JOE Brown MBE has a tried and tested recipe for each new tour undertaken by the 74-year-old rock'n'roll singer, guitarist and ukulele player.

"We do basically the same kind of thing every time: we put new songs in but we keep the ones we know people want to hear, and it seems to be working," says Joe, who brings his band to the Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow night. "But you do get fed up with the long journeys; they're not great at my age."

However, once Joe hears the cheers of the audience, the need to travel the nation's roads is forgotten. "It's amazing how much the crowd bring you up. You might feel down, but they soon bring you up. I call it Doctor Footlights, but it's something you can't rely on," he says.

"You're stuffed if they don't react, and so you rely on their reaction. That's why I love theatres, like the Grand Opera House, rather than clubs, where if you give them the chance to start talking, you can't stop them.

"We go back to the same theatres because the great thing about it is we've built up a rapport with them. When we started doing theatre shows, the theatre scene for gigs was bad; when we started concentrating on theatre tours maybe 30 years ago we'd get 150 people in, but now we're doing all these gigs at theatres and you can't get a seat, which is gratifying because I know it's happening on merit, which is lovely."

Joe has no recording plans lined up for 2016. "We did The Ukulele Album in 2013, which is still selling well, but maybe we should do a new compilation, depending on how it would fit in with what we're doing," he says.

"It wants working out. We normally need a concept to do an album, like the ukulele one, so I'll have to think about it, but so many people are nudging me, maybe I should think about what I could do. Like Rod Stewart doing all those American Songbook songs, which I've been thinking about for a long time."

Joe always enjoys playing the Grand Opera House, but not only because his shows are always so well received, with tickets once more selling well for tonight. "I also love coming to York because there's a great shop not far from there in a village called Fangfoss, where they make rocking horses [The Rocking Horse Shop]," he says. "I buy the timber from there and then make my own. It's kind of my hobby.

"The other thing is, I play at The Three Acres, and the food there is wonderful, so I love going there."

Joe Brown plays Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow at 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york