Once upon a time, when reality TV shows were but a streak in the loo-bowl of a programme-makers imagination, a young Georgian singer trilled her way through her soon-to-be biggest hit, 'Closest Thing to Crazy' and a nation lost control of itself and bought over a million of the accompanying debut album, 'Call off the Search'. Ah, the days when Wogan was at the cutting edge of new talent, dear listener. I almost said that in old Tel's accent as well. Onward young pups and don't shoot the horses..... (blah blah, that's enough Terry, back to bed now).

The lovely Katie Melua has been busy making music (musically-speaking) with William Orbit, the man who made a couple of decent chill-out albums in the 90s as Strange Cargo, worked with Spooky and Underworld, produced Madonna (not easy) and propelled Barber into the charts via the annals of lasers-in-the-sky anthem 'Adagio For Strings'. Now he turns his attention to a lady who has racked up a pile of hits herself including '..Crazy', 'Nine Million Bicycles' and 'If You Were a Sailboat' as well as shifting millions of albums world-wide. World Party and Robbie Williams' old mucka, Guy Chambers is co-writing the songs and the album is due out in May.

Her next tour follows a lot later in December and you can buy tickets tomorrow (Jan 22nd) on Fat Friday! The jaunt starts in Manchester (Apollo - 4th) and takes in 11 more stops including the Cardiff International Arena on the 11th , the Hammersmith Apollo on the 17th and finally ending up in Bristol at the Colston Hall just before Christmas on the 21st. Tickets will cost between £32.50 and £37.50 plus the usual fees and will be on sale from 9AM.