Good Afternoon from backstage at the Palladium in Cologne, Germany.

I'm just about to soundcheck for what will be my biggest headline gig to date.
I've played to huge crowds at festivals and stuff but this is my biggest personal gig.
The Venue holds around 4000 people and it's been sold out for a while now. The place is huge!!
However next month i'm gonna break the record again and play to 5500 in Amsterdam!

Things are going so well over here, and i could never have dreamed i'd be this successful.
Every country we visit presents me with a platinum disc when i arrive, i don't think i have enough wall space for them anymore ;-) The album is going from strength to strength in mainland europe and we're currently on 1.6million sold, which is incredible.We have had so many requests for a live album so we've put together a deluxe CD with a selection of songs live from the Barrowlands, which i think is out on Monday.

This tour has been fun but very draining. It does seem like i've been doing this forever.
I started promoting this album and doing gigs with it about 2 years ago now and it has been constant ever since. My band and i had our first practice in March 2006 which is over 2 and a half years ago. I think this year so far we have played over 100gigs and that doesn't count the millions of endless promo days all over the world.
Saying all of this, i would much rather be ridiculously busy with my music, than to be sat at home wishing things were going better.

The guys and i have gotten really into football this tour, and we'll play it almost anywhere. I perfected my keepy uppies on a main road outside Barcelona airport, i got up to 7 now! Which is actually better than anyone else ;-) We were playing football in the pitch black outside the venue in Berlin, and Adam was using his phone as a floodlight!!

Shannon and I made a discovery in brussels, whilst we were having dinner Adam was playing with Shannons glasses and i turned to Shan and asked him who do you think Adam looks like? His reply was Sarah Palin!!!!! it's uncanny!!! I saw on the news today that the highest selling halloween costume this year is actually Sarah Palin. Adam doesn't need a costume!!

We had a day off in Cologne yesterday and went go karting. I thought i would be terrible but i wasn't that bad. I did throw the towel in though, i was getting picked on by the annoying guy waving the flag and did tell him to fuck his go karting!! ;-)
Adam won by an absolute mile. He was pretty nifty in his kart, pitty he's not so nifty in a real car ;-)

Last week was Matt's birthday week and i gave him an ipod and the boxset of heroes, which i regret.Everyone has become obsessed with this show and nobody wants to go out for dinner or do anything cos they'd rather watch an episode of heroes!! I've gotten into Gossip Girl but it isn't quite as addictive as heroes seems to be!


So things are going very well indeed and i'm about to play my biggest gig to date!
Thanks for your continued support.
Wish me luck!!

xxx