WHAT’S ON TV The piano is a friend in the corner of the room waiting to come to life

(LAUGHS) I really don’t know. I’d have to check. This could be 24th or 25th.

We have had some great guests over the years. Some amazing people like Amy Winehouse and Paul McCartney.

It’s like a fantastic party that you would love to have in your house, but you know could never do in real life.

My uncle was only about 12 years older than me, something like that, and he played boogie woogie.

My grandparents had a piano in the front room, like so many families did back then, and I played it to death. I was lucky that at nine I found the thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life. THE St Louis Blues – the boogie woogie version.

My mother used to play Careless Love and old blues songs and at Christmas my grandparents would sing music hall songs round the piano... and Fats Waller.

I just absorbed any sort of piano music. It all went in and then you just did it your own way. IT’S going to be something like 65 to 70 shows. You get a bit tired by the end of the year, but it really is a lot of fun and we’ve played some fantastic dates.

You want to get out there and connect with people.

One of the things that music does best is connect people and we have great fun playing.

We stop just before Christmas and we have our band Christmas party when everyone gets to sing.

There’ll be more shows next year. We do a lot of shows, but it keeps you going and I adore playing. guitar, but the piano is the king of instruments.

No other instrument has the same touch. It’s a friend in the corner of the living room waiting to come to life.

It’s a great thing. All pianos are different. All have a different sound and piano players have their own sound as well. You gave commuters a treat earlier this year when you played a surprise session at St Pancras International Station in London on a piano donated by Sir Elton John. What was that like? THAT was a great piano and he’s a great example of someone who was a real influence. It seems just before I started playing there were a lot of instrumentalists around like Fats Waller, Jerry Lee Lewis and Floyd Cramer and that seems to have sort of vanished. People don’t make instrumental records any more. I thought it was time to make one to my friend the piano.

Your new album is called Piano and celebrates 50 years of you playing it. What was it like recording the album? IT WAS a bit hard doing the album if I’m honest.

It was a bit like looking at yourself in a mirror for a long time.

I had to allow it to happen. It’s my life – I’m always playing a piano on stage, or backstage or at home.

I had to focus to make a record like this. In a way, I’ve been working towards this my whole life. ON MANY different pianos in many different rooms like out in a shed and in Brian Eno’s studio.

The great thing about music is that you can mix it all up.

It’s just great to work with Brian Eno. He thinks outside the box.

He’s also a big fan of piano player Floyd Cramer. (Laughs) In fact, I think we are the main members of the Floyd Cramer fan club. WE WROTE it a while ago and it still works. We put some drums on it and it sounds very modern to me.

It sounds like a modern dance record with a 1930s piano. It’s a mix of Fats Waller and modern Chicago house music. I love it.