Andy Williams: Bournemouth BIC, 20 January, The Anvil, Basingstoke, 24 January

AFTER more than 50 years of peddling his particular blend of charm, romance and vocal seduction, Andy Williams would be completely justified in calling himself "king of the crooners".

To that description of himself he could add the epithet "king of the comebacks".

For, having neglected his British fans for almost 20 years, the old smoothie has returned to our shores for a ten-date tour at select venues - including two in the Hampshire region.

The enduring singer, who turned 76 at the end of last year, is currently riding the crest of a wave of renewed popularity - thanks in the main, to a Fiat Punto TV ad, which used a snatch of his infernally catchy 1967 hit, Music to Watch Girls By, a couple of years back.

Interest in the veteran crooner, whose popularity reached its peak in the Sixties and Seventies, with a string of hit songs including Can't Get Used to Losing You, On the Street Where You Live, Can't Take My Eyes off You and his own long-running TV show, has almost reached fever pitch with a recent, best-selling greatest hits package, a series of easy listening compilations named after his best-known number, Music to Watch Girls By, and several UK TV appearances.

Williams' singing career began in the late 1940s at the tender age of eight, when he formed the Williams Brothers Quartet, a local radio favourite of the time, with his three brothers. He went solo in 1951 and released his first single in 1956.

* Andy Williams is at the Bournemouth International Centre tomorrow (box office: 01202 456456) and The Anvil, Basingstoke on Wednesday (box office: 01256 844244).