Zurich, Switzerland

Yesterday was a much needed day off having done a run of 6 shows. It's not all that difficult for the band, but that many in a row begins to wear on the crew as they do all the hard work. I spent the whole day off in bed completely wiped out from this stomach bug, never left the room. Woke this morning feeling worse than ever. I'm certain it's due in equal part to the fact that today is the sixth day of eating next to nothing and probably dehydration as well. I rang down room service and had them bring a couple of jars of apricot yoghurt which tasted delicious but did nothing to calm my stomach. Spent the first half of today in bed as well.

Got to the gig to find out that both Matt and Mark are exhibiting symptoms of the same. Mercifully, our two road managers Tim Hook and Peter McKay had the good sense to have a doctor there at the venue waiting for us. The doc said it was a bug that's been going round and lasts 7-10 days. The good news is, tomorrow's my 7th day. I don't know how many more I can take, I'm totally knackered. Chris Desmond, one of our master caterers came to the rescue very quickly with some fresh chicken soup that he whipped up in no time and it tasted like it had been cooking all day. It was the most I'd eaten in six days. A couple of Imodium tabs and it's show time.

The Hallenstadion was near filled with a brilliant audience. I'm sure you're all getting sick of reading the same thing every night about the audiences being so great...but THEY ARE. Both Matt and I were feeling pretty wobbly but it ended up being a wonderful show all round. Thank you Zurich, chicken soup and Gatorade.

It was a quick runner back to the hotel and we all had chicken sandwiches to take with us. It's the first solid thing I've eaten for a while and let me tell you, it was the best thing I'd ever tasted. Here's to tomorrow.

So long,

Richard