Manchester, England

I've been battling my e-mail account for the last few days, it's not allowing my mail to come through, and spent a frustrating three hours this morning trying to figure out the problem and retrieving 60! accumulated messages from web mail. No luck finding a solution. It was time to get ready to leave for our flight to Manchester and that was the morning.

Sandwiches and chicken Caesar salad for lunch while we flew over the rolling green hills of England on a wonderfully clear day heading north to Manchester. When we arrived at the MEN (Manchester Evening News) Arena, Matt quickly sorted out my e-mail problem in about 30 seconds. So there you have it, I've always had a chilly relationship with technology and I swear these computers know and have it out for me. I still prefer a dial to any touch pad, listen to records that revolve at 78 rpm and have only recently learned to use a micro-wave oven.

We did a special meet and greet tonight for our stewardess Susi's parents Margaret and Derek, and some old friends of Danny's including the Seventrees family, all wonderful folks. With 10 minutes left until show time, it was a dash to get dressed and take the stage. An audience of 9,500+ tonight and what a crowd, very soulful. We've been playing All That Matters again the last few nights as we've been in theatres and decided to try it out in an arena for a seated audience. You could hear a pin drop followed by much applause. I always look forward to that song as I get to play my National Hawaiian steel guitar as I did on the record. Looks like we'll be adding it to the up-coming Albert Hall shows as well. The fellow who taught me to play guitar was also a great Hawaiian steel player and I have a deep love and regard for that music and style of playing. He'd be proud to know that I was playing Hawaiian guitar in the Albert Hall.

A sushi/sake flight back to London for three days off before we begin the five day run in the RAH. The Brit boys of course are all going home to be with their families and the Yanks are exporting their loved from America to Britain. So I close these notes for a few days and will pick back up again next week from the Albert.

So long,

Richard