Bublé braced for biggest crowd

Canadian crooner Michael Bublé has said tonight's concert in the Aviva Stadium will be the biggest audience he has played to in his career to date.

Bublé revealed this afternoon that the 45,000 fans who will attend tonight and the same number tomorrow night "just kicks the ass" of the previous record attendance for one of his concerts.

Bublé will record the concert for himself and said it will "surpass anything we ever thought we'd do".

He intends to turn on the stadium lights before the concert starts to get an appreciation of the crowd.

"The music industry is not in the greatest shape in the world particularly in the live business. For a Canadian kid, the song of a fisherman, to come out and play for 50,000, 100,000 people over two nights is incredible," he said.

It has been a swift rise to fame for a singer who only became an international star five years ago.

His latest album Crazy Love, named after the Van Morrison song, sold 46,000 copies in its first week of release - a record for Ireland and at a time when a quarter of those sales would be enough to have a No1 album.

"I really want to process this, to be connected to all those people, it might never happen again in my life, I can't assume that I'm going to go on to play in a stadium again. I don't ever want to forget these nights," he said.

The 35-year-old singer revealed that his manager Bruce Allen seemed more nervous about tonight than he feels and he will relax before the concert by playing table tennis with his band.

"He's freaking out a little bit, he keeps coming up to me and saying can you believe it, it is huge, it is amazing. I'm trying now to turn off all those voices. I just want to enjoy it," he said.

The forecast for tonight's concert is for dry and fairly cold conditions. Bublé says he has provided 14,000 ponchos for the crowd who are standing if they are needed.

Tonight's concert will be the first to be staged in the new Aviva Stadium.