Hi everyone,

I was away all last week in Plymouth as I was performing on the Heart FM stage for The British Fireworks Championships.

I drove down to Plymouth early Tuesday morning and arrived at the camp site I was staying at, where I attempted to set up the tent lol! :P I’ve never been to Plymouth before so I wanted to have a look around before performing. I went for a drink at the Barbican which is an area down by the harbour.

I then met the organiser of the event to find out when I’d be singing. He seemed really nice and took an interest in what I was getting up to over the summer. I decided to go for the smart, shirt and tie look before going off to warm up. Unfortunately they didn’t have a backstage area so I found myself warming up in a cramped, smelly porta-loo :P It wasn’t the nicest of places to rehearse especially when there were people either side of me telling me to shut up! Lol!

I was announced on stage and sang my first song, ‘Haven’t Met You Yet’ by Michael Bublé. It went down really well with the crowd, who sang along with all of my songs. I then went on to sing ‘All Time Low’ by The Wanted and my version of Ed Sheeran’s ‘The A Team.’ The crowd really seemed to favour ‘The A Team’ as they all sang and clapped along. I finished off with three classics; ‘Don’t Stop Believing,’ ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘Footloose.’ These particular songs had the audience on their feet and dancing away. Throughout my set, I was being filmed to make a video which is now online at http://www.youtube.com/user/hinchofficial.

The fireworks display was amazing. There were three teams in total on each night who were all given 15 minutes to perform their display. As I was down in Plymouth until Friday, I went back the next day to watch the next displays. It was great to see people turn out in their thousands to support the event. Would definitely love to go back again next year and recommend you all come and watch me. ;)

For the rest of the week I was working on the video and other promotional work until driving up to Derby on Saturday, where I performed at Derby Pride.

It was a four hour drive up to Derby, so it was good to get out of the car once we arrived. I checked in at The Ramada Hotel and had a shower before getting ready for my performance. I was due to be on stage at 5:30pm and was only a walking distance away from the hotel. I met the organiser and gave my CD to the sound technician. It was a good turn out and the audience got really involved. I sang a range of songs including ‘Haven’t Met You Yet,’ ‘Hound Dog,’ ‘The Lazy Song’ and ‘Don’t Stop Believing.’ ‘The Lazy Song’ was a definite favourite with the crowd. A group of people came down to the front and started getting the rest of the audience dancing along. I got a really good response and even had people requesting extra songs! :D Once I’d finished performing I got my website across to everyone.

All in all I had a very enjoyable week. I’m now looking forward to performing on the Heart FM stage in Great Yarmouth tomorrow night. :D

Speak to you all soon. Michael x