Armed with my new mobile phone, or cell as they say here, I set about this morning scouring the local area for possible tennis opportunities. The concierge at the hotel wasn't exactly over helpful so I got on the web, google maps, street views..you know the story. I found a lovely looking club, the Riviera country club but a polite request for a court for an hour was quite categorically declined. "no" was the one word response. I moved on and google maps revealed the nearby Reed park which showed tennis courts. The Santa Monica Tennis club uses the courts there so I secured a place for me and Dan to play in the midday sun. I'm sure you know that only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in it. We had a great game and I managed to beat him 7-5. He made me work this time. The new racket is a gem, I'm pleased to report.



We thought we'd walk the 16 blocks back to the hotel to complete our workout. A quick shower, a blitz through the emails and forum posts and we were off to the Pantages once more.



A note on the forum..whilst I realize some fans are obsessed with the set-list, I've tried to make it clear that I don't want to discuss it here as Mark likes to keep it a surprise. I've been extremely patient up until now but any posts venturing into this area will receive more unsympathetic replies from now on. Also, we are planning a slight refinement of the recording/photo policy which will be posted on this site as soon as we've discussed it.

An areal wide-angle of my keyboard rig. Hammond B3 and leslie - Nord Lead 2 - Yamaha S90XS - Korg Trinity - Yamaha 01V mixer - Akai S6000 x2 - Akai MPC2000 - Real world Midi system



The show this evening was unanimously the best of the tour so far. The Saturday night LA audience was truly fantastic and it was only natural for all in the band to applaud them as we gave our final end of show bows.

We had a few guests after-show so some of us stayed at the venue for an hour or so before leaving for the hotel. It's always amazing to me that here in LA, there always seems to be a traffic jam around the corner...doesn't matter what time of day it is as we sat in a queue on Sunset trying to head west to Highlander before getting on La Brea and the 10 freeway to Santa Monica. I was navigating by the way as Laurie chauffeured myself, her friend Holly, Danny and Paul C.





Back at the hotel, you could hear the bar was still rocking and sure enough, Richard, Mike, Tim and Glenn were toasting the evening's work. At 1:00am precisely the bar manager came to our table and cited the California state 'drinking-up' law. We had not only to drink up but to remove all glasses from the bar with immediate effect. Most uncivilized I thought but this is an 'early' city. We rounded off the evening in Dan's room and within 5 minutes there was an aggressive knock on the door. Hotel security wanted us to all go to bed. They take their sleep seriously in this town. I love L.A.