Jools Holland has met just about everyone who is anyone in the music business.

But the pianist, songwriter, bandleader and broadcaster still gets starstruck.

“Sam Brown and I wrote a song for Dionne Warwick. I practically wept when she sang it,” he says.

The Motown legend was a recent guest on Jools’s BBC2 show Later, sharing a typically eclectic bill with the likes of Bloc Party and Alice Cooper.

That unlikely mix of artists has led to the show’s 20-year success.

“We always have a good mix – a legend, someone new, someone challenging. It’s quite a leveller; people in their 20s and 70s in the same studio, alongside their musical heroes, waiting their turn,” says Jools.

“I wouldn’t say it was competitive but everyone wants to give the best performance they can.”

The boogie woogie piano master and former Squeeze keyboardist has come a long way since he tickled the ivories in East End pubs as a teenager, but he remains a “jobbing pianist”.

His stint as guest pianist on the Fine Young Cannibals hit Good Thing, which was No 1 in 16 countries, earned him his most successful recording to date. The band’s frontman Roland Gift joins Jools and his rhythm and blues orchestra in Bradford this month, along with regular singers Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall.

Anyone who has seen Jools and his band will be familiar with their foot-stompingly joyous performances.

“It’s always been the same line-up, we’re like a family,” he says. “Everyone gets their moment in the spotlight; it shows off the dynamics of a big band. Each one sounds unique and it’s good to see what different instruments do, as small parts of a whole.

“We fit together rather well. We know what each other is thinking.”

Is compiling the set list a collaborative process? “They have their say, but it’s not so much a democracy as a benign dictatorship of which I’m the despot,” smiles Jools.

He returns to St George’s Hall every year. “It’s one of my favourites. If we were going to do a tour DVD I’d want it filmed there,” he says. “It’s like an old music hall, there’s something Wild West about it too. You can’t beat playing somewhere that’s seen lots of different performers over the years.”

Jools’s new album The Golden Age of Song, released on December 3, features collaborations with artists like Amy Winehouse, Cee Lo Green, Florence Welch, Paul Weller, Paloma Faith and James Morrison.

He says the internet has made the music world a smaller one. “It used to be that you were either a mod or a rocker, you couldn’t like both music, but people are less tribal now,” he says. “You still occasionally get those who only listen to Scottish folk, but that’s up to them.”

Downloading may be quick and easy, but it’s not the same as saving up for an album and getting to know each track.

“I wholeheartedly agree,” says Jools. “Getting to know a record is like reading a book. It’s like having characters in the room with you. I moved house recently and found my old record-player. I sat and listened to a dozen old records, it was very rewarding.

“My father told me that, when he and his friends decided they wanted to listen to Mozart, they cycled to the library to borrow a 78 of his first movement. Then they had to keep cycling back to the library for the rest. That’s determination! Now you just press a few buttons.”

Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra will be at St George’s Hall on Friday, November 16. For tickets, ring (01274) 432000.