(what else was I suppose to say?)

Well, it is 11am here in cold, rainy Brighton and I finally found an internet cafe!!! in a city of 70,000, they have but 2 internet cafes in the whole town! Everyone here is gearing up for the England vs. Argentina world cup game. Some fans last night invited me to a bar to watch the game..actually several fans invited me out but I think I may hang near the hotel and watch the game close by. Last night we played a venue right on the brighton beach called, Concord 2, that was jam packed and sold out and it was one of my fave shows to play so far. actually, everyone in the band was in agreement. We had a great time and the fans were into it the whole time. The funniest stuff happened after the show. Loads of people wanted our autographs but I was surprised by the number of women who asked me to sign their knickers! (with their boyfriends standing right there!) And then there was Kate, who asked me to sign Heather’s knickers because Heather couldn’t get tickets sorted in time. Ok? see what I I mean! But it was all so fun and everyone had a blast hanging out.

Our drive from Milton keynes to Brighton was bloody hell, with all the rain and traffic on the M25 (the english know what I mean). the drive felt like 2 weeks. But couldn’t get out of that wretched Milton K. town fast enough! Yuk! Our merch guy (who also drives the van), Mick, stopped off at Burger king and I had a whopper with cheese with everything on it (hey, at least it’s not Mc donald’s)…Ms Wey is gonna kill me for that…can’t say enough how awesome the opening act, STEW, are on this leg of the tour. STEW is “Stew” and “Heidi” of the Los Angeles’ THE NEGRO PROBLEM. And they rule, ok? Oh, and Heidi grabbed my ass last night, ok? And Stew’s her boyfriend! This has been loads of fun since they jumped on the tour and Ringo, our road manager, has kept us all in stitches with his sense of humor. His fiance’, Toni, will be at one of the shows soon so I can tell her how much of a good boy he’s been. Actually, we’ve all been very good! Hi Mum! So, we have the day off here in Brighton and everyone’s gonna go do their thing and watch the game and this and that. Arthur has an interview and Gene asked me to attend it but it’s 2 hours long and i am trying to get out of it. I made a story up but I don’t think Gene bought it. Got an e-mail from my “X”, oh, i am sorry…my Drop Dead Gorgeous X, Rita, and we have a beautiful “almost” 3 year old, Julian, and his birthday is June 14. But I will be playing Queen Elizabeth hall and will miss out (oh Buggars!!!) so I am bummed about that. A real bummer in the summer! But I plan to give him a call today cause I miss him as much as he misses me…look, i’m getting so personal…

But back to the Brighton show. There was another woman there named, Emily, and she plays in a band and knows famous LA Deejay, “Rodney on the Roc” and she was at the Knitting factory show. Now, that is the 50th person, it seams, that has been to 2 shows in 2 or more countries. I suppose this is a testament to the connection Arthur Lee shares with the people who love his music. When we got back to our hotel from the Milton Keynes show, I was dead tired. plus we had an early wake up call. The hotel was over booked so rusty and I let ringo sleep in our room. actually, ringo slept with me…in the same BIG bed I mean…not SLEPT with me (although I was feeling a bit frisky that morning but…only kidding!). But that’s what you get in Milton Keynes. Oh, did I mention that city is just about worthless? Are there any Milton Keynses to defy my sattements? I welcome anyone who can show me any redeeming value there. except for that lovely theatre, which was WAY nice, can’t say much else.

So now it’s 11:30 and I’ve been typing away n stuff and I am afraid to go outside becasue I am from Los Angeles and we are subjected to the type of weather/food combo that can get you in england. why, this morning I bought a cole slaw sandwhich (the british will put ANYTHING between 2 peices of bread and call it a sandwhich), which was fookin TERRIBLE. But it could have been worse; I could have bought the “Pork and Apple danish”. see what i mean? But I love the english…all jokes aside. They have a heck of a sense of humor-and you need one to live here-so I give them all the credit in the world. But, I gotta tell you, when we were in madrid, they put me on the plane to the UK kicking and screaming…

Ok, so for now, that’s the news, from my prespective at least! My apologies for all the delayed entries. Getting to a computer in England is not the easiest thing in the world. But I have devised a plan. I may start hand writing diaries and if a fan comes up to me after a show and doesn’t mind typing it out and sending it to the Freedom man’s doors/Love website, that would be sweet. I got a good night’s sleep last night. Actually, I was the last one out of the club! I was hanging with the sound people, fuzzy, tommy, JP and another bloke and we were chilling, eating chocalate cake and drinking Red Stripe. Hey, we had the “Mad Mad Munchies”, ok. And you know how THAT happens! I walked back to the hotel and they told me to be careful bacuase of the hooligans out in the streets but it just so happened that 3 fans were walking on the beach and it turned out I was talking to them so it was cool and they walked me back to the hotel and invited me to another pub for the game! When I got inside, I saw Gene, Arthur, Daddyo, Chapple and Rusty kicking back in the lounge room. gene did a trick where he took a rubberband and, from 3 ft away, shot off Rusty’s cigarette butt! We were all impressed. And, such is life on the road. People do all kinds of little things to help keep life fun. becasue you miss your friends and loved ones or girlfriend or wife and all you have is each other. So sanity is worth a lot when you travel this much with the same people. But it’s working out fine. (knock on wood!)
…and big thanks to Jeff trice for the ENGLAND world cup shirts! you fookin rule, lad!
also, Ingrid’s Band’s site is www.sweetnothings.tv sorry for the mistake!

Mike Randle