Manchester, England

Saw my wife off this morning at the Marylebone train station, conveniently located across the street from our hotel, where she caught the train north to visit her brother and his family and spend the week with them. I will join her there for a couple of days before beginning the American leg of this tour.

Mark, Emmy and band departed London from Northolt airfield, had a savoury lunch of shepherd's pie and landed in Manchester for tonight's gig. We went straight to the MEN Arena, sound checked and played our gig. No meet and greet for the last couple of nights. Our illustrious leader's manager, Paul, told me, "It's the English. They don't like Hawaiian music." Well, I'll hold out for tomorrow night, maybe the Irish do.

Great venue, I remember playing it last year. It's large and echoey, but in a good way and we had a very relaxed, fun gig tonight. A runner after the show to our hotel in Manchester where the band made a post performance appearance in Guy's room for sandwiches, g&t's, Johnny Hodges, Billie Holliday, Joseph Spence, Supergrass, Chet Baker, Hank Penny, Razorlight, and of course the Louvin's to name a few i-Tune faves.

It's an early getaway in the morning. Arriving in Dublin before 1:00 to watch the world cup match in the afternoon, do a gig in the evening then fly into Paris to spend the night and enjoy the following day off. Nothing like springtime in Paris and a day off to sit on some sidewalk cafe and watch the rest of the world drift by.

So long,

Richard