Gather round everybody, Christmas has come and gone, and it’s time to look forward to the New Year!

However, before we do, there is just enough time to tell a story or two and bring you up to scratch on what the “rock stars” do nowadays.

And so we begin...

To Malton! On to the train, excitement building, several needless checks to make sure everything was on board.

Passport, English money, this bizarre colourful money that has been dubbed the “euro”, tickets and all of the other things that are pretty easy to remember yet you have a habit of leaving them in that place that will appear so obvious on your way out of the door that there is literally no way you could ever forget it. In this case, it was true. Anyway, York, Doncaster, bus, airport, the strange realisation that we had arrived four hours early (always leave in good time, there’s a new year’s lesson for everyone), in fact we left so early that we were the only people in the entire airport other than staff.

After whittling away the time with heated airport based debates, such as ‘if Zombies came in, where would you hide in here?’ and ‘if a plane is travelling at 300 miles an hour and is going to go into the sea, why don’t people stand at the door, wait until they are around 50 yards away from the water, and then just jump in?’, it was time to board.

On the flight, off the flight, on to a train and there we were, in central Dublin. Happy days!

I have never been somewhere so Christmassy in all my days (roughly 8,450). Decorations everywhere, carol singing on every street corner and all of the treats in between. After getting over the fact that my cup of tea cost £4, it was time to find the hotel.

On arriving we unpacked, went for some tea and before we knew it, it was Monday morning, the day of the gig. So, we wandered around Dublin’s many fine streets and quaint tea shops, until we got the call “we’ll meet you at the apartment at 3pm”. By this point I had been banned from doing my fantastic Irish accent, which I am convinced would have endeared me to the locals, as I was, in fact, warned it would probably get me beaten up.

To the apartment via the Guinness factory, apparently it exists but I couldn’t find it – so that was an hour down the drain. Anyway, we arrived at the apartment to be greeted by Charlene (tour manager) and the band made their way down from the restaurant shortly after. After a couple of hours of catching up, we headed off to Dublin Academy for Biffy Clyro and Fighting With Wire.

Now, for those of you who have had the luxury of going backstage, it really is an experience you will never forget, as it is one of those occasions that you think will be unreal, but is in fact the biggest disappointment of all time.

They are often like the school changing rooms, pretty cold, a lot of people standing about, that sort of thing. Nothing really ever happens, well, that is unless you can get backstage at the Academy in Dublin.

Backstage is really misleading in this case, as the venue is set out in a circular fashion, with a balcony that the VIPs and artists are allowed to be in that runs around the perimeter of the venue. Off the edge of this, through a black door that looks like it is part of the room in some sort of fantastic 90s cartoon, possibly Scooby Doo style, it just opens (that might not make you go “wow” because I’m sure that all doors ‘just open’ but really, this one was well hidden). So, you go into the secret door, head across this suspended walk way, through some more hidden doors, then you arrive at two doors that have signs reading “FIGHTING WITH WIRE DRESSING ROOM” and “BIFFY CLYRO DRESSING ROOM”.

We wandered into the Fighting With Wire one, as that’s where everyone was hanging out, and they had a barrel full of ice, and pushed into the ice were around 50 beers, loads of bottles of wine, cokes, waters and such like.

They also had a huge Christmas tree, a table football table, an Xbox 360 and, wait for it... air hockey!

With an hour to waste before the show began, it was air hockey tournaments all round. I was soon declared champion of the world after going on a six-game unbeaten run, and helped myself to the beer supply as a form of ‘winnings’. We all sat about and had a couple of cheeky beers, before heading off into the balcony area, as the first band, Fighting With Wire, made their way on stage.

Having signed a deal with Atlantic Records USA, Fighting With Wire are being tipped for big things, and they got the show off to an electrifying start. Playing singles Everyone Needs a Nemesis and All For Nothing, and other songs from the album Man Vs Monster, including Sugar, Cut The Transmission and Make A Fist, the sold out venue went pretty wild.

We enjoyed the set while standing with Simon of Biffy, sporting shorter hair, but a mighty beard. This was a great warm up to the main act, and Fighting With Wire got a great reception. Just out of interest, this is the same Fighting With Wire who toured the Europe earlier this year, and when playing a headline show at Fibbers, they were very kindly watered and fed at our very own Suddaby’s, the home of Ryedale rock. As Fighting With Wire left he stage and arrived back at the dressing room, air hockey had already kicked off again, then four guys came in shortly after the band. An English guy, and Irish guy and two Americans (I know, I should really have a funny joke to tell at this point, but alas, I am no comedian).

They just happened to be the heads of Warner music for Europe! Crazy stuff! So, in just over 24 hours I realised that we had gone from sitting on a train leaving Malton to being in a big venue in Ireland, playing air hockey with famous types and chatting to the heads of Warner music... baffling.

Then it came...THUD’....‘THUD THUD THUD’, the unmistakeable sound of a bass drum, guitar and bass being hit at the exact same time, through several walls and doors, it had begun.

Biffy were on stage and as we arrived through the secret wall door, Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies had just kicked off.

Biffy are at a stage that wherever they play, the crowd knows their songs and sings them back extremely loudly,which was the case on this night. As the Scottish three-piece tore through their set, with some awesome songs such as Saturday Superhouse and Mountains and Who’s Got A Match, the crowd was getting more and more excited.

After the huge ovation at the end of their set and the token encore achieved with near perfection, it was back to the dressing room (nearly missed the secret door and took a wall shot, but awkwardly corrected my path at the last minute).

The rest of the night consisted of seeing off the barrel of treats, hanging out with the bands, some really, really intense Scotland vs Northern Ireland table football that I have no idea who won, as there was a red mist of expletives consuming most of the room, making it hard to understand what was going on.

Then it was back to the apartment for the good times to continue, and they did!

Several hours later, I woke up in the washroom with my head far too close to a washing machine, a dry mouth, but a sense of good times.

Showered and up, we all headed up to this little restaurant next to the Quay, and had breakfast (no sausages though, can you believe it no sausages but free tea to compensate, good deal at £4 a cup I say).

We were then offered a lift back to the airport by the bands, and we headed off back to Doncaster, back to York, back to Malton, back to the hole I hide in!

Good times had by all and that, my friends, was Dublin with Biffy Clyro and Fighting With Wire.