You may not be wholly au fait with Albert Hammond other than his one UK hit, Free Electric Band in 1973, or that his son Albert Jnr is The Strokes’ guitarist.

Thus you wouldn’t know that he wrote or co-wrote One Moment In Time, The Air That I Breathe, Good Morning Freedom, It Never Rains In Southern California, When I Need You, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, Little Arrows and, my favourite, Gimme Dat Ding.

So here was the diminutive musical legend responsible for these hits for Whitney Houston, The Hollies, Blue Mink, himself (US), Leo Sayer, Starship, Leapy Lee and The Pipkins standing before an enthusiastic but less than capacity crowd at the Tivoli.

At 72 and with 360 million sales he could be sitting at home counting his not inconsiderable royalties, but he's out in the road with a competent four-piece band finishing up his Songbook tour in the UK before heading off to Europe for an extensive 25-date jaunt.

Twenty four songs in 90 minutes showed his remarkable songwriting range - everything above except, inexplicably, The Air..., plus tunes for the likes of Diana Ross, Johnny Cash, Julio Iglesias, Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker and Chicago.

Hammond's is not the strongest voice, but he makes up for it with charisma, a few jokes (such as 'good set but why so many covers?') and one song sung from the stalls. A good show.

Sterling support came from Christchurch's Hannah Robinson.