 7288, www.thearktheatre.co.uk