"we arrived into NYC on the train from Philly...the night before the show at Joe's Pub...we caught a few trains during the promo tour and I loved it...apart from anything else,American train stations are often beautiful and kind of dreamy places...cavernous echoing chambers where whispers from another age mingle with the harsh sounds of now..I would love to do a train tour of the US...realising that certain routings would involve several changes and might be next to impossible to do...but....my ultimate dream would be to turn the back carriage into a mobile stage,referencing the days when politicians shouted their lies to the assembled multitudes at a myriad small town stations across the great far and wide of it all...I stayed at a hotel that had a great pool so was able to swim and chill and basically get into a good groove before soundcheck...Brett(Adams,my

guitarist/vocalist/buddy) and I went for a walk around St Marks and got nicely lost before they were ready...lending a certain frisson to the afternoon...sometimes you can just be too organised,and on time etc...Joes Pub is a great room in a great building...a real piano waiting to be tuned by a somewhat crazed tuner according to sound guy Fred...who proved a stellar mixer and was given props and joshed during the show...we had a lazy soundcheck,running Astounding Moon with acoustic guitar instead of the usual electric...trying Resting with key change up that I meant to do on the record,and reckon is better that way...the Lonely One etc...the staff were splendid and we felt loved and protected back-stage...great pasta delivered which I stashed for after the show...big buzz before showtime...saw a dear friend Jim Servin backstage for a brief hug and hello...we see each other every few years and it's always great....started with CBD which was tight and almost perfect...I got spooked because we did the first few songs so well and the crowd were so excited I almost lost it...sometimes you start so well that there's nowhere to go...but we did fine...rising and falling with the energy...invited someone up to jam on Dirty Creature...turned out later he had bumped into my friend Jim in the Mensroom...he did great,just grooving quietly...Persuasion was so great that I told the crowd that was it...we had peaked...and everything else was the encore....long encore....more than a few songs later I asked the crowd if they wanted a sad song(thinking Not Even Close) or a happy one...they called for "happy" but I announced the Peace song Parihaka...an American fan in San Diego had said to me emphatically a week or two earlier that I should sing it every night while in America...there was something grave and important in the way she said this...and I more or less did what I was told....there was a strict curfew on the night,and after one encore the crowd was chanting and screaming but we were advised to call it a night....I have a lovely image of Manhattan chief Ian Ralfini wandering into the backstage area with a bemused and thoughtful expression...he could see that the gig was over,but told me later he had wanted to ask us to play CBD again....that would have been hot....but it was a deeply satisfying night...one of many on the tour....and more of that later...goodnight from a blustery winter's night in the south seas....xxxxxTF.

see part one of the nyc performance in the video section