Rotterdam, Netherlands

Up, bags packed and ready for a train ride to Rotterdam. The traffic is legendary, the kind of stuff you read about, so it was decided rather than cars the train would make a nice excursion and shave a couple of hours off the journey. Platform 1, Amsterdam rail station....all on board the commuter to Rotterdam where we were met and driven to the ever popular Ahoy venue. I've played here every tour I've done with MK and ions ago..the 70's..with Neil Diamond. After so many years you get to know the back stages of these places before you get there...where the dressing rooms are, what they look like are and how to find the stage. Absolutely ravenous when we arrived at Ahoy and our incredible travelling caterers, Eat Your Hearts Out, had an afternoon spread of four salads, loaves of fresh bread, roast squash soup and the most exquisite roasted chicken legs with honey and soy glaze cooked so well the meat simply fell off the bone. All piled in, plates piled high. A quick soundcheck then time for our first meet and greet of the tour. The m&g band, The Kamana'wana'lei'a Boys, is currently under reconstruction, improvement and probable name change. Matt's joined us on piano and accordion, John McCusker with his fab folk fiddle and Mark is singing and playing several with us as well...a loose little warm up before the show. Oh yeah, the gig. It's only the third show of the tour and it sounded so good in our in-ear monitors, almost too good. Hard to describe but the detail and sound of every instrument is like recording a record in the studio. The end result is that everybody's so tuned in to each other, very relaxed and playing better than ever. I don't think the band's ever sounded this good and we're enjoying our heads off. The 9000+ crowd at Ahoy seemed to agree.

A runner after the show to our plane, a magically painless flight to Barcelona and a day off tomorrow. I'll get down to the gym and if the weather's good, spend the day at the beach soakin' up some sol and wouldn't be surprised if a tapas bar is in my future. I'll pick this journal up again on the 2nd.

So long,

Richard