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A long time ago in a galaxy far away, 7 musicians, 2 backline technicians, 2 sound engineers, 1 tour manager and a lovely lady from Puma sat in an airport, waiting for a flight to China, that was to begin a pretty incredible tour.
A 10 hour journey later we had touched down in Beijing - the host of the 2008 Olympics. The Games were due to start a week later so everywhere you looked Olympic fever was in full effect! We took a ride past the Bird's Nest Stadium (designed by Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron don't you know!) which was an amazing sight.
After a night of food, drink and entertainment (Mick treated us with a delightful rendition of 'Live and Let Die' by Paul McCartney in the hotel bar), the next day we were off to see The Forbidden City - home to the emperor of China for 5 Centuries. The buildings within the City walls were overwhelming. Donny, Dave and I, wilting in the heat, wandered around the beautiful gold and red constructions for hours and took many a picture. Needless to say, walking in the relentless hot required some alcoholic refreshments soon after..."Anyone for a mojito?"
An event we were all really looking forward to and I'm sure you've heard about was the meeting with Jamaican runner Usain Bolt at the Puma Olympic party. The 3 time gold medalist entered our dressing room before we took the stage - a definite photo opportunity! He towered over us all at 6ft 5"... Even Big Dave our guitarist! We had great fun playing our set that night and was topped off by Usain 'Lightning' Bolt himself joining us on stage for sing along of 'One Love' by Bob Marley. If you havn't yet seen Usain smash the 100m record, check it out, it's insane.
The Great Wall of China was another sightseeing day trip we embarked upon. Being the ambitious buffoons we are, Dave and I decided to hike up a very steep portion of the wall at a temperature of about 35 degrees centigrade. The pictures serve as evidence that this was not the easiest of tasks!
Tokyo, Japan was the next stop. Culturally, it felt a world away from what we had experienced in China. The City is rammed full of tower blocks and in every possible space there is yet another skyscraper. We had a day in Tokyo's shopping district Shibuya and that evening Paolo, Seamus, Donny, Fraiser and I played a gig in the Puma Store. It was fun to play totally acoustic with the audience so close - I think there may be some footage online somewhere....
The whole gang ate at a Karaoke bar that night. The food there was amazing, but we all knew that the real excitement would begin when we entered our Karaoke booth. Paolo turned a lovely shade of red as 'Last Request' was the first song to be blasted out of the speakers. Tom, our monitor engineer decided to cast off the shackles of sound technician, grabbed the mike and stepped into the spotlight to help Paolo... "Everybody! Grant my last request and just let me hold you..." Dave and Donny choose a testosterone filled chorus of 'Living on a prayer' by Bon Jovi, where as I opted for the dulcet tones of my Welsh brother Tom Jones with 'Delilah'. A few drinks and a sing-a-long of Frank Sinatra's 'My Way' later and we were all tucked up in bed.
The 'Summersonic' festival was a highlight of our time in Japan. We played on a beach! With the scorching sun turning everyone a lobster red, we played a lot of new songs - 'Candy', 'Pencil Full of Lead', 'Sleepwalking' and finished with 'Jenny Don't Be Hasty' to a crowd who were totally up for it. We all got involved with a lot of Table Tennis after the show (I'll let you guess who the champion was...) and Paolo, Dave and I even managed to hijack some bikes!
Next, it was time to substitute sushi for burgers, wasabi for BBQ sauce and sake for Jack Daniels. We left Tokyo at 5pm on the Sunday and landed at L.A.X at 11am on the same day! Although I was told it was due to crossing over of time zones, I'm 90% sure that Marty Mcfly and Doc had something to do with it.
Our Hotel in L.A was situated directly on Hollywood Boulevard, right in the middle of the action! We had a few days to have a really good look around and we stumbled across a cool record store - 'Amoeba Music' - two, huge floors filled with Vinyl and CDs. I only had a few hours to spare, so limited myself to the Jazz section and walked away with a whole load of LPs and a whole load of overweight baggage fees on my next flight!
During our time on the West Coast we played several shows - San Deigo Hard Rock Cafe, Santa Monica Puma instore (that was more of an 'outstore'!) and The Hollywood Bowl. All the gigs were fantastic but The Hollywood Bowl was a special night! The artists on the bill were Solomon Burke and Etta James - two Rhythm and Blues Legends. It was hard to know how we would be received from our 30 minute opening set, but as the sun went down and we launched into 'Alloway Grove', the audience seemed really into it and made us feel very welcome on such an overwhelming night. After the set Seamus and I took the time to walk up to the very back of the Bowl and survey where we had just performed to the sounds of Solomon Burke and later got our very own box at the front (oooooooh, very posh!) as we watched Etta James. Another legendary venue to tick off the list! (Hollywood Bowl....check. Wembley Stadium....check.)
The final gig in the U.S and indeed of the whole tour was in Las Vegas. This was my first time in Sin City so I was determined to enjoy myself as thoroughly as possible! Dave and I spent the day trying to get to grips with the scale of the Bellagio, Caesar's Palace and the MGM Grand. Those places are huge and even though we explored for hours, I still felt as though I'd only seen a small proportion of them! After a few hours of heavy gambling (on Dollar slot machines) I have a voucher for $1 that proves that the house does not always win.
It was time to leave the cries of "Winner winner, chicken dinner!" on the strip - our gig was fast approaching. My jaw hit the floor when i saw where we would be playing that night. It was a beautiful swimming pool behind the Hard Rock Cafe, surrounded by palm trees and bars...you could call it paradise! It was probably the hottest weather from the whole tour so after soundcheck I was straight into the pool, Tequila and orange juice in hand.
The audience were great at the gig! We played a long set including 'Rainbows', 'High Hopes', 'Nervous Man' and 'Tricks of the Trade' as well as old favourites 'New Shoes' and 'Last Request'. Despite sweating profusely through my very chic white shirt, black tie combo, I continued to dance my way through the Nevada heat to the final tune of the night - 'Jenny Don't Be Hasty'. The crowd erupted and provided a fitting conclusion to a brilliant few weeks.
I think everyone will agree that the tour was a huge amount of fun, despite the fact that Seamus and I missed our flight home, resulting in a 4 hour wait at the airport and then an 800m dash (Usain Bolt would be proud) across Philadelphia airport to catch our connection flight! Thanks to everybody who came to the gigs, for supporting us and making our trip an experience we shall never forget!
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