EX-heavy metal drummer turned comedian Steve Hughes has Big Issues – according to the title of his debut tour.

The Australian, who has been seen on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and supporting Reginald D Hunter, will be half way through his own headline show when he comes to Blackburn’s King George’s Hall later this month.

“It’s going good. People are turning up and the support guys with me are great,” he said.

“With this being my first tour, I’m blessed with a wealth of material but it has metamorphosed now, four weeks in from the first ones I did and is merging into a thesis.

“It’s like when you’re at Edinburgh, everyone’s show is ready on the last night.”

The tour focuses on ‘the usual stuff’, which for Steve is social commentary and ‘what’s going on in the world’.

“There are some of the old things which everybody’s looking at, which is a good basis: health and safety regulations, wars on terror, global warming, collapsing of the banks.”

After touring the UK, Steve is heading back to tour his native Australia before taking a break, during which he hopes to release his own heavy metal album.

The former drummer has taken time in the UK to expand his musical skills, learning guitar and writing his own music.

“I’ve learned it to a degree, well enough to play my songs, as I wanted to do something that wasn’t comedy.

“I’ve recorded the heavy metal album myself and that’s been running for the last three years so I’d like to release it after all that time writing songs and learning guitar.”

*Steve Hughes, Big Issues, King George’s Hall, Blackburn, Friday, March 9. Call 0844 8471644.