Stars sign for supper

There's singing for your supper and then there's signing for it - led by Ronan Keating and Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Auckland has undergone a minor invasion of international pop stars dead keen on meeting and greeting.

In the country on a three-date concert tour, Irish pop singer Keating spent more than an hour in a Queen St record store, chatting to fans and autographing CD covers. A few days later Ellis-Bextor - the It Girl of British pop - was in the same chair.

Both stars drew more than 600 fans to their signing sessions but attracted quite different followings - Keating's mainly women aged between 20 and 50 and Ellis Bextor's fans included a lot of gay men, said one of her minders, "and a few cute straight ones".

While Keating had three shows, Ellis-Bextor's visit was all "promo", giving 19 interviews in her day-and-a-half stay.

Both stars left yesterday - Keating for Melbourne and Ellis-Bextor for Singapore - for more of the same. On Monday, English boy band A1 will be here, pens at the ready.