After last night's session in my room with music and massive quantities of tea, a small clean-up operation was in order as due to the confines of the room, there were multiple spillages as the five of us relaxed in customary fashion. By the time, I'd restored the room to a condition fit for a maid, I was ready for a gym session, just time before Pete knocks on the door to collect the bags. Like the rest of the hotel, the Le Meridian gym seems not to have changed much in recent history but it's remarkable what a lick of paint will do. I sweated on rower and treadmill for long enough to build an appetite for some more, quite average Bircher Muesli. Spoilt or what? Watching the clock closely, I time the room departure to the minute but as it turns out all is in vein as we hear the train is delayed by an hour. Today's travel plan is to take the train to Munchen, do the show and then fly on to Prague afterwards. We decided to stay in the lobby of the hotel whilst Tim and Gunther went across the road to the Train terminus to glean as much info as possible. Danny and Mike decided to have a pre-run of the Germany v England game on this coming Sunday. The score at this point was 9 all. A tense final minute and I'm not going to reveal who won.



As I understand it, Germany is proud of its rail network and prides itself on punctuality so it was with some surprise we learned of the delay. Eventually we were driven to the station and waited on the platform for the ICE train to arrive which it did about an hour and twenty minutes late. Not quite the luxurious front compartment this time but we made ourselves at home in three adjoining private compartments. As soon as the train pulled away from the Stuttgart station, Tim handed out trays of sushi he'd bought for the trip. After forcing down that Birscher Muesli only 2 hours ago, I really wasn't too hungry. This journey was quite a contrast to the lightening fast (300kmh) one to Stuttgart as the terrain to the South was very hilly. The train seemed to wind its way very slowly up and down the hills and through picturesque valleys lined with steep sloping vineyards. Mark and I talked about how there is so much great German wine produced here. "It's not all Liebfraumilch and Blue Nun you know".







Tim pokes his head into our compartment to tell us that it's likely that we will have to change trains at Augsburg Hof for reasons which are not made clear. So an hour later it was all off the ICE and onto another platform where we board another, slightly newer ICE. 60Km's later we pull into Munich station where Bernie, Dominika and Fabian await. "How far is it to the venue"? I ask Bernie, he tells me it's less than five minutes away and by god he's right as we turn another corner and drive through a security checkpoint blocking off the backstage-street.



The Königsplatz was designed by Karl von Fischer in 1815 for King Ludwig I of Bavaria but was not completed until 1862, nearly 14 years after Ludwig abdicated the throne. Three classical buildings eventually occupied the area - the Propyläen (an ornate gateway), the Glyptothek (a collection of ancient Greek and Roman Sculpture, and the Antikensammlungen (an antiquities museum). It had been Ludwig’s dream to turn Munich into another Athens and he believed his plan for the Königsplatz would help accomplish his goals. From 1933-35, however, things changed at the Königsplatz. This was the era of Adolf Hitler and the square soon became the National Socialists' "Akropolis Germaniae" in what had become known as the "Capital City of the Movement". Architects Paul Ludwig Troost and Leonhard Gall were responsible for the changes made to the Königsplatz. Grassy areas were covered with granite and the neo-Classical buildings were used for large Nazi rallies. Trees were removed and the buildings took on different functions. One housed the offices of National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany while another was known as “The Führer’s Building.” Additional buildings, known as the Temples of Honor, were eventually blown up after the war to symbolize the fall of the Nazi party.

Mark thought that maybe we'd played here in the distant past but I can't recall ever being here,. I think I'd remember such a magnificent setting. The whole square was laid out with 10,000 or so chairs and the weather forecast was good. According to Kerry, whom I asked when he came into the dressing room to lay out the radio packs. He said they'd been checking the BBC and local weather sites and all were convinced there was no chance of rain. I however sensed something different. The humidity and something in the evening light suggesting trouble, I said that I thought there may be a storm and we thought nothing more of it.

As was the case last time we played Munich, Bernie (who lives here) bought along his parents who were very much looking forward to seeing the show. Bernie and Dominika are two of the nicest people you could ever meet and his parents Fridhelm and Helga are exactly as you would imagine, utterly delightful. Fridhelm is a well known watercolour artist and he  bought along a little gift for Mark. Helga mentioned that next time we come we are invited for tea and her speciality potato salad and Sauerkraut. It is always a real pleasure to meet them.



We didn't soundcheck today as the train delay meant we only arrived half an hour before doors opened and sound-checking to queues of waiting public isn't really an option so it was straight to the beautifully laid out portacabin arrangement where today's catering came courtesy of a newly acquired BBQ. There was Sea Bream on the menu but I was rather tempted by the marinated steaks, chicken and weisswurst.



Self control abandoned me momentarily and I ate far too much and regretted it later as I put on the stage shirt, newly acquired from Boss of course, 'bloated of stage-left'. After dinner, Dan and I went for a wander amongst the crowds on this beautiful, balmy evening to maybe try and aid the digestion. It didn't really help but it afforded me more photo opportunities.



As we walked past the front of stage, I noticed the peculiar Alignment of the huge subs in the PA. Tristan was there lining them up so I asked him about the strange arrangement. He told me it's called an 'End-fire' system in which three or more subs are situated in a line and a delay is incorporated so that they project a cardioid pattern. This means that there is little low-end side spill which can play havoc with musicians on the stage and also it projects a much more defined bottom end into the audience. Amazing.



After being asked to pose for a picture about a dozen times, we thought we should get back to the privacy of the backstage area. As mentioned, I squeezed into the stage shirt and Matt had prepared the warm-up teas once again and it was time to prod the larynges into life once more. The walk to the stage this evening was across a strip of lawn completely exposed to the crowd so there was no surprises as to our walk on to the stage, nor any house lights for that matter. We awaited the walk-on tune to play and wandered on. Incidentally, a lot of folks have been asking Dave at the FOH desk what the pre-show music is that is played in the hour or so before the show. As it's a compilation I made up at the start of the tour, here is the full listing.



We walked on in broad daylight greeted by a sea of smiling faces and once again there was a special need to focus as it's so easy to get lulled into crowd-watching. By the second song, which I had completely forgotten was on the set list 'I had prepared', I'd already taken off the Telecaster only to speedily put it on again. Gazing skywards, I then noticed the cloud formations had changed and was now pretty convinced there was a storm-a-brewin'. I wish I'd had the camera at that point because the Cumulonimbus were growing vertically suggesting intense internal cloud activity and the sunset was shining onto the top of them making them glow red.. Concentrate, concentrate, on the music I told myself once again. I'm sorry but I just can't help getting carried away when presented with such a visual meteorological spectacle, but as it happened, my attention was abruptly averted as one of my synths appeared not to be working, I checked and it seemed to be about 80% down in level, right when I needed it for two songs in a row. I reached for the input gain on my desk but upped the wrong channels so when I started Coyote, the click deafened everyone. Kerry came to the rescue on that one and compensated. When it was opportune, Alfie rebooted the offending JD800 and all congruity was restored.

About half way through the show, the lightening came and what a spectacle it was. The audience were the last to know about it as it was behind them but on stage, we had a great view. Concentrate. What was difficult to deal with however was the sudden wind gusts caused by downdraughts that so often precede thunderstorms. The cold dense wind gusts are caused by the storm maturing and rain beginning to fall from the upper part of the cloud. The falling precipitation causes these telltale winds.

Many of the fans once again performed their ritual stage-rush during the final song of the main set but for some reason this evening they came right a the start of the 15 minute epic. I guess it was a domino effect as a group of fans got up from their seats near the back to get into position for the charge to the front and others saw this and did the same and the next thing you know, they're all at it. Having said that though as Dan so eloquently put it, it was a 'polite stampede' with fans being actually quite considerate of the front row whose perfect view was about to be well and truly compromised.

I thought to myself the storm would hit us during the encores but thankfully and miraculously, the main cell stayed to the South of the venue and moved on by. I can't say what happened after we left, I'm hoping the crew weren't the victims of a similar downpour to the one in New York on the last tour.

After such a long day traveling, I thought it would have been nice to just stay here the night. The thought of another 45 minutes in the cars and an hour on the plane was not exactly relishing but of course it's Prague tomorrow and as is customary, we fly to the next city after-show. Sitting here in my luxurious Rocco Forte room in Prague writing this, I'm so glad I'm not in charge of travel. The cars were laden with Richard Bennet's favourite Agustina beers and fresh pretzels and yet more wurst (heavenly sausage) so it seemed churlish to let any of it go to waste. We dined on the way to Ingolstadt Manching airfield where the Legacy waited once more with Daniella on board ready to greet a tired bunch of not very hungry muso's. I simply couldn't eat another wafer thin...but Daniella understood and wasn't offended. When asked, Nick, the co-pilot said the storm cells we experienced in Munich were dissipating and moving off and there was to be no further light shows as we flew North-East to Prague.

Gunther, Eike and Bob (the German shirts in yesterday's diary) were at the airport waiting having driven the band luggage from Stuttgart directly to Prague. Then all that was left in this incredible day was a 25 minute drive to the quite possibly delightful Augustine hotel, another Rocco Forte high Lux'm scorer? When I finally arrived in my room, the bags were there as was a carton of fresh milk provided by the hotel and it was all I could do to get the kettle and boil some water for tea before I absolutely crashed and was gone.