Very pleasant surprise to encounter David Hepworth during the interval at Randy Newman's concert at the Sage Gateshead last night. I was aware he was there for an afternoon panel discussion on music journalism - which I sadly missed - but had assumed he'd have high-tailed it back to the Big Smoke by the evening. So, nice to chat to you David - a proper gent who tolerated my attempts at conversation with good humour. I'm so glad I resisted the temptation to open with "Excuse me, aren't you Mark Ellen?"

The concert itself was magnificent. One man and his piano filled Hall 1 of the Sage. My first time seeing Randy Newman, and I should confess that other than the well-known songs such as Short People, I knew him best as the man responsible for the songs in any number of Disney/Pixar films including the one in Toy Story 2 - When She Loved Me - which always reduces me to tears. It's thanks to the Word CD that I'd been introduced to his recent album Harps and Angels and got to grips with his combination of acerbic lyrics and toe-tapping music.

The man belted through songs old and new, pausing to take another run at a couple of the trickier intros to some of them and full of self-deprecating wit while doing so. Some very entertaining asides about the Toy Story films as well - they keep interrupting his songs with talking and crazy action sequences, apparently. Meanwhile I'm sat there thinking, all these years I thought Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear was written by Alan Price.

After a standing ovation, the encore consisted of a couple of songs (what, he wrote Feels Like Home as well?), another ovation and that's your lot. Excellent - leave 'em wanting more, but best of all, all done and dusted before 10pm.