It was breakfast in the room for me this morning as I set to the diary, emails and a bit more Final Cut editing on the new 15" MacBook Pro I bought in New York...I just fancied eggs benedict and some strong tea and toast. I requested some kind of builders tea as most of these 'posh' hotels insist on serving what I call fake tea. You know the ones I mean..rubbish and weak. They duly obliged with a saucer full of Tetley tea bags.
Important note for Lowry hotel chef - Eggs benedict is not served with parma ham!

As we left the hotel, it started to rain. Mark commented that it wouldn't be Manchester if it weren't raining.  Security at GA terminals in the UK remains an amusing mystery. It all seems so inconsistent. Not that I'm complaining, what has to be done, has to be done. Some terminals are happy to wave us through to the plane but as we were ushered toward the scanners in Manchester there seemed to be an inordinate number of quite happy security men proudly holding various hand held devices which go 'beep'. We were all screened in a way reminiscent of a US airport. They frowned and looked at each other disapprovingly when they saw an x-ray image of a bottle of wine in one of the bags, they made Matt expose his lip balm for further testing. We all made it on board with just a minor delay caused by the re-tying of shoelaces and we were on our way to Wales.

Our latest stewardess, Danielle from Italy really pulled out all the stops on today's flight. An impressive seafood platter which was delivered on dry ice from Harrods to Luton which was where the plane started it's journey from today. Absolutely delicious if a little excessive. It was difficult to restrain ones self from absolutely stuffing my face. The flight was a little bumpy too, due to the cloud but Danielle managed without difficulty to clear the decks for another first class landing by Simon, our intrepid captain of the day.





In an exact re-run of the traffic-riddled journey from Barry airport to the CIA in Cardiff, Mark, Danny and myself talked about the Albert Hall shows and the excitement that they bring. We eventually pulled up backstage at the CIA (love that name) and made our way to the dressing room which was in exactly the same location as per two years ago. In fact, everything about the building remains unchanged in the last 2 years. You couldn't exactly call this Live Nation dressing room cosy, the tired chairs and over-exuberant air-conditioning meant that I spent most of the time hanging out in the production office across the corridor. I'm not sure it gets vacuumed that often either as both Richard and I noticed clumps of hair on the carpet. I can only assume Roy Wood was in last night.  The TV looked like it had been rescued from the local skip. Ah well, the staff here are lovely.



Catering was once again an embarrassment of delights and as has been the case every day since their return, the main problem lies in the decision. Whether to have Roast Belly of Pork, Seared tuna with Olive tapenade or home made Chana Masala curry. The trick is to have a little of each. Desert was an Angus-made Apple Strudel with ice cream. I honestly still don't know how those boys do it. They are a marvel.

I snapped Cod inside one of the trucks shuffling his merchandise around..



Our good friend Ada (Adrian Fitzpatrick) visited us for sound-check. Adrian used to be our beloved monitor man since way back in the early DS days.





We took to the stage on time and I must say that the Cardiff audience were as warm and friendly as any show we've done. Throughout, there were ripples of excitable applause as we moved through the set and at the end they were extremely appreciative of our efforts. I did feel sorry for one small boy who had a programme in his hand and came to the front of the stage hoping to get an autograph from Mark. He had been eyeing the security guard sheepishly for the encore period and came to the front once again at the end. It's very difficult to sign from the stage and as a rule we don't do it as it has obvious problematic consequences. I doubt Mark would have been able to lean down anyway. Which brings me to the condition of his back. He is recovering very well but is still being extremely cautious as these injuries can so easily be exacerbated by the slightest sudden movement. He is continuing to use the stool but does get up periodically. I foresee more of the same for a few weeks while the injury heals. It certainly isn't affecting his playing and the main thing is that he isn't knocking back the painkillers like he was doing a few weeks ago and he's feeling GOOD.