After the rare luxury of a day off at home, today we find ourselves assembling at the now quite familiar Northolt airfield where the plane sits in wait for the short hop over the channel to Belgium. As it's a Sunday, there is none of the usual hubbub in the VIP lounge area where there is a canteen which on most days offers up the most delicious and traditional British bacon butties. We have become so used to this that none of us ate any breakfast at home in anticipation of these breakfast delights. Most of us succumbed to the McVities Chocolate biscuits that were sitting in a solitary bowl. When the passenger list was complete, we went through the tiny security area with stomachs rumbling audibly. I still wonder why they REALLY have to take your laptop computers out of your bags before going through the x-ray machine. That said, we all had to comply of course. As soon as Danielle, our Italian hostess greeted us onboard and we took off, the tables were out in seconds as we prepared to feed our hunger. A very short journey and just as we were wiping our mouths with napkins, the Legacy was descending into Brussels airport and Danielle was whisking away the empty plates. To be perfectly honest, I can't remember what we ate. I could be that we just consumed it so quickly but it's probably more to do with the fact that it's been a long day. Home - Northolt - Brussels - Antwerp - Gig - Frankfurt.

There was much talk on the journey about the venue we played in Antwerp last time. I recall it not being the most pleasant experience. I'm guessing it was in 2005 (I still haven't completed that diary rebuild) The good news is that obviously many other artists maybe had similar issues and they've gone and built a completely new venue right next to the old one. Whatever the reason, it's a welcome addition. As I walked into the hall, I realized that this will be our first 'semi-standing' gig of the tour. I believe the gig is sold out and we are expecting 7,500 in tonight. There are a few thousand seats around the arena but the main hall is GA (general admission). True to form, Isaac Shabtay (our intrepid attendee - Isaac plans to attend EVERY gig on the tour!) must have been first in the queue for the rush to the barriers as they opened the doors as he was there once again, right dead-centre at the front.









Mr. Saggers during line check - Line check is something the crew do every day before the band are allowed near the stage. They basically check all the 'lines' are working correctly.



We had a brief soundcheck after a dressing room discussion about a slightly altered set list and then it was on to catering. Chris Desmond was back on board after spending a week at home with his family. As usual, everything on the menu was stupidly good and I chose a home-made chicken kiev. The garlic repeating on me for the rest of the evening!

Lemon Meringue pie -



Showtime and the hall was buzzing with excitement as the three intro songs played. I won't say what these are in case I ruin the build-up for anyone planning to come to a show. 'House lights' and we leap onto the stage with adrenaline fueled vigour for our first show on the continent. We prepared for a hot gig and it certainly was warm up there. No jacket for me tonight. Danny was dripping from the end of the first song onwards. What an audience. Fantastic. We all felt as we drove back to the airport that we could have gone on playing for another hour, easily. We did have to curtail the show very slightly as there was a specific slot for landing we had to adhere to for arrival in Frankfurt. Danny and I were particularly looking forward to our in-car beers this evening as Duvel was on the menu. Unfortunately, our trusty German driver, Gunther, lost his bottle opener and there was literally no way of getting the tops off the bottles. Still, hardly a hardship as we waited patiently until we arrived at the plane 20 minutes later. On board, the tops were off those bottles before I put my bag down. At 8.5%, Duvel is a beer not to trifled with and I found myself giggling rather stupidly after one bottle. There had been mention of weather today in and around the Frankfurt area but to be honest, we were having so much fun on the plane, talking about the show etc. that we hardly noticed being thrown around a bit. Danielle was magnificent once again as she served up FAR too much food but as I often say, there is something weird about how incredibly hungry you get after a show. It's all I can do to moderate the food intake at that late hour. I say late, but it was still only just coming up to 11pm.

With an 8pm show time, we found ourselves rolling up to our favourite hotel in Frankfurt at just after midnight. Mike, Danny, Richard, John and I decided to head to the bar to cap off another amazing day.

The MIGHTY Glenn Worf and the clean-up (pics courtesy Henk Pestman)





Some montages sent in from Marius van Andel







I have been promising a Natural Selection Competition clue - I will put this, and any further clues up on the competition page from now on