Barcelona, Spain

Regarding yesterday's note about the gear, I received a comment from a person saying what she gave a rat's ass about was the food, tunes and hotel rooms. Yeah, I'm with you on that. I'll keep the tech talk to a minimum though at some point I will write about the acoustic instruments that make up about half of what I'm playing on stage.

On the virus front, it seems like the ugly bug's come back around for a second swipe at the crew with the truck and bus drives taking another hit and my main man Tim Myer down for the fourth day running. According to a doctor who saw a few people, it's an air borne virus and goes without saying is very contagious. I'm still not feeling 100% and haven't taken the plunge back to eating for America, still needing plenty of sleep, consequently not seeing much of Barcelona this trip even though we've based from the city for a week now. Tomorrow however is a day off and I plan to get down to the Ramblas and ramble. I'll write a little about that later providing I make good on my intentions.

A new addition to the meet and greet beat-group is Danny Cummings playing brushes tonight on the back of a wooden tea tray and shuffling like a black jack dealer in Vegas. Between Danny, Guy on his uke, Glenn on string bass, Roy Rogers on Trigger and the National Hawaiian steel guitar, all hellzapoppin' and I think I'm going to have to begin using finger picks again to keep the intensity up on my part. There seems to be a movement afloat to re-name the group which is fine with me, Maui Boys sounds a little touristy. One suggestion was The Hawaiian Noises. Hmmmm, I dunno, kinda sounds like Don Ho's back up group, though I still think "What's That? Hawaiian Noises?" would be a good title for the record that we'll never get round to making. I suggested The Kalua Serenaders or Sunset Serenaders. I don't care, but we really should do something because at the moment we're still Hit It Assholes to a certain managerial type whose initials match 'politically correct'.

Tonight's show at the Palau Sant Jordi was our 7th in a row and a 13,000 standing floor sell out. I don't know what to say, I'm running out of adjectives and getting a little bored saying it was another great rocking gig. Maybe I'll just write about it if we do a crap gig. No. The fan's were explosive and the moment of cool was Done With Bonaparte, a mighty skiffling rendition. It was a swell gig to wrap up the Spanish-French run, although we are playing Paris in a couple of weeks.

It's a day off tomorrow followed by a series of 4 shows in Basel Switzerland, Stuttgart and Munich Germany and Vienna Austria. Stand by.

So long,

Richard