The Psychedelic Furs talk ahead of gig at Birmingham's O2 Academy

And why would they? They’ve got their fair share of gold and silver discs on the wall, they enjoyed a run of five consecutive top 30 albums and made a go of things in the USA. During an enjoyable and lengthy career, they wrote songs that remain memorable and soundtracked a Hollywood movie that made $40 million dollars (£30 million) – Pretty In Pink.

So while some bands feel the pressure, The Psychedelic Furs have reached a happy place in their career where their albums continue to sell and where fans turn out in droves to see them play live. Whether they’re appearing in the UK or USA, they remain a popular draw and the band, led by brothers Richard and Tim Butler, are back on the road. They headline Birmingham’s O2 Institute on Tuesday.

Co-founder and bassist Tim Butler is thrilled to be back. Though he lives in Kentucky with his wife and their children, he well remembers the band’s early days. Back then, he and Richard would play in the Butlers’ front room – though they were soon banished because of the noise.

They grew up on punk before catching the surf of New Wave tunes that took them through the 1980s. Their three mid-career records, Forever Now, Mirror Moves and Midnight To Midnight, kept them near the top of the charts for almost a decade, while earning them support on both sides of the Atlantic.

Richard finds it remarkable that the band are still at it. “We are, yes. But things don’t stand still. It’s not about nostalgia. We’re actually in the process of writing a new album that will hopefully be out next year.”

Not that the new tour will dwell for too long on that. Instead, the veteran post-punks will be playing a host of greatest hits on a singles tour that includes the early days of Sister Europe and We Love You through to such iconic hit songs as Love My Way, Heaven, The Ghost In You, Heartbreak Beat and Pretty In Pink.

“We thought what better idea than to bring people up to speed on the past catalogue than doing a singles tour. We’re still going strong and we wanted to let some new people check us out.

“It’s important to us that we keep moving forward and we want to get it right for the new stuff. We want to get material that will stand up against older material. There’s no big record company pressure to outsell Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga. At this stage in our carreer, we just want to be proud of it.

“So we’re going back on the road. We’ve been working on the new record slowly and have had a lot of ideas. We’ve thrown out a lot and we’re weeding out the chaff.”

The band took an extended hiatus in the early 1990s with Richard and Tim forming a new band. They reformed The Psychedelic Furs in 2000 and have been busy ever since. Though singer Richard released an eponymous solo album, the band have remained in constant demand.

Tim adds: “We haven’t really stopped long enough to think about recording until now. We’ve been touring pretty much non-stop in America.

Tim doesn’t spend too long looking back at the past. There are times when he might like to but, to be honest, he’d have forgotten plenty of the details. The band enjoyed their fair share of wild times as a successful touring band. “We were pretty wild back then, as you would be if you’re in a band that’s doing well. Touring the world on the back of successful records is always great.”

In fact, the thing they remember most is Pretty In Pink – and not for the reasons that fans might imagine. Rather than looking back happily at the song that they recorded for the 1986 film of the same name – a Brat Pack movie that became a cult favourite – it evokes disappointment.

“From that period the thing I most remember is that we made a big misstep with the Pretty In Pink thing, by re-recording it for the movie. At the time we thought it was a good idea. It got us a larger audience but it lost us a lot of our hardcore original fans who thought we’d sold out and gone out on the road with the big production and spiky hair and long coats, as was de rigeur.

“So that was a misstep for us. But now the old audiences, including people who hadn’t seen us the first time around, are coming back. We feel as though we’ve been forgiven.”