Rafferty drew a clear distinction between the artistic integrity of a musician, on the one hand, and the music industry’s need to create celebrities and sell products, on the other.

In an interview with Colin Irwin in 1988, he said: “There’s a thin line between being a songwriter and a singer and being a personality… If you feel uncomfortable with it you shouldn’t do it. It’s not for me – there are too many inherent contradictions.”

Two decades later, speaking to the press after Rafferty’s funeral, Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers confirmed Rafferty’s dislike of celebrity: “He was not entirely comfortable with fame. Even more so than most people who work in this business, he saw it as not a good thing”.

Reid believed Rafferty was fundamentally unsuited to the pressures of celebrity: “He struck me as a very, very sensitive man and for someone like that, fame was probably not appropriate.