Yes, um, tomorrow is a long time in music. Or something like that. There must be some saying. I'm hopeless at getting all these things done on time. Anyway. We've now finished our headline tour and are in Dublin preparing to do our third Scissor Sisters arena support slot. Well, I say preparing - we're kind of sitting around and checking emails and things. How the internet has killed rock'n'roll... has been quite a bizarre experience though, playing these gigs. We're only doing half an hour, so compared to the hour and a half we've been playing on tour it hardly seems like a gig at all. And even though we're still playing to a lot of people (even at half full these arenas have a good few thousand people in them), it's a strangely nothing-y sort of feeling. I think arenas must be a very hard thing to get used to. It sort of feels like you're playing background music for a football match or massive business conference. We've been going down fairly well with the crowd, but you can't really interact with them at all.. ..you sort of feel like you're on TV, or they're on TV, not sure which.

Anyway, none of this is anyone's fault, it's just a foreign experience. The Scissors have been great though - they've all come along at separate times to say hello, and have been really supportive. Thoroughly likeable people. And Jake and Ana have been giving us a massive plug onstage each night. Not as a gift. I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself. I mean they've been telling the crowd our album. Not presenting us with a huge domestic appliance as a nightly ritual. Though that would be quite cool. Anyway.. it's a great show they're putting on.. I got especially excited to see multicoloured flashing lights in "I Don't Feel Like Dancing". I am an absolute sucker for bright colours. Take me right back to childhood...

I must apologise, though, to anyone that saw us in Belfast though. I'm not quite sure why but for some reason I couldn't sing half the notes I normally can. My voice sort of closed up. I'm hoping it's because I ate a few poppadoms in catering an hour or two before. They're pretty dry, aren't they? It's a turmoil of a question on this tour, what do we do about food? We get to have one meal, lunch or dinner, and so far we've been opting for dinner as it's bigger and better. But then the only time we get to eat is a couple of hours before stage-time. Catering's closed by the time we finish. But we all like food so much. It's a dilemma, it really is. I usually strictly impose the three-hour food pre-show food rule, but I've been waning on this tour. Standards are slipping.

Anyway, our headline tour - well, it was grand. Thanks to anyone who came along. It was definitely a challenge, getting to grips with all our new equipment, but it turned out really good. The Astoria shows, the second one especially, was just a dream come true. Everything just came together, the crowd were brilliant, and we stood there a bit flummoxed, just like in Manchester, that so many people had come to see us. For two nights in a row this time. It was like Christmas. I think we played really well; Greig and Arista had been trying in-ear monitors earlier on the tour, because we'd been advised that we needed to this to hear things properly now we had a more complicated set-up, but, from my own brief experience of trying them out, it was like playing a gig with a massive box around you. So, half-way through the tour we all sacked off the idea and went back to good old-fashioned monitors and it was so much better. Felt like we were playing as one much more.

But yes, the Astoria especially really meant a lot to us. . . having watched so many gigs there, either in the flesh, or in my case, on various videos. . . and things then got more surreal when Sir Ian Mckellen came backstage to meet us afterwards - his nephew Andy has been to a few gigs now, and brought along his girlfriend and uncle this time.. . and Ian seemed to love the gig, which was rather good to know. He even said he'd wear our t-shirt on Parkinson this Saturday, though I suspect that may not happen! Still, I was quite in awe to meet such a wonderful and natural actor, and was so glad that he was as down to earth as you could hope. He was chatting away with us all (as my Mum frantically took a million photos!) right up until we got kicked out of the dressing room actually. Gave me a few warm-up tips too. He lies down apparently. But he agreed that the Astoria dressing rooms weren't the best place for lying down. Anyway, a really lovely guy.... I watched his Extras episode on YouTube the other day, actually. The bit where he talks to Ricky Gervais about acting is hilarious. So... yes. . meeting someone you really admire like that is quite a thrill, especially when they're so easy to talk to. Who knows, maybe one day there'll be a collaboration...

Had a really good last night in Oxford too. A young local band called Borderville played the opening slot -Greig knew the drummer's mum, I think, and it was very interesting stuff - a whole load of influences thrown in, in a really good way. So, yeah .. . there it is. And then tomorrow we have one of those classic band days - up at 5.30 am, flying from Dublin to London at 8am, then straight into our bus to drive to France, to then play a gig tomorrow night. Long story, but apparently it was cheaper than flying straight to France. . hmm. . ! Status Quo eat your feet.

And that's it really. Will hopefully write more soon. Whenever soon is. Adios.. .