NEIL Sedaka will match the piano-and-voice acoustic format of his latest album, The Real Neil, when he plays York Barbican on Saturday in a sold-out 7.30pm performance.

“I have seven cities on this tour, starting with the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; all the others will be me and the piano, which I love, because these concerts are so much more personal, telling people how I wrote the songs and why I wrote them,” says the prolific singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, New York.

“Oh my goodness, how many people at 74 are still writing, recording and touring the world? I love what I do and people can sense that.”

Asking him to pick a favourite Neil Sedaka song is the equivalent of asking “which child you like better”, he says. “But I would say, out of the 1,000 songs, the one that made the greatest impression was Laughter In The Rain, my comeback song, though Amarillo was a hit twice and Solitaire has been recorded by 60 artists.”