Hello everyone, 

 

So we are off and running with the Reworked tour. Brighton was a lot of fun and the gig went great I think. Was nervous on stage for longer than I have been since the first gigs we ever did. Suppose it’s appropriate as we are looking back over the last 15 years. Thank you to all that came to the Brighton Centre on Wednesday night. May have been a little strange for some of you but it was for us too so we were all in the same boat. There are a few things that didn’t work and we’re gonna spend today’s soundcheck correcting that. 

 

I don’t normally watch us on the telly nor do I enjoy listening back over live recordings as I tend to spend the duration squirming in my seat and cursing at myself for bad vocal tuning so it’s best just to avoid it altogether for the most part. I did though watch children in need last night and thought the whole show was great especially Dizzy with Dame Shirley. I also thought Cheryl did a marvellous job of Set The Fire. It’s a tough song to carry off as the original singer of the song was Martha Wainwright, possibly the greatest female singer of her generation. It’s a tricky hill to climb because of that and few singers will get close to the pain, passion and soul of Martha. Cheryl tackled it with honesty and tenderness and, although some of you on this site haven’t been very kind to her about it, you should, at the very least, give her credit for that and the bravery she showed for even agreeing to do it in the first place. She was well out of her comfort zone and not many singers in her position would be daring enough to attempt anything like it.

 

All that said this forum is a place where you should feel free to voice whatever you think whenever you think it. I’m only giving you an alternative view to think on. Personally I like looking at songs in as many ways as possible and this tour is giving us all free reign to do just that in ways we’ve only begun to touch on. Exciting times for a restless spirit such as myself. Set The Fire itself will go through many more interpretations as the tour goes on. Strange and wonderful I hope as ‘strange and wonderful’ is my deepest hope for every day of life for all those I love and myself who some days I kind of like. 

 

Bristol tonight. It’ll be a slightly different set to Brighton. We’ll try and change it each night if we can, certainly in places where we have more than one show. One thing will remain the same though, the first half will be softer, quieter and will feature older songs so please do get there early if you want to hear some older stuff. We start at eight each night. After about 40 minutes we take a short break to have a wild sex party backstage. About half way through the second set things will start to get louder and do feel free to stand up and shake your tail feathers. I hope you do. 

 

Whatever happens I hope you all have fun. Am already really enjoying this tour and looking at the songs in new ways has made me fall in love with some of them all over again. Even Starfighter Pilot. There, I said it! 

 

Hope we see you on the road. Lots of love to you all.g.x