Frankfurt, Germany

A great gym around the corner from the hotel, the best work out in over a week.

The Festahalle, site of tonight's show, is just across the street from the hotel and by 2 o'clock everybody'd made their own way over to hang at the gig until showtime as the hotel's kind of a drag. What's to do 3 hours at the venue while the crew is getting ready for us? For starters, lunch in catering. It's an unspoken rule of the road, every entry into a venue begins there. Since we're carrying our own wireless high speed internet access at the gigs, out come the laptops. With no access service at the hotel there was loads of catching up to do. Finally, I can always get some practicing in, can't really do enough of it. The afternoon passed quickly and soundcheck was on us before you knew it.

An ace show tonight with a man in every corner, all seriously on their game. What could have been a nightmare sonically due to the staggering acoustics of the venue, ended up sounding very good thanks to Robert Collins' house mix and Kerry Lewis' band mix. The place was packed to the rafters with fans that came to hear some music and weren't shy in their appreciation of it.

After the gig rather than going back to the hotel we hung out in the dressing room, that's how desperate the digs are. There was loads of laughs, a few drinks with Paul Crockford shouldering DJ duty and blasting away The Who.

So long,

Richard