It's always great to wake up in the town we're playing and today in Manchester there's plenty of time to go for a wander around the shops. Unfortunately, it's raining but Danny and I go in search of a spot of lunch. The cafe's around the hotel aren't up to much so we go upmarket and find ourselves in Harvey Nichols brasserie. Very nice it was too. Then a quick search for a mini toolkit as I've been planning a hard-drive replacement in my MacBookPro for a few days now. I brought out my spare laptop to temporarily host the new drive whilst I format and clone. The operation commences in the dressing room and all goes well except that the clone isn't finished by the time we go on stage. I run back to the dressing room during Sultans to find it's done, phew. Shut down and pack, I'll finish the procedure tomorrow in Edinburgh.



A really great show at the M.E.N. arena tonight and the sound is fantastic on stage. I got the impression that the audience were really into it from what was a  fabulous breakdown in 'What it is'. Then it was plain sailing from there with great versions of 'Fish and the bird' and 'Speedway'.



On stage discussions whilst Simon tests the smoke machines much to the amusement of Cod. Cod is in charge of the merchandising, more about him later in the diary.





After the show, it's the usual runner to the airport and all aboard the Legacy for the short flight up to Edinburgh where we arrive at the delightful Balmoral just after midnight. I notice it's a full moon and make a poor attempt at photographing it. A few sounds and a couple of drinks with Richard, Danny, Matt and Matt's lovely wife Paloma and then off to bed.