ON THE ROAD WITH RUARRI JOSEPH September 18th to September 25th 2007 UK TOUR by mark von sound DAY ONE ... MINIATURE FLYING RATS I wake up still in my London home of the Earls Court underground coach park ... The Circa Survive guys have another show tonight at the Barfly in Camden but for me my tour with them is over ... I start another tour back with Ruarri Joseph ... and to be honest getting out of doing a Barfly show is a bit of a relief ... loading in and out up and down those stairs isn't fun ... and not being able to park the bus anywhere near sucks and there being no real dressing room leaves no place to hang out and relax ... however it's still a good gig though and the people who work there are great so I'll stop painting a bad picture of the place ... So I'm awake and up from my bunk while everyone else still sleeps ... Right now I have work coming out of my ears so I need to be getting online all the time ... my first task of the day address' that so I take a stride to Starbucks ... oh and why not have myself a bucket of latte while I'm there ... well it'd be rude not to ... with webster chores and caffeine guzzling achieved I head back to the bus to wait for my cab which will take me on the next part of my quest ... The only people awake now are the Jabberwocky and Scottish Aimmi ... she eats chocolate buttons ... how charming ... I say my goodbyes and squeeze my pals ... I request they squeeze the rest of the tribe I miss once they are coherent and awake ... I stride up and away from the coach park to get in my cab to take me to Shepherds Bush where the rehearsal studio is for Ruarri ... and where his musical equipment is stored ... At 12noon I hook up with Ruarri Joseph and drummer Guillaume Jambel from the town of France ... For my mode of transport I have traded in my big tour bus to now travel in an Ford Fucus estate car belonging to Ruarri ... and for this part of my adventure our posse will be just the three of us ... Once loaded up we hit the road to drive up North to Manchester ... which will be my second time there is less than a week my second time in less than a week ... This is quite a momentous run of dates for Ruarri ... it's his first headline tour ... it's only half a dozen shows ... but analogies of acorns and oaks spring to mind ... We get into Manchester not long after 4pm ... and what a surprise it's raining ... if raining were an Olympic event then Manchester would have a podium finish at every games since it began in Greece many moons ago ... Support on all these shows comes from a guy called Natty ... and he is good ... really good ... one man with an acoustic guitars playing great original material ... Next to the toilets you'll find our dressing room which is a cellar under the venue ... it stinks ... its musty and damp and home to a flock of flies ... however these MINIATURE FLYING RATS don't bother us due to there being an opened packet of biscuits on the table ... this seems to be like a helipad for them ... at first glance I thought the biscuits had currents in them ... but no ... just flies ... The show goes great ... not the biggest crowd but an intimate show ... a bit of an all seated affair ... after an encore Ruarri leaves the stage ... another success ... I head back down to the cellar dressing room to see the promoter to get paid ... I pass a young lady at the foot of the stairs who's just been to use the facilities ... after crossing she calls after me in a quizzical tone "Mark?" ... I look back and it's a girl called Kelly-Lee ... we'd gone for a drink a couple of years back at the Intrepid Fox in London ... she lives South of there in Kent ... and here we are in Manchester on a Monday night ... she'd just had a rather good but painful looking tattoo done that day ... seeing her here was one of those million to one coincidences that seems to occur in my life often ... We exchanged pleasantries and I told her I'd come back upstairs a few minutes later to have a beer ... when I did there was no sign of her ... perhaps I imagined the whole thing? We load out and head to our hotel ... where I find the first Mad Max movie is on the television ... result ... That was my day on September 17th 2007 DAY TWO ... SELF HEATING SPICY LENTIL SOUP At 9am I wake up my big hotel bed ... I had chosen to adopt the star formation of sleeping with each hand and foot stretched out to each corner of the bed ... after sleeping in a bus bunk these small pleasures mean so much ... After standing in the shower for a good thirty minutes I head down to the lobby ... and the chaos of the morning started ... there was construction in the next part of the hotel to where I waited ... I sat with Guillaume waiting for Ruarri ... from the construction a cloud of dust appeared ... no big deal I thought ... until ... it sets off all the fire alarms in the hotel ... the staff were freaking out not knowing what was going on ... within minutes we were overrun by fireman from four Fire engines ... they had closed the street outside ... I sat drinking my cup of tea watching all the chaos going on around me ... Then ... ping ... the lift doors opened ... with Ruarri appeared wearing his fireproof flip-flops ... not phased by the hysteria he wondered through the mayhem as if strolling down the beach near his home in Newquay ... well we left them to it and started our drive South at 10am ... We missed the hotel breakfast so stopped at a fuel station to stock up on provisions ... and there it was ... on the top shelf looking at me ... no not pornography but the wonder that is SELF HEATING SPICY LENTIL SOUP ... I couldn't believe my eyes ... I had to check it out so purchased one ... What you do is click in the bottom which releases calcium chloride into some water ... then turning upside-down you shake for 40 seconds ... the design of it lets the now chemically reacted water heat all around the soup but is separated by a cleverly designed divider ... after the allotted shake time I turn it back upright and peal back the lid to show the said spicy lentil soup in an inner cup the size of a shot glass ... I consume the hot soup which to be honest isn't that bad ... I probably will never purchase another one but for £1.19 I consider this good way to try some odd and interesting astronaut food ... Not long down the road we hit traffic ... three lanes of snails pace vehicles ... next to us is a rather swish Audi TT and driving it a rather stunning late twenties lady ... at first glance you may guess she was a Hollyoaks actress with her died blonde hair and sun-bed tan ... in her car she was in her own little world ... oblivious to the outside ... and there right in front of me she starts picking her nose ... she got her index finger in right up to the knuckle ... I thought she'd have given herself a nose bleed with her long nails ... but no ... then she starts digging with her thumb ... yuck ... she looks two feet right to see my face of disgust witnessing her nasal excretion ... she was horrified ... her obvious vanity couldn't deal with being caught so horrendously ... I think this is the first time someone when in a traffic jam has tried to go slower and travel backwards in heavy traffic ... Soon after I see the reason for the blocked congested traffic ... people were rubber necking ... on the other side of the road there had been a crash and people on our side were slowing down to have a look ... sick bastards I can't believe people would do that ... well when I looked as we drove passed there was a plethora of Police cars and Ambulances and Fire Engines ... one car had the fire brigade cutting the roof off under a large orange blanket ... I can only deduce there had been at least one fatality ... makes you think how quick and easy life can be taken away ... when the unfortunate traveller ate breakfast that morning they would never have known it was going to be their last ... so what can we learn from this? ... if nothing else ... breakfast is the most important meal of the day and you should probably have your favourite breakfast whenever possible ... When getting to London the traffic is a nightmare ... we drop the gear back at Bush Studios ... Ruarri gives me a lift to Waterloo Station so I can get a train home ... when inside the station I'd timed things quite well as my train was due to leave in 20 minutes ... starved I had to get something to eat ... and to my wonder there was a small shop which provided the hungry traveller with pie and mash and mushy peas in a take-away box ... genius ... I was in ... I negotiated all my luggage and dinner-in-a-box to my train seat and relaxed and consumed my savoury supper ... Once underway the women in front of me got her laptop out and plugged in her head phones ... I thought nothing of it until the movie started ... she was watching a hardcore porn film ... the titles said it was called Caligula ... she was just sat there watching and listening to it like it was any other movie ... I couldn't believe my eyes ... she seemed annoyed that her battery went flat before the end of the film ... After leaving Manchester at 10am I eventually walked through my front door down in Weymouth ten hours later at 8pm ... it'd been a long day ... But in true English fashion when getting home I needed a cup of tea ... so I popped out to get some milk ... I took a longer walk home so I could walk down the sea shore ... so much better than living in city ... that was my day on September 18th 2007 DAY THREE ... DELETED DAY FOUR ... SHATTERED BUT NOT BEATEN After just one day at home I'm back out on the road again ... but first up is being back on the train tracks again ... I leave my house at 10:30am to get the 11am train for the now becoming very familiar journey up to London ... I really don't mind it as it reminds me how great living by the coast in country is ... but as quite often with public transport you get complete nutters travelling on it ... I observe and old guy with long silver hair and an old carpet bag get on the train at the far end of the carriage to where I was sitting ... he proceeded to sit in every available seat before making his final choice ... I guess this was his brand of obsessive compulsive disorder ... what a nightmare for him ... I guess with plane flight he must insist on going on last otherwise it'd never takeoff ... It took him a while to sit in all the seats but eventually he settled ... Soon after that the woman sat in front of me starts snoring ... it sounds like someone dragging a table across a wooden floor ... then she starts to drool ... I can see it dripping from her pointy chin like a dew drop from someone's nose on a cold winter morning ... I have to ignore her as it's not a pretty sight ... then ... in her sleep she lets one rip ... out blows a long loud monotone foghorn fart ... which of course is very funny ... but what wasn't funny was the cloud of mustard gas she produced ... my eyes were streaming ... this was foul ... time for a stroll down the carriage me thinks ... as if nothing had happened she wakes up merely seconds before the train stops in Bournemouth and gets off not knowing the airborne chaos she was responsible for ... After arriving at Waterloo Station in London I took two tube trains to arrive at Bush Studios in Shepherds Bush bang on the agreed 2:30pm meeting time ... Already there was Ruarri and Guillaume ... we loaded the car and hit the road ... Traffic was horrendous getting out of London ... it always is but today was worse ... We fuel up at the first motorway services ... outside the front of the fuel station was a display of all today's newspapers ... and the ultimate trash tabloid the Daily Sport had a winner of a front page headline ... Flesh Eating Bug Ate My Meat & Veg ... utter genius ... I remember another classic headline they had ... World War 2 Bomber Found On The Moon ... utter nonsense of course ... After hitting the road again the traffic got even worse ... road works ... crashes ... cars broken down ... rubber-neckers ... it was taking us hours to get nowhere ... In a huge traffic jam a gigantic limousine with blacked out windows was next to us ... it had the registration JT1 ... who owned it? There was someone in the back ... Justin Timberlake? Jimmy Tarbuck? Who knows? ... The traffic continues to be a nightmare ... the high point of the journey was hearing an Elvis impersonator on the radio butcher the Zeppelin classic Stairway To Heaven ... we cried with laughter ... Approaching the Midlands and the M6 the BBC radio told us of a crash a few miles ahead ... for f*cks sake ... we were sick of it ... so we took a detour across country to hit the M40 ... eventually we got to the venue at 7:30pm right when the doors were opened ... it took us 5 hours to do a journey that should've taken 2 and a half ... I'd left my house 9 hours previous ... We load straight in and sound check with people in the venue ... Time for a cold beer and to hook up with Dean Of Wednesbury and watch the support act Natty ... one man ... one guitar ... great songs and personality ... Then time for Ruarri to hit the stage ... we'd had no time to relax or get dinner ... but the show must happen ... failure is not an option ... An all seater intimate show in a venue that's usually a comedy club ... but the crowd love it ... so all is good ... After the show we load the car back up and drive to our hotel then unload all the musical equipment in our hotel rooms ... another Premier Travel Inn ...these hotels are starting to become strangely familiar now ... SHATTERED BUT NOT BEATEN we crash out ... That was my day on September 20th 2007 DAY FIVE ... AYE LADDIE YOUR NOT MADE OF GLASS We start the day loading the gear from hotel to car ... then hit the road for more driving ... but more heavy traffic ... in this country we simply have too many vehicles on the roads ... what to do? ... charging lots of money can't be the answer ... that just makes driving elitist ... maybe the answer could be at certain times of the day on busier roads no single occupancy vehicles allowed ... not ideal but it would force car sharing ... I think I do have a good idea every now and then ... But back on the road today the heavens opened for torrential rain for most of our journey through Northern England ... marvellous ... visibility was down to just a few feet ... But today wasn't so bad taking 5 hours to get to Glasgow ... we load in then check into our hotel ... yet another Premier Travel Inn ... home sweet home ... After an hour we head back to the venue to sound check and eat in their restaurant ... my goat cheese and butternut squash strudel was mouth wateringly amazing ... Another very civilized seated gig tonight ... again Natty was superb ... I predict a good future for him ... Soon after Ruarri started I was stood up mixing the sound and to my complete bemusement an old woman sat behind me bleated at me to sit down ... I just looked at her ... I was stunned ... in well over a decade of touring I'd never been in this situation before ... she followed this up with ... "AYE LADDIE YOUR NOT MADE OF GLASS" ... still in shock I got out of her way ... I was mixing sound to five thousand people exactly a week previous in London at the Brixton Academy ... if anyone there had told me to move so they could see I would've told them to piss off ... but this was a completely different scenario ... and I have respect for people ... my friend Aimmi came to the show said my face was a picture when this all happened ... not often am I loss for words but I was then ... So another great show ends with a very satisfied crowd ... we load and return to our hotel ... and again the ritual of getting the gear from the car to the hotel rooms commences yet again... unfortunately we couldn't get the car too close and have to carry everything up the street ... this constant loading chore is starting to piss us off but we have no choice ... After another long hectic day full of travelling we had time to hit the hotel bar for a couple of much deserved pints ... and unwind a bit ... A group of people arrived in the bar at about midnight and one of them a woman came over to our table ... she was already drunk and began rambling onto us ... she was telling us all sorts of things I'd not tell complete strangers ...but she was drunk ... she told us how her thirteen year old son walks in on her when she takes a shower and grabs her boobs ... I found this unnerving ... then she described how each of her parents had dropped down dead in front of her ... we weren't sure how to take this ... however her Grandparents were still alive ... she told us how her 88 year old Granny tried to get a ring off one of her fingers ... she couldn't budge it so her 90 year old Grandfather used a hack saw to cut the ring off ... he made so much of a mess he actually cut her whole finger off ... quite drastic but they did get the ring off which was what they set out to do ... but severing a limb probably wasn't the desired result ... But most amusing was this woman not believing that Guillaume was French ... trust me he couldn't be anymore French ... but he's lived in England for years and speaks English great but with an obvious French accent ... she thought he was putting it on ... he couldn't convince her other wise ... she then proceeded to tell us about a nightmare holiday she'd had ... and directing the conversation to Guillaume ... practically blaming him for the disastrous time she'd had saying he'd know all about the place ... we expected her to say ... maybe Nice or Toulouse or Paris even ... but no ... she'd been to Benidorm ... which is hundreds of miles from France down on the Spanish coast ... in fact Benidorm is one of those hellish Chav holiday destinations ... I nearly choked on my pint with laughter at such a wonderfully uneducated thing to say ... but soon after she returned to her poor husband ...Tired with travelling and laughing I retire to my room ... That was my day on September 21st 2007 DAY SIX ... IN A WORD ... SHIT Today was all about returning back to London ... it would be the third time I'd done the full 430 miles London Glasgow trip in a week ... for the first two times I had a tour bus bunk and night time travelling to do it ... but today ... sitting in a car ... it seemed like a marathon ... We start the day with loading the equipment back into the car ... oh joy ... Then hit the road for our mammoth drive back down South ... Not long down the road we approach and overtake a Bentley ... I only got a short look at who was driving but I'm sure it was Paul McCartney ... what makes me doubt maybe that it was him is the fake orange tan that I don't think he has ... but he did have the elderly baggy face jowls ... much similar to Churchill's bulldog ... We tend to miss hotel breakfasts in order to sleep for the maximum amount of time ... so once on the road we were starving and needed to break our fast ... We stopped at a service station I'd never been to before ... about 50 miles South of Glasgow and called the Lodge ... myself and Ruarri had gone for baked potatoes with OK fillings ... far too expensive but we were hungry ... But ... Guillaume wasn't so satisfied ... as he's French he enjoys laughing at English food and telling us how much better French food is ... well fate certainly came along and f*cked him over good and proper ... He ordered baked potato with tuna and a cup of coffee ... sounds straight forward and difficult to f*ck up ... but the look of utter disgust on his face when his food appeared will stay with me forever ... on the plate was a dry baked potato which would look more at home with the pebbles on Brighton Beach ... then just dumped on top what looked more like cheap cat food than tuna ... then the dish water coffee with white lumps in it finished off his feast perfectly ... not happy and obviously very French he requested mayonnaise form the kitchen ... this took ten minutes to appear ... myself and Ruarri were convinced all the kitchen staff spat in it or sneezed or much much worse before it arrived ... And this cost him £7.49 ... IN A WORD ... SHIT ... Needless to say we won't be back ... we just kept driving after that ... I was stoked today that my beloved football team won 4 - 0 ... they aren't very good so this made me very happy ... we return to Bush Studios to drop the gear off ... we knew we'd pick it up the next day but happy to be rid of it for the night ... soon after 8pm I checked into yet another hotel ... to make a change I was now in a Holiday Inn but back in Earls Court ... it's strange staying in all these hotels as each room is near enough the same but a different layout ... imagine each morning when you wake up someone has moved all the furniture in your bedroom ... so disconcerting and very odd indeed ... Once checked in I popped out to get a takeaway curry and damned good it was too ... I recommend the Guru Express if you desire good Indian food in the Earls Court area ... Then back at my room chilling I had the treat of watching Match Of The Day on the television ... That was my day on September 22nd 2007 DAY SEVEN ... THIS ISN'T BLOODY WOODSTOCK I wake up in my new hotel room blinded by a blade of light coming from a gap where the curtains don't meet ... it felt like I was being made conscious by someone shining a torch in my eyes ... maybe a particularly scary border crossing guard demanding to see my passport ... The design of these curtains is shit ... I shall have to address this problem ... I shall staple them closed to rectify this eyesight slaying wake up call ... Today we again meet at Bush Studios ... thankfully now we are out of using Ruarri's Ford Focus estate and now we upgrade to a van as we have the addition of bass player Pete Cherry ... Our van company was overbooked ... but as we are regular customers with an account with them they sub-hired another van from another company ... this wasn't our normal style of touring vehicle ... there were no TV's or high roof ... but as we were commuting to and from London it suited us ... it's more of a large people carrier ... but it did have a secret weapon ... on the gear stick the final one had an 'H' next to it ... we discovered this stood for hyper-speed ... we thought it was odd the speedo went up 750mph ... once this speed was achieved the world outside simply became coloured streaks ... the g-forces on our faces were stretching the skin so much ... it was hard to keep your head upright ... Pete Cherry blacked out at this point ... I had to revive him with smelling salts ... unfortunately he was away gigging with another band when we had g-force training at high altitude in the F15 fighters ... it's full on stuff ... they fly to 36,000 feet and just plummet towards the Earth at breakneck speed until levelling out at 5,000 feet ... there is no feeling like it ... the first few times we it was so easy to be sick in your pilots helmet ... But since the training myself and Ruarri and Guillaume can easily travel at speeds in excess of 700 miles per hour ... manager Matt was at the controls of the hyper-speed van ... he's also capable of dealing with the extreme speed since being a test pilot for Lockheed ... his job was to push those planes to their limits ... Anyway back to today ... we got to Brighton in quick time ... so had the chance to explore ... I do love this town but it does have more than it's fair share of arty pretentious idiots ... but they are harmless enough ... there are many street performers in the pedestrian areas ... I just don't get what most are trying to do ... these guys were dressed in jester suits ... dancing round bashing bits of wood together ... what to f*ck is it all about? ... they had a crowd around clapping and enjoying the performance ... bollocks I say ... utter ... utter ... bollocks ... Tonight's show was the best of this short tour so far ... a good crowd came out ... but the first few rows all sat on the floor like hippies ... I now Ruarri is acoustic but THIS ISN'T BLOODY WOODSTOCK !! ... but still the crowd make all the right noises so the show is a result ... With the taste of success still fresh we hit the road back North up to London ... most of the guys exit the van at Waterloo then onto buses or cabs to get to their London homes ... Pete Cherry chose to travel home in a hot air balloon ... he has a Cadbury sponsorship which means his hot air balloon is a giant Cream Egg ... the panoramic views of London are something to behold ... Matt drove me back to my Earls Court hotel ... but a couple of miles before we got there all of a sudden there were maybe twenty Police cars close to West Kensington tube station ... then as we turned the corner we saw why ... it looked as if one Police car had driven straight into a shop window ... the Fire Brigade and Ambulance were just arriving ... I wondered what had happened? I reckon there had been a high speed chase ... the felons vehicle made the corner and Police car didn't ... crazy stuff ... After solving the crime scene I ascended to the fifth floor to my hotel room... That was my day on September 23rd 2007 DAY EIGHT ... A HUGE RUARRI PORTRAIT TATTOOED ON HIS CHEST Today I have another tour starting which I'll be moving onto in two days but first I must finish this Ruarri tour ... I have Rich 'Staffy Staff Staff' Stafford looking after things for me on the other tour ... so I know things are in safe hands ... but even still it's my tour and I need to make sure things are running smoothly ... and with the first show on a tour there are always problems to iron out ... They've just done a string of shows on mainland Europe already and had some technical problems but a certain somebody hasn't been communicating with the likes of me so today is non stop phone calls sorting things out like ... such as ... confetti cannons ... drums rugs ... guitar amplifiers ... backdrop banners ... I travel West from Earls Court to Richmond then onto Twickenham where we all meet ... the phone calls continue ... its starting to drive me mad that I'm sorting out what should've been done before the tour by someone else ... I just have people pointing fingers at each other without decent communication going on ... but my motto is ... 'failure is not an option' ... so things 'will' be sorted ... Back to the Raurri tour ... we drive to Southampton ... in the van is Ruarri and Pete and Guillaume and Matt and myself ... and photographer Luke ... again at hyper speed we are there in seconds ... the venue is literally right next to a ferry port ... and not far away on other quays some of the biggest container transporting ships in the world ... they are huge ... similar to the size of Ayres Rock could float ... As the band sound check ferries sail passed ... it was very disconcerting as my brain told me that these ships were stationary and we were floating away ... each time this happened I ran to the window to reassure myself we were still connected to the mainland ... Wherever you walked in the venue your feet stick to the ground ... whether on the stage or the dance floor or even at the bar your shoes nearly got pulled off ... I enquired why and apparently it's a non slip finish ... well I think they over did it ... we chose to believe it was probably more the case that too much Bacardi Breezer has been spilt and the tackiness was from it's sugary gloop ... Not too many in tonight ... but Monday in Southampton in a venue not in the town centre makes it harder for us ... but in the crowd tonight were two of Ruarri's superfans ... One of them is slightly scary ... he has A HUGE RUARRI PORTRAIT TATTOOED ON HIS CHEST ... we imagine he has a Ruarri room with floor to ceiling photos ...he does a Ruarri Joseph tribute act called Nearly Joseph ... based on the small island of Jersey ... The other superfan is from Jersey's neighbouring island of Guernsey ... he's made his own Ruarri t-shirt ... the print in a collage of hundreds of pictures of Ruarri face ... he also does a tribute called Ruarri Josish ... there's huge rivalry between these two guys to which is truly the number one fan ... right now it's just evil stares and the odd sour word ... but I'm sure this will escalate and maybe end with a fight to the death ... if this does happen I hope it gets on You Tube ... Post show back to London ... I speak to Rich 'Staffy Staff Staff' Stafford regarding my other show which wasn't far down the coast in Portsmouth ... it goes well ... which is a relief ... it's difficult being in two places at once ... but real good news everything is going to plan and that they are happy ... That was my day on September 24th 2007 DAY NINE ... THE HITMAN I awake again in my Express Holiday Inn home ... after the third of four nights here ... today is the last of this run of Ruarri shows ... his first headline run which all turned out much better than we expected ... mind you to be honest I don't know what we expected ... things are starting to snowball for him and it's so good to see it ... he deserves it because he is good enough ... but as well all know being good isn't always a guarantee of success as there is so much shit out there ... Today I get a tube from West Kensington down the District line to East Aldgate near Liverpool Street Station ... the venue is on Commercial Street which is out the tube station and turn left ... In my infinite wisdom I walked out of the venue and turned right and down Commercial Road ... I learnt today there was both a road and a street to be proceeded by Commercial ... and trust me there is no venue at 109 Commercial Road ... however not far from the wrong address there is a cafÈ where you can get a free croissant with a cup of coffee ... realising my mistake I did a 180 degree turn and back the way I came and up the correct road ... I do love playing different venues in London and having the challenge of finding them ... Today we were playing the Spitz which is part of old Spitalfields Market ... this traditional part of London is under huge redevelopment ... which includes our venue which closes down in a few days forever ... so I'm glad we got to play here before it's sad demise ... After we loaded in the venue me and Pete walked over to Liverpool Street Station to visit Starbucks ... on the way back a scary coincidence occurred ... Yesterday we were joking about the line-up of what would be an odd celebrity tribute band ... I thought it would be funny to have toothy British television celebrity Esther Rantzen on drums ... I don't think I've ever mentioned her in a conversation before ... and then ... today walking back from getting coffee with Pete we walked down an alleyway next to a wine bar ... and sat outside being filmed for a future programme was Esther bloody Rantzen ... living and breathing just a few inches in front of us ... If coincidence didn't follow me around so much then this would've blown my mind ... Before sound check we had the fantastic news that the show was sold out ... I love it when a plan comes together !! ... and for today's show we had the full band line-up with Chris 'THE HITMAN' Haddon up from Cornwall to play lead guitar ... A great day was improved by seeing one of my favourite people on the planet ... Miss Jane P ... a hundred years ago when I lived in Devon she was one of my best friends ... and today we talked 'shit' and drank Guinness ... bloody marvellous ... then up to the venue for Ruarri's show ... my god the place was rammed with a fantastic crowd who loved a fantastic show ... getting behind the mixing desk was only just easily manageable as it was so close to the wall ... my mozzarella and pesto ciabatta was taking toll ... but I managed OK ... at the end of the night I got back to Earls Court ready for my next tour the next day ... my non stop back to back work continues ... I love it ... That was my day on September 25th 2007