Our UK tour commences. Yesterday's day off for the crew was spent in Birmingham and the UK band members got to go home for a day. The fantastic weather has finally given way to the more usual British Summer mix of cloud, sunshine and drizzle but there was enough of a respite to mow the lawn. Then it was up early for me and a drive to the BBC in Birmingham with Eike, one of our drivers for a series of regional radio interviews as I begin the UK promotion of Inamorata which is officially released on Monday May 19th. It will be in the UK shops and downloadable worldwide on iTunes etc. Later in the afternoon Eike picked me up and whisked me to soundcheck.

The N.E.C. Birmingham is one of those 'regulars' that we know and love. Resembling a giant spider from the outside, the 11,000 capacity arena has hosted the famous international dog show, Crufts since 1991. The National Exhibition Centre in Solihul was designed by Edward Mills and opened by the Queen in February 1976. It was originally going to be built adjacent to the M1 junction 21 near Leicester but it was turned down by Leicestershire County Council who claimed "..the big shows will never move away from London". Even though it has 21 adjacent-connected halls and is set in grounds of 628 acres (2.54 km²), it's still only the seventh largest exhibition centre in Europe.
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Richard ponders the architectural delights of the N.E.C.



The stage view from behind Matt's keyboard rig reveals the size of the N.E.C.





I happened to mention to Chris in Catering the other day in Munich that I loved Chicken Cacciatore...guess what was on the menu tonight? I didn't have my camera so no photo's of it but..



..a trifle to end