It's been just two years since Matt Cardle dropped off the end of the telly talent show production line. Winner of the seventh series of X Factor, Cardle quickly did what Joe McElderry had been prevented from doing a year earlier and hit the top of the singles chart with his debut single. A cover of Biffy Clyro's Many of Horror, renamed as When We Collide, was the 2010 Christmas No 1 and, despite the risk involved in covering a modern rock classic, it was generally warmly received.

The singer from Essex was set fair and his debut long-player, Letters, was issued in October 2011. It performed decently, reaching No 2 in the UK chart and selling a quarter of a million copies. Another year on and another set of wannabes have tumbled off the X Factor travelator with Little Mix added to the hit-and-miss list of alumni.

Of the two, Matt Cardle remains firmly in the 'hit' category and although recent singles have not performed as well as he would have liked, he still managed to sell out a 23-date tour earlier this year. He'll be hoping for good things from his second album, The Fire, which is set for issue next month just day after a short promotional tour concludes.

Matt Cardle plays the HMV Temple in Birmingham on 21st October followed by Brighton's Concorde 2 on 22nd October, before the final date announced so far at Scala in London on 23rd October. We will have tickets available from 9am on Friday 14th September, priced £25 for London and £22.50 for the remaining gigs. Matt's second studio album, The Fire, will be released on 29th October 2012.