SIMON Webbe sold 700,000 copies of his debut solo album, Sanctuary, on top of the 13 million-selling success of his boy band Blue, yet only now is he undertaking his first nationwide tour.

Two years have passed since that debut album, three since Blue split.

"I really didn't think I had the right to tour my album because, in my past experience with Blue, we didn't tour the first record but we did tour the second one, " says Simon.

"I didn't think it was fair to tour with just three singles, and I also thought I wasn't ready, coming out of the comfort zone with Blue. I had to find my feet, and now I do feel ready."

On Tuesday he plays a sold-out Harrogate International Centre on his 18-date travels to promote his second album, Grace, a lush set of urban folk songs recorded in the south of France.

"Everything has felt like a natural progression. Slowly I came out of my shell. As I was doing my second album, the way it sounded, I felt more confident, " says the singer from Moss Side, Manchester.

"So I did about seven gigs around the university circuit, and I did that because they're a really tough crowd to crack; they're very honest. Normally, rooms start to empty as they're not interested, but with me, rooms were getting fuller and fuller, and I thought, is it me or are they enjoying themselves?"

Simon is not one to rush. Aside from Robbie Williams, George Michael and Ronan Keating, boyband graduates invariably have fallen by the wayside, but Simon's decision to bide his time, and to test out different styles after the demise of Blue's R&B and pop blueprint, has proved right.

"I made three different records before I finally released Sanctuary.

I did a rock record that I demo'ed; then the second one was R&B and hip hop, and then the Sanctuary record, the Bill Withers one, " he says.

"My R&B felt like it was what Michael Jackson or Usher would have made. It would have been too American, but I'm British? plus being a solo artist gave me the chance to experiment.

"I always thought that Blue had enough in the engine to carry on, but people change and we'd had five years in each other's pockets. I was comfortable with not changing, but once I released Lay Your Hands, and people didn't know it was me but it still got a great reaction, then I knew I'd got it right."

Simon will remain flexible in his music-making while living his life away from the tabloid headlines.

"I'm not one to be pictured coming out of the clubs or for becoming anorexic. I'm a responsible father, and I hope my music penetrates, " he says.

Will his rock demos ever emerge for public consumption?

"Nothing is buried for ever.

People say, 'you've created a sound for yourself', but what I've since done is write another rock song, Ride The Storm, which I sent off to Twentieth Century Fox for the new Fantastic 4 movie, and they said 'yes' straight away, " Simon reveals.

"Reason being, my last single, My Soul Pleads For You, was supposed to be in another film, but it's not being released until December, and my single was coming out in February, so I thought, 'Do you know, I'm going write a song for Fantastic 4'. I wrote it at breakfast with my guitarist. I had the melody; I just didn't have the groove, but he found this punk groove for it."

Ride The Storm will feature in the live show. "I've got some footage from the movie, and I've just shot the video in London with some footage too. They wanted me to go to LA, but because I've been busy in rehearsals and in production, it was done in an alleyway in Hackney with some wind machines? and it's the best video I've ever done!" Simon says.

He is delighted that Twentieth Century Fox "went with the little guy from Manchester" for the summer-blockbuster soundtrack to Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.

"I feel confident with rock because rock and hip-hop are the two most honest forms of music, " he says.

"As my music is down tempo, I'm trying to do something a little different from that to show all the different aspects of me. That's why I'm doing some covers on the tour: the Killers' When You Were Young; Muse, Supermassive Black Hole; Lenny Kravitz's Fly Away; and maybe Wonderwall, " he says.

Simon's tour line-up will comprise the standard guitar, bass, keys and drums format, plus four backing singers and a DJ, Scratch Professor, Omar's little brother.

"I've designed the stage myself, with six screens, and I haven't got any dancers to distract me. It's all down to me, ladies, " he says. "I don't want to have my back to anyone, apart from when I'm playing my guitar and wiggling my butt."

You now play guitar on stage, Simon? "Yes, I've been playing guitar for three months. I'll be playing just enough for a nice balance.

It has to be in the right places."

He has moved on from Blue with fond memories and a songwriting pedigree that may not have been appreciated at the time.

"I wrote lots of the songs for Blue, but probably only those fans who opened their CD cases knew that I wrote Fly By, All Rise, One Love. I wrote six songs on the first album, 12 out of 15 on the second and I only did four on the third one, when we shared the writing.

"But I always shared my publishing; we were a team, and I'd hate to have that bitter thing of thinking that I should have got more."

Instead Simon appreciates what he has. Witness the gospel-infused title track of Grace.

"It's about my mum, and the way she raised me, " he says. "I was a bit wild at one point, and she sent me to boot camp in Nevis when I was 14. I went a boy, and came back a man. The chorus, 'You give me grace to say when I got it wrong', is my way of thanking her."

Simon Webbe plays Harrogate International Centre on Tuesday; sold out. The single Ride The Storm/Grace is released on Innocent Records on June 18; Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer opens on June 15.