We were honoured to be on the guest list for Jon and his band at Hammersmith and thrilled to realise when we got there that it meant front row seats ( using the term band loosely as there was no Rich on keys and Pat on guitar instead of Simon) I have to admit I had reservations beforehand when he said he as planning on trying to find a replacemnt for Rich as he is currently touring with someone else and therefore can't make all the Seal support gigs. I had even more reservations when I realised there wasn't a keyboard on the stage at all. I was so wrong, Jon gave us one amazing total performance. He turned the tuning time into a fun time when he suggested the audience should give him a slow handclap and then launched into a vocal rendition of ' We will rock you' while tuning the guitar within the chorus, the audience were his for the taking and he won them. It's unusual to have an almost full house for the support act but we could hear his name being mentioned as soon as we arrived, maybe people who had seen him at an earlier show with Seal or maybe just friends passing the word. The sound was perfect the vocals smooth, a mix of band songs and accoustic ( with just Jon and Pat) he was in his element and I was totally blown away, I have seen Jon so many times in smaller and intimate venues but this was in a class of it's own. I was totally surprised it worked without keyboard and the Harmonicas yet could never have imagined that band set up without before this gig. During the interval Jon was kept totally occupied signing cd's from the minute the break started to the time people went in for Seal, it was a real pleasure to see them all buying their cd's and seeing Jon having the success I know he has long deserved. He was even there at the end also signing cd's for people.The next single is all ready being planned and is to be ' Down by the River' . It was also terrific to see the publicity behind Jon working, they had that afternoon agreed a new headline show at Union Chapel on the 14th October and there were flyers around advertising the gig and people handing them out as well -- I heard people saying they planned to be there so it was excellent marketing.
After Hammersmith on Friday we were off again on saturday to Oxford for the Seal gig at the New Theatre. Another near full audience for Jon at this one too, banter from the audience and another top class performance. Slightly different set list for those who had maybe heard a previous one, also a mix of band and accoustic. Another interval for Jon to keep signing those cd's :-) I find it difficult to put into words how great it feels to see Jon getting his music to the people and see them respond to it. He has a whole new set of fans from this support tour which he totally deserves.

We stayed overnight in Oxford and moved onto to Poole for his Sunday night headline gig. This was of course a smaller venue but a lovely one and a packed one. Jon had been to Mr Kyps before although we hadn't and he said the previous gig was brilliant so although it mant he had a load more traveling from Oxford to Poole then back to manchester it was a gig he wanted to keep in his schedule. I can understand why, they totally adore him down there in Poole. a lovely night in an intimate venue.

It was a busy packed 3 days and I wouldn't have missed it for the world

dee x