Under way at last.

The week off after production rehearsals took some getting used to. Richard and Glenn both flew home to Nashville before joining us in Amsterdam for the final run through on Friday. The one thing we didn't bank on was their return flights coinciding with the FAA's decision to ground flights to inspect seemingly random aircraft for safety reasons. They didn't make it here in time for the run through. 24 hours later however all was well and they arrived bleary eyed at 8:00am on show day. The extended sound check incorporated the run-through. Mark, myself, John and Richard took delivery of our new in-ears and as you'd expect, technology marches relentlessly on and the improvements in in-ear sonics was instantly felt. The other thing is they fit 'real' tight and all of us are still getting used to the difference.


After sound check it was back to the dressing room and as Richard pointed out, it feels like yesterday that we were here on the last tour. We were all straight on our laptops before dinner. A brief transferral of stage clothes into the dressing room wardrobe cases and we're ready to go.

The show itself was just fantastic. We were so relaxed and had a largely trouble free two hours plus which is pretty unusual for the first gig. A couple of small PA issues which will be resolved tonight so if you were down the front last night, sorry about that. The in-ears were fantastic, Kerry did a great job on monitors and Mr. Saggers was awesome with Mark's guitars as always. 



I'll avoid commenting on the set-list so as not to ruin the surprise for those of you who will be coming to the show but I will say that it seemed to work beautifully. After the final encore, we didn't do our customary 'runner' and it was really nice to sit down as a band and chat about the night which we duly did for about two and a half hours. Then it was a leisurely amble back to the hotel and a quick one in the bar.

 

    

The customary after-show DJ Fletch music and tea was then on offer in my room (the view from which, below) and then it was 'job done' and off to bed.





show pics courtesy of Dennis Brouwer, Martina, Jop Peters and Holger Victor.


Late entry..The buttwash control panel..Richard mentioned in his diary the amazing Japanese 'wishy washy' toilet as I call it. With mild trepidation we all gave it a try. The warm toilet seat gives the impression of someone else having been there very recently. Weird, but I have to report I'm a fan. The oscillation modes were the most efficient but I drew the line at front cleansing.