Amsterdam, Holland

Another lame gym at the hotel, the best thing about it was the one treadmill and so it was an aerobic morning while watching the funeral of Prince Rainier of Monaco. On the plus side of the ledger the hotel gets points for free internet and good rooms.

I went down to the venue early this afternoon with Guy, Danny and Glenn to get some practicing in. Played a bit of guitar as well as continuing to work up a couple of new Hawaiian steel guitar things for the meet and greet beat group, one of the tunes having the unwieldy title of When Hilo Hattie Does The Hilo Hop. By the end of the tour we'll have a pretty good repertoire of obscure songs. Sadly one of Guy's and my Hawaiian guitar heroes Jerry Byrd died a few days ago in Honolulu and we've been thinking of him. For my money Jerry was the last of the old breed and there won't be any more like him. If you ever come across any of his 78's, albums or CDs don't fail to get them, you won't be disappointed.

Tonight's gig at the Music Hall was a sellout, 5500 standing floor fans. We love the stand-up shows, they're very exciting. The venue sounded good, the band in top form and the audience enjoying it. We all probably have a slightly different idea of what 'top form' is. Mine is confident, relaxed, swinging and being fully in control of the dynamics. It was that way at every turn tonight with the grand award of cool going to Guy Fletcher's restored and rennovated Hammond B-3 organ that arrived yesterday from the States and debuted on stage this evening. It is the most beautiful thing you've seen and sounds like the Rock Of Gibraltar. As Guy's on a riser just behind me, I get the full thrust of this mother of all keyboards. The wood has been perfectly refinished and every bit of brass polished while the electronics were entirely re-wired and restored to spec. Congrats on your organ Guy. I'm sure he'll have something to say about it and photos as well so check out his tour diary at guyfletcher.co.uk.

So long,

Richard