SUCH is the demand for Justin Timberlake tickets that virtually all 20,000 seats went at the rate of 14 per second for his appearances at the Telewest Arena Newcastle next week.

Incredibly, there are still a few limited view tickets available for the return of his Justified tour which sold out every seat for two concerts in May last year and ensured the singer was brought back as quickly as possible.

"Not bad for someone who only has 13 songs in his repertoire," one critic was heard to mutter recently.

It's actually been a phenomenal 2003 for Timberlake, the former Nsync boyband member who had previously achieved fame as Britney Spears' boyfriend. His debut album, Justified, has sold well over a million copies in the UK alone, and is still selling well. His single Rock Your Body received the highest weekly audience figures on UK radio since airplay was first monitored in 1994 and ensured Timbermania greeted ticket sales for shows on Wednesday and Thursday.

Basically, a large chunk of the UK's female population would give their right arm to have a concert ticket to hear him sing chart hits Like I Love You and Cry Me A River - particularly as this track featured a video with the singer haunting a Britney-like model deemed to have been unfaithful.

Then he publicly groped Kylie's bum on stage during last year's Brits, before being linked with both her and sister Dannii. Now the Memphis-born 22-year-old is dating the stunning 31-year-old actress Cameron Diaz, although she has denied rumours of an engagement and marriage.

The man with the Elvis-style Southern gentleman drawl claims to have been slightly surprised at his solo success. ''I can't complain,'' he says. ''It's better than I'd hoped. I was scared somewhat, you know, to release this project, because it's a new beginning. I wasn't sure if people were going to really understand it because they are so used to seeing me in a group.

''I never expected even a top five album or a top five single. I just wanted to mix the R&B that I grew up with, and turn that into something that people can dance to in clubs.''

Fans have made Timberlake the most talked-about male artist in the UK. ''I guess now my goal is to make sure that moment doesn't go away too soon,'' he says with a laugh. ''It's a great feeling. If nothing else what it says to me is I'll get to make another record."

The album itself was written in just six weeks, although the singer says it had been in the pipeline for around six months, with the raw emotion of his break-up with Spears inspiring the tracks. Timberlake says the result is very honest - and he wasn't worried about opening up. ''I don't think there's such a thing as being too honest first of all, as a person, I don't think there's such a thing as being too open."

He admits there's a ''dark side'' to him, but says people shouldn't look for too much meaning behind the tracks. ''Obviously we got a little catty with the video for Cry Me A River, but I think the songs where people make assumptions, maybe that's what they're there for, maybe that's their reason, to make you think. ''But more or less I think I just wrote this for myself, I wasn't sitting in a studio going, 'Hehehehehe','' he says, with a mock evil cackle. There are plenty of more ''playful'' tracks too, he points out. ''You've got the angst, the good guy done wrong - and you've got the good guy with the bad side in the bedroom,'' he says of some of the unashamedly sexy lyrics.

Only one thing seems to ruffle his cool - the references to his status as world's sexiest man. ''Oh, I don't know about all that,'' he says, embarrassed. ''That's flattering. I wouldn't say it's because of the way I looked or anything, because I don't... '' He pauses, stuck for words. ''I don't know. I'm glad people feel that way but at the same time it means ten times more if people like the music.''

* Justin Timberlake plays Newcastle's Telewest Arena on January 21-22 (0870 707 8000).

* Meat Loaf's The Last World Tour (re-scheduled from November) visits the arena on Monday. Tickets are £28.50-£25.Original tickets from the postponed date, November 24, are still valid.

Box Office: 0870 707 8000.

Published: 15/01/2004