woke up at 10am, met up with manny for tea. walked around SHEP BUSH and had to take an alternate road, due to a bomb scare or something, ducked into the “Slug n Lettuce” for soup and sandwiches. afterwards, crossed the park and then was at soundcheck. it took damn near 3 hours, as there was a bit of a problem with the strings’s microphones. Kose eventually fixed it and then we were ready…that is, until i blew up 2 Fender Twins. So, a reluctant Chris Helmes lent me his Fender and then had this look on his face that said WHAT WAS I THINKING! His amp sounded great and then we were done with soundcheck.

around 6:30, saw Dukie, Caryne, Manny, Lizzy, Scot Keith and Tina at the hotel (they all stayed at the same one, the Kensington Hilton). Manny and i went to the Rat and parrot while those other guys went to a different pub in the Bush. We, in turn, went in the opposite direction, down Holland Park..into the “posh” part of Kensington…got back to the venue and caught most of the Yard”s set…they were brilliant and brike a bunch of guitar strings (typical Yorkshire musicians…)

After the show, there was an afterparty in the banquet room and the first person tanked was Whiskey Jim, who was, by this time, slurring every word. I dared to think what condition he would be in hours from now! The whole gang was at the afterparty and it was a complete BLAST!!!! ok, lemme remember…ok….Scot Keith, Caryne, Lizzy, Tina, Dukie, Manny, The Yards, John Head, Brummy Jim, the Brummy Brat, Jackie B., Christina from Ausrtalia (she was at the Melbourne show and put all those pix up on Torben’s site), all teh guys from Marshmello, Ringo, Toni, all the LOVE band and HORNS and STRINGS…and guys going goo goo over our violinist, Malin!, Chapple’s wife, Natalie and her sister, Michelle and their cousin, Dani, and Dani’s boyfriend, Paul, and some cool dude named Ian, and Bobby Gellespie (if Bobby comes to one more show we are gonna put him in the group…)..and Steve and Su Edmond, and Stu and janey Harris, and last but CERTAINLY not least, Richard “tap the rockies” Meehan! After all that we all went back to the hotel and got some drinks at the bar. i was dying for a Kebab but somehow Manny talked me out of it (damn you, Manny) but Rusty did get one and said it was great. Later on that night, BBC2 showed a special on Tony Robbins. Then i went up to Keith’s for a Cape Cod and then i hit the hay. it was nearly 3am. I was knackered.

All Pix By Dukie Anderson

Mike Randle