Armed with guitar, songs, beard and a woolly-hat? That can only mean one thing - either Brian Blessed has opted to duet with Richard Hawley, or Badly Drawn Boy aka Damon Gough is back with a new album and a tour to support it. Good news indeed, especially for fans who might have missed the TV drama that he contributed to, "The Fattest Man in Britain" (released last December as "Is There Nothing We Could Do?").

His seventh album has yet to be titled, but will almost certainly feature the song "In Safe Hands", which you can download for free from his My Space page. He's a songwriter with a bit of Mercury-previous (he won the 2000 prize for "The Hour of Bewilderbeast"), so an apt day for this article we feel.

The mooted release date for the album is October with the small matter of a tour to perform around the same time. Dates confirmed so far are Birmingham on 18th October, Manchester (21st), Bristol (25th) and London's Bloomsbury Ballroom (27th). Tickets go on sale on Friday at 9am.