They are the only people in the world who I can truly trust and rely on. Touring gets really lonely. I guess I have friends around me but when you're paying them can they ever really be true friends?

I like to travel. I love touring I love playing.

With 'Believe' bringing really big success for me outside of the U.K. for the first time it meant I have been touring around the world and that led to a gap from the studio. I really feel like the gap has done me the world of good. Throughout that time I was able to collect songs that I really loved.

I'm hopefully touring with Colin Baker next year in Perfect Strangers. I have performed with Sylvia Simms in poetry and music evenings. I would love to do those for the rest of my career - they are so fun and witty.

I'll give up this sort of touring madness certainly but music-everything is based on music. No I'll never stop my music.

Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. So it's like just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You'd better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that's really the only unique situation that's going to be left.

On tour I'll get up at 5 p.m. and go to bed at 8 in the morning. With fishing it's the exact opposite. Fishing is the only healthy thing I do. Touring is such a grind it's the opposite of healthy.

I don't mind traveling that much when I can go somewhere and stay there for a while but touring is different. You rarely see anything. You get there early in the morning and you're resting all day and you go in and do a sound check and you do the show and then bam you're gone.

I guess something that I've noticed from American acts who had success in touring is more of an explanation as to their music. Which is I think quite funny. I think British acts might like to leave more to the imagination - maybe a bit more obscure perhaps - a bit more shy.

Being in a rock band is about touring. It's about writing songs and it's about making records but it's also about taking a wonderful smile onto that stage and making the people feel good about themselves.