Clare Teal: Cheers, tears and a big slice of birthday enjoyment

A few weeks later, Muddy and myself celebrated our birthdays, both May bunnies, both Taurus and exactly a week apart. Like most people, we are usually working and have become accustomed to raising a glass with the boys and having a bun, before getting back to task in hand. Not this year…

Muddy hit one of those special big important numbered birthdays. According to the original tour plan, she was to spend it in Hull at the new Truck Theatre. Without wishing to insult anyone from that general area, let's just say that charming as Hull can be, it wasn't where she had planned to celebrate this new stage of her adulthood.

Then, by a curious quirk of fate, the routing changed, meaning that Muddy actually had a day off to celebrate said big one – in fact, quite a few days. It now meant that I woke up in Hull on my birthday. As the clock struck midnight, we were still in the hotel bar.

I heard a little "ahem" and looked up to see drummer Benny and MD Grant walking towards us with an ice bucket and a bottle of champagne. Very nice.

The next day we moved on to the Opera House in Buxton. Muddy had packed all my presents and I had some belters and was a very cheery soul, even when Janet (the sat nav) flipped out and sent us to a small piles of stones in a remote field instead of the huge building that is the Opera House.

It was a lovely gig, Grant told the audience it was a special day and everyone spontaneously sang "Happy Birthday" to me, which was a bit overwhelming.

The show continued as normal until I announced the very last song. Grant then interrupted and made a huge speech about how nice Muddy and I were, and this time all the boys, including Simon on bass and Jimmy on sound, presented us with bouquets, more bottles of champagne and the most incredible chocolate cake, at which point I burst into tears… at the thought of having to share it.