One of the finest pop stars of the past twenty-odd years, the supremely talented (and staple of tabloids everywhere) George Michael has been chatting about his future plans in the pages of the latest Hot Press.

Michael is about to embark on his massive Symphonica tour around Europe and is due to pitch up at Dublin's O2 for two dates on November 1 & 3. He will also be bringing a full orchestra along for the ride

Of his new tour, he says: ""I think people will be quite surprised. I’ll be doing a lot of songs that I haven’t sung live before. Some will be the sort of compositions that only really lend themselves to the sort of intimate venues that I’ll be playing in, and some will be from artists who have influenced me over the years."

As for the studio, George Michael is ready to commence work on his first album since 2004's Patience

"For this album," George explains. "I’m going to be working with either gay or gay friendly artists, and it’ll be a mixture of tracks sung by me and others by young gay artists – possibly unknown ones.  And I’ve lined up some really great dance producers to work on it too, so it’ll be a pretty stunning record, I hope."

For more from Mr. Michael, get yourself a copy of the new issue of Hot Press, on sale today.