The two weeks in the UK seemed to gallop by. Friendly audiences, lovely venues and we were made to feel very welcome everywhere we went, with hot meals and wi-fi a plenty. We only had one near miss on the motorway and I scrumped my own bag of Fisherman’s Friends, as I found them too delicious to share. Brian Grace is garnering his own fan base who appreciate his beautiful guitar playing and Gentry Morris sold many cds and collected many email addresses. Thank you to JJ, my tour manager who kept it all together.
People in Maidstone, if you are offered a green and pink fatface bag containing straighteners, ankle boots, a pretty dress, lots of make-up and an i-pod for a knock down price, try to resist because those will be my stolen goods, which some arse ran off with from the Zebra. I hope he ran straight into the path of an oncoming large vehicle but the world is not always that just. Thanks to the staff there and to the lovely sound engineer Dan who were entirely sympathetic and passed on cctv images to the Maidstone police. Police were extremely helpful and refrained from commenting on my extreme stupidity on leaving my bag unattended in the first place. They also did not say “well, we’ll do our best, but it’s highly unlikely you will ever see your beclazone inhaler again”. I appreciated their restraint and efficiency.
Other interesting parts of the tour in a non-musical capacity was meeting Stuart Mangan. I had heard of Stuart before meeting him in London through Mick Donegan, who has been trialling a MyTobii eye gaze system with Stuart. I spent a couple of hours with him, Gags Towey and a gentleman from the Rugby Union. They talked sport and I drank tea and ate some very good chocolate biscuits. Stuart is a seriously impressive and very charming man and you can find out more about him by visiting www.stuartmangan.org
London is always a beautiful city for me and I spent an hour in the sunshine outside the British Museum with Andy B before touring the city’s Boots Chemists. Andy kindly visited six with me before I tracked down what I wanted. A true friend. And a bafta nominee. Which meant he was able to take us to the Bafta Club just down the road from the Pigalle and buy us a very civilized drink after the gig. The chairs are comfortable, there is no loud music and everyone there managed to combine an aura of extreme ordinariness with a hidden depths, still waters kind of a vibe. Loved it.
We are going back to Scotland to do a Highland Fling tour at some stage over the summer and we’re hoping that the lovely Yvonne Lyons will be able to join us. Beautiful voice and songs and you can listen to her music at www.yvonnelyonmusic.com
So please make sure you join the mailing list to be kept up to date. There will be more dates in the UK throughout the year.
meanwhile, the summer term begins next week, so it’s back to the books.
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