You ask the questions: Jools Holland

(Such as: so, Jools Holland, what was your first impression of Paula Yates? And what will you do on the day that Ray Charles dies?)

Julian Miles Holland was born in Deptford, south London in 1958. As a young boy he showed an unusual flair for the piano and by the age of eight he had picked up the rudiments of boogie-woogie and blues piano. By his teens he was playing in the pubs and clubs of south and east London where he met fellow Deptford residents Glen Tilbrook and Chris Difford. Together, they formed Squeeze, whose hits included "Cool for Cats" and "Up the Junction". In 1980 Holland left to go solo and to co-present Channel 4's pioneering music programme, The Tube, with Paula Yates.

In 1992 he started presenting his own series, called Later with Jools Holland on BBC2, a showcase for new and interesting music, which runs to this day. He also has his own show on Radio 2 and a 14-piece band, called the Jools Holland Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, which plays all over Europe. Holland has performed and recorded with many of the world's most talented musicians, including BB King, Paul Weller, George Harrison and Dr John. He is married and still lives in south London.

Do you remember the first time you ever sat down at a piano? Who inspired you?

S D Williams, by e-mail

Between the ages of three and eight I used to sit down and tinkle with my mother. She used to play songs like "Careless Love". But the real excitement for me came when I was about eight, when my uncle started playing boogie-woogie. He played in a group called The Planets, a rhythm-and-blues group who sounded a bit like the Rolling Stones. As soon as he started playing, I was like, this is it, this is what I've got to do, and from that moment I just pounded away.

Is having a swinging band a compensation for some other deficiency? If so, what?

M Cole, Haverford West

I wonder. I'd like to thank the reader for drawing this possibility to my attention. But I tell you what, I would recommend it, having a swinging band is the best thing that anybody could have.

Since when did Radio 2

become hip?

Kyle Morton, London

The moment that I appeared on it. Also, lets face it, Chris Barber and Humphry Littleton know what they're talking about and they've been on it some time.

If you could get any musician or band, dead or alive, to appear on Later – who would it be?

L Pullman, by e-mail

In one corner you'd have Bessie Smith accompanied by James P Johnson on the piano. Then you'd have the Beatles in the other corner at a time when they were first starting out when they were just real great rock'n'roll group. Then maybe you'd have a young Mozart come on and do a piece on the piano, then maybe Marie Lloyd would do a little song and then Enrico Caruso. After that you'd have all the Skatalites from Jamaica from the early Sixties and then in the other corner Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the Lucky Millinder Orchestra.

What do you think of Anastacia?

Josie Ball, Oxford

I like her, I like her trousers, I like her tattoo, I like her singing. She's a handful.

In my opinion The Tube was the greatest music show ever. What was your favourite moment, and what was your first impression of Paula Yates.

Michael Snell, Barnsley

I think when Squeeze came on. They put up a big sign with our name written on it behind us but they left out the U, they just forgot all about it. That rather summed up the programme for me, but I loved it, it was all done with love but rather casually. I thought the world of Paula. My first impression was that she was very funny and she was going to be my new friend, and she was. Very funny, very sharp.

Where do you get your suits from?

Piers Thomson, Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Norton and Sons in Savile Row. I've been going there since 1983. Their attention to detail is amazing. They've been making me the same design of suit for nearly 20 years although I have to say the measurements have been slightly different. But they always blame themselves, they never blame "sir" for the extending areas.

I hear your new record is an album of duets. What was it like working with all these big names, and how did the George Harrison duet come about?

Carla Mason, by e-mail

It's been amazing. I've written a piece with Joe Strummer and Paul Weller's done one. Van Morrison's done a piece, which is like a blues piece that sounds simple but is deceptively rather complex. I'm singing on a collaboration with Dr John ,which is sort of surrealist boogie woogie. We've did one with the Stereophonics, one with Eric Clapton, one with Suggs, who's written a tribute to Ian Dury, and we're delighted and amazed that George Harrison has done one – he's recorded a new song that nobody has ever heard before, which I'm really pleased about. It's been great because we've done a lot of stuff live with people but we've never recorded them, this is a way of getting them out.

Mortals like me seem to spend most of their time playing scales... did you ever have to play E flat melodic minor?

Amy Baker, by e-mail

I didn't. I was too busy trying to work out the blues.

What three big band records do you consider essential to life?

Nicholas Chance, Taunton

Small World Big Band, which is our most recent record. Sister Rosetta Tharpe with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra and Count Basie and Duke Ellington. They made huge amounts of big band records you just have to put your toe in the water and keep buying. Actually Sweet for New Orleans by Duke Ellington is pretty good and there's one by Count Basie from 1947, which I think is called The Count.

What are your memories of being a boy growing up in south London in the Sixties?

M Broolley, Cheshire

Playing on bomb sites in my shorts. Blackheath and Greenwich were one of the last places to be re-developed. The war ended in 1945 so it was only 20 years on, me and my chums were always scrambling over the ruins hoping to uncover and unexploded bombs. And I suppose listening to my uncle's rhythm and blues group rehearsing in my nan's front room.

Whisky adverts – do you really need the money?

Carl Gould, Sunbury

No, but I do need the whisky.

I heard that you were a bit fan of Eddie Stobart. How and why did you acquire this habit?

Keera McAndrew, by e-mail

When we're on tour, a useful way of picking up an extra bit of cash from one's travelling companions might be to say, quite casually, as you see an Eddie Stobart lorry overtake, "I bet you a fiver that the driver of this lorry is wearing a tie". And then you pull alongside and amazingly of course they are because all Eddie Stobart drivers wear a tie and normally lorry drivers aren't known for wearing them. It has become a bit of a fad. Eddie's a marvellous bloke, they're the knights of the road.

What will you do the day Ray Charles dies?

T Carlton, by e-mail

I'll cry.

When you woke up this morning, what did you find had happened?

Paul Wilton, London

I woke up this morning and the blues was walking round my bed. I went down for my breakfast and the blues was in my bread.

Do you secretly cringe at any of the artists/bands on your Later programme? If so, how do you hide it?

Ian MacKinnon, Brighton

I don't secretly cringe at anyone. Everybody comes on in earnest, the music might not necessarily all be to my taste but the point of it is they have something worthwhile to say, so I don't have any secret cringings or even any public cringings.

Small World Big Band by Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and Friends is out on Warner Music on 19 November