Zaragosa, Spain

I woke up at 2:00 this afternoon, an hour before lobby call, due in part to an efficient black out shade in the hotel room and the gin and tonic party the night before in Guy's room, fell into a shower and headed straight downstairs for a ride to the airport and a short flight to Zaragosa.

We arrived at the gig and spent a lazy late afternoon waiting for the crew to sort a few things. We travel with our own wireless internet access rig, so at the venue we simply open up the laptops and are immediately on line. This afternoon the dressing room resembled an internet cafe, everybody had their computers out and pecking away. The gig had some serious electrical problems that the crew had been fighting all day and when we finally got round to soundcheck the power blew several times. Something about the house power breakers being set too sensitively. We finally got through a soundcheck and had a dinner of seared monk fish on mashed potatoes with a tomato and garlic redux and fresh fennel courtesy of Darren Wey and company. As glorious as that was, the high point of the meal was dessert, chocolate bread and butter pudding with hot custard. I'll be spending a little more time in the gym tomorrow.

A meet and greet tonight. I haven't mentioned these for a while but they occur every night and Guy has now joined us playing uke, a welcome addition. We've added some new tunes to our set, one being an old chestnut called Don't Sing Aloha When I Go. I've been trying to re-learn a song I used to play years ago dating back to the 1930's called Naughty Hula Eyes, I might be able to trot that one out in a couple of days. The meet and greets are swinging little affairs now with the Maui Boys getting a bit of applause and the occasional Kodak moment. I'm pretty sure we could pull some spare change as well but feel strongly that the managerial staff would want a cut!

A completely packed out arena with the floor standing, tonight's gig was steaming right along until we got to Rudiger and there was a loud noise, sharp and dull at the same time that heralded nothing short of an electrical melt down. The power was re-booted and we kicked off Rudiger again. Another power failure. In the meantime, Mark and I sat centre stage happily sipping cups of tea. Finally the juice was back on and for a third time we began Rudiger getting as far as the first few notes before the power blew. We left the stage for about 20 minutes while they sorted it and came back to finish the show. We dropped Boom Like That from the set due to the delay, but the momentum had been broken so it was kind of a relaxed second half. The audience was nothing short of what one expects in Spain, lovely, loud, enthusiastic and happy to wait out any inconvenience. Bless 'em.

After the last song our fleet of Mercedes sped us to the Zaragosa airport and we boarded the Legacy where Susi had the healing gin and tonics ready as well as some delicious sandwiches and kebabs. Then back to our hotel in Barcelona and another night in Guy's room with Mark, Danny and I listening to the most fantastic Indian music courtesy of G. Fletcher and accompanied by just one more g&t and a freshly brewed cuppa Glengettie tea.

I'll set the alarm early tomorrow to get that extra gym time, breakfast and shower, then we'll board the Legacy for Bordeaux, France. I expect there'll be a bottle or two of some liquid velvety Bordeaux waiting in the dressing room to be brought back to the hotel in Barcelona and enjoyed after the show.

So long,

Richard