LET there be lights! I love Blackpool illuminations, and I went to the switch-on to take photos and see the celebs.

I had a chat with Dale Winton, who had the night's biggest honour of pushing the button to light up the town. I've met Dale a few times, he's been to my venues in Leeds for nights out before and he once invited me to dinner in Hampstead, London.

It had been over a year since I saw him but at Blackpool he recognised me straight away. He invited me onto the bus provided for getting changed, and told me he'd flown in from London on his private jet.

He gave me a hug and a kiss for the camera - but joked: "You had your chance and you missed it!" I'm pretty sure he fancied me back then. He's just as tantastic as he looks on the telly, by the way.

Dale is a great storyteller and I remember him once describing being recognised in McDonald's in Brixton by a little old lady, soon after he got his first break on Sky TV. "Your face looks familiar," he recounted her as saying. "Have you got Sky?" he asked. "Of course! You're the man who fitted my satellite dish!"

Radio 2 hosted the event and the line-up was great - backstage I said hello to Chico, Heather Small and Ronan Keating, who all performed. Italian-Glaswegian swing singer Paulo Nutini, aged 19, was brilliant. But I nearly got thrown out before it all started.

A guy I know, Eddie, who owns lighting company Light Media, was doing the projections for the stage and said it was all right for me to get up on his truck where the lighting rig was, to get a good vantage point for taking photos.

Anyway, suddenly all hell let loose, security staff were screaming at me, saying I shouldn't be up there, and the Radio 2 producer of the show was telling me to get down, going bonkers.

Eddie had disappeared in the meantime, so I didn't even have him to back me up. Anyway, we managed to sort things out, and I got a good spot at ground level to take my shots.

Peter Kay, I have to say, was the least funny I'd ever seen him, his routine centred around the fact that HE should have been the one to switch the lights on, and he'd been double-booked with Dale.

I assumed it was all an act but he was still ranting on about it backstage when I had a chat with him. He didn't stick around long - by the time Dale got up on stage to do the big countdown, he'd gone.

I asked Dale: "Was there a double booking? " but he said if there was, he didn't know anything about it.

I'd invited Dale to join my friends and I at Funny Girls later, where they put on an amazing drag show, but he had other commitments.

Blackpool illuminations are great, they make sure the fun continues there long after other resorts have started winding down for the winter.

It all began back in 1879, with just EIGHT electric arc lamps when holiday makers tripped the lights fantastic to view what was called artificial sunshine.

The basic idea remains but today's six miles of shimmering light involves fibre optics, lasers and LED technology as well as countless bulbs.
They're on till November 5 - go and check them out!