250 screaming girls, and me!

I love McFly - I've seen them mature as a band over the past few years and I think they're great.

So I went along to HMV in Leeds to see them sign copies of their latest single, Star Girl. It was absolutely manic - about 250 screaming girls were queuing up, waiting for their one-to-one.

I said hello to Tom, I'd met him at Party In The Park, Temple Newsam, in the summer, and had a chat with their manager who I know.

The lads are more popular than ever with their gay fans since they rather bravely stripped off at GAY in London but I have to say it was all girls, not boys, who had turned out to get their CDs scrawled on.

In other news, my big club night Federation is coming back to Leeds. This is great news - it'll feel like our "baby" has been reinstated in its spiritual home.

It's been four long months since clubbers dressed up in builder chic at Auf Wiedersein Fed, the last event at the to-be-demolished Blank Canvas.

If you've never been to Federation before, it's a unique experience. It has entertainers, dancers, drag queens, and mad stage and walk-about shows with big production and award-winning funky, chunky house from an A list of resident DJs.

Since the final Blank Canvas event - which I wrote about in this column - my business partners and I have been looking for a new place.

We've now settled on the Stylus and Terrace bar at Leeds University Students Union and the opening night is this Saturday, November 4, from 10pm till 4am.

This ties in with big launches of Fed in Birmingham and Liverpool, building on the success of big nights in Manchester, Blackpool and Belfast.

But none of this felt right without a regular Leeds event and I'm so pleased we're going to be back.

Saturday's theme is Return To Oz and Leeds crowds just love dressing up. It's panto, it's Christmassy - well, we're into November after all - and Leeds is our Oz, so it all fits in perfectly.

And all that's not everything ... rumour has it that Federation is set to storm the charts early next year with a CD release. We can't wait!