Right now, it’s 1pm on Sunday and England is still hung over from their 1-0 win over Argentina on Friday. Mick, Arthur, Daddyo, Gene, Rusty and myself are in the van en route to Liverpool, home of the Beatles and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. (Ringo, by the way, drove with Stew and Heidi). So here we are, stuck in a serious traffic jam in the rain and cold. As I write this, the other guys are watching a video of “Get Shorty”. Everyone feels great about last night’s show.

Speaking of which, the show at THE BROOK in Southampton was a great show, and another sell out. More merchandise has been added to Mick’s arsenal and Gene gave us all LOVE tour jackets (No, you can’t have one!). It was a really special show in that, our friend (from the Wondermints and Brian Wilson band), Probyn Gregory, played trumpet on “Alone Again Or”, “Between Clark and Hilldale” and “You Set The Scene.” It turned out to be a very memorable show and everyone-including the band- was happy to hear a great musician like Probyn helping to make the sound even better. It also appears that Arthur is magnificent every night. And we haven’t even peaked yet! I really feel that we still can get better but Arthur has been unbelievable night in and night out. And it’s funny, because we couldn’t even FIND this place just 6 hours before!

Immediately after the show, Ringo moves are stuff out of reach because some of the more uncouth fans have been trying to swipe things off the stage. And I’m not talking about set lists. Just last night, I caught a guy trying to take the tambourine and we already had someone steal the maracas. Now, this is the type of stuff that happens in Kansas, not England. But we are in the really small towns that really aren’t that different from Kansas! But afterwards, Ringo and Arthur sat at a table and Arthur Lee signed autographs and Ringo kept any unruly Hooligans at bay.

The rest of us were hanging with are friends from London, Steve and Su, and Heidi (from STEW) Probyn. Also, Kate Forbes, from the Brighton show, came with her bloke and they brought Heather (who had me sign her knickers…remember her?) and Heather’s bloke with them this time. Heather’s bloke has a band called OCTOPUS and we all had discussions about the various SYD BARRET connections and then Rusty and I laughed about how we kept bumping into the Gigolo Aunt guys in Spain. Another cool thing was a LOVE fan, Ainsley, made the band a delicious strawberry short cake. See, the English ain’t so bad after all, huh?

Well, hopefully, Gene was able to send my other diaries. If not, blame England! No internet connections anywhere! I guess in a few hours we’ll be in Liverpool. And we’ll take it from there. Cheers!

Mike Randle