Two great songwriters, one matchless band and a fantastic night in store. David Whetstone talks to Brian Wilson ahead of his Gershwin gig at The Sage Gateshead

LAST time Brian Wilson played The Sage Gateshead it was for a packed and reverential audience of seemingly long-time fans. He kept them waiting a bit, perhaps to stoke up the atmosphere.

But it really needed no stoking. When a sound man came on to check equipment, one audience member jumped to his feet in an effort to silence Hall One with loud shushing. False alarm.

Eventually the great man entered unostentatiously from stage left, perched on a stool and away we went. A crisp journey down memory lane ensued and everyone seemed to go away happy after the tumultuous final applause had died down.

Last week I had 10 minutes on the telephone with the great man ahead of what his website refers to as his fall overseas tour, which is due to begin in Dublin on September 7 just a week after the completion of his US summer tour.

He then headlines Bestival, the Isle of Wight music bash, before coming north to make The Sage Gateshead his second UK stop on September 10. After dates in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London, it’s on to perform one gig each in France, Holland and Belgium.

That’s the whirlwind life of the one-time leader and chief songwriter of The Beach Boys, a survivor of drug abuse and mental illness and a presence in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 1988 (website inscription: “One of the few undisputed geniuses in popular music”).

That was also the year that he went solo after a long spell of treatment and recuperation.

That’s an awful lot to cover in a 10-minute transatlantic call, particularly when Good Vibrations alone could sustain a lengthy conversation (as a small boy in 1966 it was the best thing I’d ever heard).

And it’s not possible, of course. So we flit over the surface. How are you, Brian? “I’m fine.”

And what will you be performing in Gateshead? “Well, I’ll be doing the entire Gershwin album and some Beach Boys hits.”

The die-hards will be delighted about the latter, but the Gershwin association is interesting. The album Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin came out last summer and garnered excellent reviews.

“I first heard Gershwin when I was three years old and my mother took me to my grandmother’s house and she played me rhythm and blues,” recalls Brian.

“I sat on the floor by the speaker, listening. Later I started learning him at the piano and it made quite a deep impression.”