Also, it's maybe slightly interesting because I did the tour with Flogging Molly over there. What was slightly difficult was the whole...bogus Irish nationalism.

Well, bogus is the wrong word - of course there are people of Irish descent, and that's fine. I have an issue with people who wear IRA t-shirts - that's f****** bull***.

Not only do I have an issue with it, but I'm the kind of person who'll call someone up on their shit. The thing is, you talk to these people and 99% of them haven't even got the first understanding of what the conflict in Northern Ireland is about.

I'm an Englishman, I don't feel like I particularly need to have an opinion on what happens in Ireland, but by the same token - the IRA set off a lot of f****** bombs in my country.

I hate the t-shirts that call them freedom fighters, because they're f****** not. So, end rant!

It'll be interesting to be with Dropkick Murpheys, in Boston, on St. Patrick's Day - but, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

-You mentioned the Wembley show. Are there any nerves ahead of something of that size?
F*** yeah, I'm terrified! I was just about dealing with it, and then my manager sent me a photo of Wembley when it's empty because he went their for a production thing. It was like...f*** you, man.

Actually, the day I got back from the US tour, I got to where I was staying and put the TV on and the very first thing that was on was the Michael McIntyre: Live At Wembley. The camera shot was him on the stage, and then it panned out...it was like...oh my god! That place is f****** enormous!

Like I said, the crew that I work with now are all f****** amazing guys. They're really good at what they do, and have experience with these kinds of shows. I think we're gonna pull it off.

-You managed to keep the tickets quite cheap - was that something you fought for?
Yeah. I had to fight quite hard for that actually. There were people in my...organisation, if you like, who were like..."Are you f****** kidding me?" I didn't want it to be one of those things where suddenly a band's made Wembley, and there's no support acts and it's £60 for a ticket.

That's not really my vibe. So, I think we'll have six people in total. We've announced Billy Bragg, which is mad! It's £20, and that's kinda important to me in a way. I'm not shutting anybody out of what I do.

-I know you were originally planning it to be an all-day thing, but something about cost issues stopped that?
This is one of the things about this that is quite interesting for me. I've never had to deal with the logistics of a venue like that, and the views of other people who organise the logistics of a thing like Wembley.

It's a different world, and it's very strange. It turns out for every extra hour we wanted to let people in, it was going to cost me like £10,000 or something ridiculous. It's like...f****** really?! You've got to be kidding! So yeah, doors will be 6, but we're still going to get six people on the bill.

-Rounding off with something a bit different - Beans On Toast's new album. How was it getting back with Jay producing that.
Oh yeah, cool! Well, one of nicest things was cos I tour a lot, there are a lot of my friends who I haven't seen for a while. The main thing was when Jay asked me to produce the album, it was like "Does that mean we get to hang out for a few days? Wicked."

So, we did that. I'd never produced anything before, and I'd never mixed a record before - although I'd set next to a lot of people who were producing my records. It was slightly daunting, but it was great.

I'm really proud...I kinda feel quite paternal about the record. It's classic Jay, but I also tried to lead him down a little further away from the "three chords and a guitar" thing. Yeah, I'm really pleased with it, it was great.

Female First - Alistair McGeorge (Follow me on Twitter @AlistairMcG)

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