Matt Cardle

February 2012

THE tour kicks off March 22 so I’ve been in rehearsals for that all week.

Well, it’s been more like sitting around with the band eating chicken and talking about the tour, rather than rehearsing.

We’ll have no canons or dancing girls, no. Not unless a few of them feel frisky and want to get up on stage and dance.

It’s a rock show essentially with a big acoustic section in the middle of it. And there’ll be a few covers that I haven’t played live before but they’ve got to be a surprise.

The rehearsals are during the week so my weekends are pretty free at the moment. That said, I’ll likely be spending as much time as I can in the studio in my flat in Fulham. Until I’m called out by someone and then we’ll just go to a few boozers around Fulham and then head into town to a club.

You have Funky Buddha, Mahiki and all these kinds of places but I try to stay clear of them as much as I can. There’s only so much of that stuff you can handle in one lifetime. I’m much more of a pub or a bar type of person so I can talk to people, as opposed to sitting in a corner being deafened.

Or we’ll go round Aiden’s (X Factor contestant Aiden Grimshaw), who is a good friend of mine and have a few beers.

Or I may stay around the flat and have a few people over or go out for a meal. We usually get up to no good.

Saturday will be a lie-in then lunch at the generic chicken restaurant and think about whether you have the energy to do it all again.

I got into The Big Bang Theory recently. That’s quite funny. I’ve always watched things like Friends, South Park and Family Guy and of course I watched the X Factor when that was on.

I watched a little bit of Celebrity Big Brother. I thought Frankie (Cocozza) was funny in it.

The only American drama series I got into was Prison Break. I loved that. It got a little bit tiresome after a while but the original idea was genius and the first series was amazing.

I’m not a huge cinema fan. I never have been. Since the (X Factor) I’ve been more than I ever did before because we were getting invited to red carpet premieres of Harry Potter, Narnia and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

I’m not hugely into film. I’d much prefer to be out on my skateboard. I’ll be bringing that to Nottingham with me. I took it on the X Factor tour and skated around a few venues. They have a nice smooth floor so it was ideal. I’d do it outside sometimes but I usually got hassled.

It keeps me fit but I run a lot as well and do sit-ups and press-ups. It’s proper boring but I’ve got to be in shape for my tour.

I don’t read at all. Not even magazines. I’ll pick up a paper if it’s got a story about me in it, just to see if it’s true or not. It usually is, unfortunately.

I have a lot of Dave Matthews Band on my iPod, Peter Gabriel, Rage Against the Machine, Paul Simon, Pearl Jam... I’ll see gigs now and again. I think Noel Gallagher was the last one. That was brilliant. I’d never seen Oasis but he rattled out quite a few of their songs. He did write them after all.

A perfect weekend would just be having the right people around you and having a good laugh. Maybe go-karting or paintballing, then sit in the pub getting smashed and having a giggle.

Matt Cardle plays the Royal Concert Hall on Wednesday March 7 supported by Roxanne Emery. Tickets are £26.50, call 0115 989 5555 or visitwww.trch.co.uk