Ahead of his appearance on tonight's Late Late Show, the legendary Phil Coulter has recalled his first ever "unprofessional" show visit.
Speaking to RTÉ TEN, Coulter, who is a good friend of the show, said that it's great to be back, "The Late Late is one of those points of contact and for any performer in Ireland, it is the programme, always was and still is.
"It's historic; it's been part of the fibre. It's always nice to be invited back because it still is, if you want to get a message out to the great Irish public in one five-minute bite, that's the way to do it."
Coulter, who will celebrate 50 years in the music industry next year, is about to embark on a new tour and is releasing his first solo piano album in 25 years, recalled his first ever appearance on the programme.
"I was still a student at Queens and I used to have a four piece band and we had done a few broadcasts on BBC Northern Ireland and somehow or another The Late Late Show got wind of it and invited us down," said Coulter. "We didn't really know how we were going to get down here, I think somebody's dad drove us down.
"It was piano, bass, drums and an organ, but we were so naive that we assumed RTÉ would have an organ - the organ player didn't bring his organ! 'It's RTÉ, they're bound to have an organ?' So we arrived at The Late Late Show and they had to get an organ out of a chapel somewhere and borrow it. This was probably the least professional act ever to appear on The Late Late Show so I started off badly."
And what can we expect from his performance tonight? "Tonight we're doing a medley, it's a real kind of Phil Coulter Reader's Digest version... It's a compact sort of, greatest hits medley, in three and a half minutes."
Catch Coulter on The Late Late Show tonight, as well as Ed Sheeran, Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams and Ivan Yates, at 9.35pm on RTÉ One.
