The Pied Piper of cool rubs shoulders with royalty yet still retains the common touch

IF IT'S not what you know but who you know, then Jools Holland has it made. Not that this Everyman is short of grey matter - his knowledge of music is legendary and he's a fan of classic cars and Homer - but it is the extraordinary reach of his social connections that make you sit up and take note.

The number of people in his circle is striking but it's the diversity of friendships - from rockers to high society and from men of letters to celebrities - that amazes. Last week, 47-year-old Holland, a working-class boy from Deptford, was pictured with friends Stephen Fry, Eric Clapton and Prince Charles.

The Prince of Wales is the cherry on the layered confection that is Jools Holland's social life. He has worked for the Prince's Trust for years and the pair are now firm friends. Charles and Camilla were on the guest list when Holland married his sculptor girlfriend of 15 years, Christabel McEwen, in August this year, and the couple were at the royal wedding just a few weeks earlier. McEwen was formerly married to Ned Lambton, the Seventh Earl of Durham.

The couple were introduced by Bryan Ferry in 1986 and the 800-person guest list for the nuptials made impressive reading: Sir Paul McCartney, Lulu, Vic Reeves, Ringo Starr, Jerry Hall, Jennifer Saunders, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Robbie Coltrane... even Bono sent a telegram.

What perhaps makes Holland so unusual is that he's London's most popular person. Usually, someone who amasses such a vast social circle is phenomenally wealthy, an incorrigible social climber or a toe-curling creep with acquaintances but no friends. Either way, hugely popular people tend to acquire enemies in equal measure. Not so Holland.

Those who know him warm immediately to his laconic charm and intractable modesty. Then there's his brilliance on the 'old Joanna', his acerbic pop band Squeeze, his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and his fostering of musical talent on his BBC2 show Later... with Jools Holland. He has showcased Catatonia, Travis, Macy Gray, the Stereophonics and the Fugees - all now his friends. Saturday's show had a London outfit called The Rakes. Oh, and his mate David Gray.

No-one refuses an offer to record with him at his quirky Greenwich studio, modelled on Portmeirion in Wales (where The Prisoner was filmed) and he's jammed there with Smokey Robinson, Robert Plant and BB King.

Holland is also a family man. People like that. He has two children - George, 20, and Rose, 19 - by his first wife, Mary Leahy, and Mabel, 13, with McEwen. He hasn't forgotten his old muckers, either, as his band of friends has grown. Those he used to hang out with while he played piano in south London pubs say he's "thoughtful and open-hearted". One says: "Whenever I've been in darker periods of my life, he's been the first to offer assistance."

Above all, he is that rare thing: he is authentically and effortlessly cool. He's the Pied Piper of cool, in fact, and it's an enduring cool, too. He's in the mould of Paul Weller, Mario Testino or George Clooney. They make just enough effort, but never show it. Ever since he stepped in front of the camera and said: "If you're a groovy f***er, you'll watch The Tube," to plug the cult 'yoof' show he presented with Paula Yates, Holland has been ahead of the curve. And lots of people have followed him. A hell of a lot.

All this from a lad expelled from school at 15 for releasing the handbrake on a Triumph Herald belonging to a teacher he didn't like. The Triumph vanished down a steep hill, never to be seen again. Unlike Holland.

Jools Holland plays the Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, 2 and 3 December.