I knew something was wrong when I couldn't finish the Daily Express cryptic crossword

Back with his first album in 12 years and a 25-date tour, veteran hitmaker Tony Christie is refusing to slow down despite a diagnosis of dementia... but he's keeping an autocue ready just in case

- Richard Barber

FOR SIX decades now, singer Tony Christie has been plying his mellifluous trade all around the world and he shows no sign of hanging up his mic. Next month he releases his first F album in 12 years, having recorded We Still Shine, in Nashville, over three weeks. "I honestly think it's the best I've made," he says today. "The local musicians are world-class; the guitar player was Dolly Parton's musical director."

Country-flecked, most of its 11 tracks have a wistful quality, with gently poignant songs recalling lost love. The exception is the title track, an upbeat paean of praise to a relationship that endures.

You don't have to dig very deep for its inspiration. It was 1968 and Tony was performing at Greasbrough Social Club near Rotherham. Sue Ashley worked at a folk club down the road in Sheffield and accepted an invitation from an Irish band to go and see Tony perform.

"I walked on stage and midway through Stranger In Paradise, I saw this pretty brunette sitting in the front row. I turned to my bass player, 'Mike,' I said, 'I've just seen the girl I'm going to marry.' He fell about but I wasn't joking. Afterwards, the band came backstage to see me and brought Sue with them. I tried to get a date with her but she wasn't having any of it. She later told me she thought I was big-headed. 'Just because you're on stage...' But we were married within the year. I was 23, she was 18."

Christie will be 81 in April but you wouldn't know it. Trim as a whippet, he's dressed today in black from top to toe, a full head of luxuriant white hair brushed back from his face. We meet in his record label's King's Cross offices and he's in genial form but he's brought along his son, Sean, once his drummer, now his manager, just to be on the safe side and for reasons that will become apparent.