Bobby made it with a couple of hours to spare! His total travel time; 40 hours. Don't ask! The show went great and the fans came from far and wide to celebrate Wishbone's arrival in beautiful San Diego, California. There were so many good vibes around that we totally forgot the tiredness factor. I was really impacted by peoples' stories of love and respect for this band at the post show meet & greet. Also, Humphrey's really is a class venue where quality acts like Jackson Browne,Diana Ross (yes, the Supremes diva herself) and Joe Jackson can be enjoyed. The accommodations are first class and the location cannot be beat. If you are ever in SoCal check out their summer music program and visit the city while you are at it.

Yesterday, I went walking by the bay before breakfast and enjoyed watching a lone seal hunting for food among the yachts and later, Joe, Tom and I had a look  around Balboa Park which had some extraordinary botanical exhibits. Their cactus park and orchid house was mind-blowing. I'm a bit of a nature freak and to see Venus fly traps and other carnivorous plants, like the pitcher plant, was really something for me. There was a beautiful sculpture park featuring the work of two British sculptors, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. That made me proud. I'd recently visted Ms. Hepworth's house and museum in St. Ives, Cornwall so it was interesting to see her work here, so many miles away. We did not get a chance to visit the museums and zoo but will save that for a later visit I think.

A quick footnote; Muddy and I were outside, backstage after sound check and watched in disbelief as an older gentleman gunned his giant motor cruiser at full throttle, into the marina and then into another boat while his helpless wife looked over the stern rail in disbelief. Maybe one too many mojitos?               

Our first show in CA looks dangerously close to being jeopardized due to flight issues. Bob Skeat flew to New York from London via Paris on one of the amazing new Airbus 380 double decker jumbo planes. People will know that in London, a massive new terminal 5 has built to accommodate this behemoth which has the capacity to disgorge up to  800 people upon landing. It has two boarding tunnels and is a triumph of technology. 

In New York they could give a rats arse about any of that and so there was complete chaos at JFK which proved it wasn't up to the job of handling the 500 passengers this time round. The baggage handlers couldn't deal with it, there was only one passenger exit ramp and immigration was besieged. 

As a result, most passengers missed their connections including Bob, who was heading to San Diego via LA. Air France had to cough up for passenger hotels in the Big Apple and we are now keeping our fingers crossed that dear old Bob will grace the stage with us tonight at Humphrey's By The Bay in San Diego. I met with Muddy Manninen last night briefly and his bags had gone missing. Flying is a risk operation, it seems. What's new?

During the summer rehearsals for our Japan dates we had cause to visit an amazing new venue called THE GRAND in the unlikely town of Clitheroe, Lancashire, UK. Situated quite close to our rehearsal space, we’d heard rumour of it through our promoters, the Gig Cartel and so we called by for a visit. What a place! Raised bar, coffee shop and internet facility, the venue features a full recording studio in the basement and on the top level a full video recording set up. A state of the art PA system is all linked in making this venue one of the most up to date facilities I’ve ever seen ANYWHERE. Millions have been spent converting this former cinema - turned music showcase venue situated in the high street, into one of BRITAIN'S BEST live music showcase / recording facilities.

Without any hesitation, we accepted the venue’s invitation to play there on October 13th and at the same time, we decided to produce a LIVE CD recording which we hope to have MIXED THE NEXT DAY, printed, packaged and available on subsequent dates (WITHIN DAYS, hopefully) and most certainly for THE Wishbone Ash fan convention, 'ASHCON', taking place once more at the Winding Wheel in Chesterfield, UK on November 6th. We’d like to invite YOU, our FANS and FRIENDS, to join us for what promises to be a great evening where we’ll feature some lesser heard Wishbone songs in concert. But here’s the thing, if you wish to be part of this SPECIAL LIVE RECORDING, tickets are limited.

The Grand is set out with 350 standing places at the front and 50 seated places in the raised, rear bar section. Standing tickets (£14.50) may be purchased here. Seated tickets (£17.50) are available by contacting the box office on 01200 421599.

We are looking forward to seeing all the usual suspects at this event, which will hopefully make the atmosphere for this live recording, really special. By the way, one of Britain’s finest, I mean finest, Italian restaurants is situated almost opposite the venue. It’s a band favourite and is called Piccolino’s. We’ll certainly be dining there pre-show, so if you want to make a really good evening of it all, then make sure you book a table also. Other than that, of course, there are plenty of great pubs in town and we are really looking forward to seeing you all in Clitheroe as a great pre cursor to AshCon 2010.

Two very different shows in Southern Germany during recent weekends: The first in Nuremberg was at the Pyras Open Air (Pyras is a brewery). The whole thing had the feel of a beer garden, with music as a bonus. The acts we played with were Slade (yes, I kid you not) and Roger Chapman and the Shortlist. It was hot - very hot! Chappo was first rate and I got to meet up with old pals and band members, Geoff Whitehorn (guitar) and Matt Irving (keys). Geoff is a veteran from Paul Rogers and many other notables and Matt blew my mind, since the last time I’d played with him was when I sat in with him and various members of Paul Young’s band. Since then he’s been studying and is now a qualified psychologist with practices in London and Brighton. Working in bands must have been great inspiration! Roger Chapman was a gentleman and we had a nice post-show chat in the hotel bar. Some of you may know that Laurie Wisefield was also a long standing member of the Shortlist some years ago. I loved listening to Roger's music - great band - and of course Family go way back to our early era when we trod the boards in the U.K.. Slade entertained the crowd for sure but poor Dave Hill had to jump in an ambulance after the show suffering from heat stroke. It was confusing the next day because the hotel got me mixed up with Slade’s drummer Drummer Don Powell, so I got his hotel bill instead of mine.

A week later, we were just outside Munich in the grounds of a medieval castle playing alongside the esteemed Toto. After a weeklong heat wave, the weather changed dramatically during the drive to the hotel. My rented Mercedes was dodging through some truly scary lightning bolts, one of which struck the central reservation on the autobahn beside us, sending stones and dirt flying all around the car. We made it ok and the next day, Nathan East came to say ‘hi’ during our sound check and bonded with fellow bassist, Bob Skeat. Later, I got to chat with Steve Lukather while Joe hung with the awesome Simon Phillips. During our set, we were rained on, I mean totally rained on, with sideways-driven rain, drenching us. My effects pedals crapped out on me, one by one. The V took a bath. It was lucky none of us was electrocuted. The poor crowd stood in the castle courtyard and endured it all, wrapped in rain slickers and later, it was weird to look out and see a sea of bobbing umbrellas during Toto’s excellent set. No matter, everyone had a blast and we all partied on the side of the stage during Rosanna, Africa and other gems.

Next week we head off to the West Coast and in addition to some California club dates, there will be another festival for us to play in Washington State, where we’ll meet up with Animals veteran, the excellent, Eric Burdon, who we’ve certainly played with a few times in the past. That’ll be at the Satsop River festival where Wishbone played many, many years ago back in the day. On that occasion, we flew in by helicopter, as I recall. Let’s pray for good weather this time out.

OK folks, things are finally looking up!

After one of the weirdest weeks of my life and that of our promoter Mr. Nobu Maruyama and some of our most diehard fans, I can let you know that Wishbone Ash and Club Citta have been hard at work and have now been able to reschedule the two cancelled shows, in Kawasaki, Japan! The club only had two weekends available; one in October (too far into the future and we are on tour in the UK) and one in August. We plumbed for that one, to try and keep the momentum up. So, August 14th and 15th it is.

I’m doing much better since suffering the attack. It’s taking me a while to focus in the mornings and I still stagger a bit but I’m feeling this will pass. Thank you all for the get well wishes I received. I really appreciated these and got to hear that I’m not alone in experiencing something awful like this. It was scary there for a while and agonising, not being able to get on that plane for Japan, right at the last moment. The difference for me, unlike some of you fellow sufferers, was that my situation got played out in public.

The closest we can get to a diagnosis is BPV - Benign Positional Vertigo. It’s a bit of a nebulous term but can be something to do with calcium crystals being dislodged in the inner ear. The result for me was waking up at a London airport hotel, on the day of departure for Japan, with total loss of balance and disorientation accompanied by nausea and vomiting. In other words, I was rendered a complete non functioning unit (musical or otherwise) and was rushed to Chertsey hospital, near to London’s Heathrow airport! My initial thought about the cause, was heatstroke or stress, since I’d been driving down to Heathrow from Burnley in the old Mog for 5 hours, in the sun, with the hood down. But both of these were categorically ruled out by the doctors.

Anyway, Nobu, can now get back on track with promoting the weekend of August 14th and 15th and the thought is that we’ll have sold out shows. In addition to the whole of the Argus album, the two and half hour sets will feature pieces like F.U.B.B., Lady Jay and Lullaby and other less heard gems. I hated the fact that a goodly contingent of our diehard Brit fans had flown all the way out to Japan to support us only to find out that we would not be there. It seems like you all had a pretty good time there despite everything. You got to meet up with our friends in Zizoh, the amazing Tokyo based, Wishbone Ash tribute band. Thanks to them for their hospitality. It makes me realise and appreciate what a great fan community, Wishbone Ash has. But, I can tell you (Dave, Ian, Doreen, Carol et al) that we’ll have a surprise UK show in store later in the year, where we hope to make it up to you all!

Once again, most important; sincere thanks to all our Japanese fans for your understanding and patience!

Special thanks to Miyuki, Nobu’s assistant, who was brilliant throughout and also to friend and super fan, Atsuko who entertained the troops (in our absence and at her peril) in the Land of the Rising Sun. We’ll see you and Pat in California, soon, no doubt!

Love, Peace and Happiness to you all ~ Mr.P.

Half way through a week of rehearsals and writing, we had a private show scheduled for Bob’s friend, (and now ours) Simon Mills, together with his software company, Ingenuity. It was a great afternoon and evening in an idyllic setting by a lake in the grounds of an amazing stately home in the village of Frampton on Severn, Gloucestershire. Many thanks to all the folks there who made us so welcome. We thoroughly enjoyed playing for you and the pig roast rocked too!

However, it almost didn’t happen, since we had close call when a giant tree bough come crashing down on the driveway, the night before leaving our rehearsals. With each of us driving back and forth under this tree yesterday (sometimes in open topped cars), a fatality could have happened, if the branch had fallen at the wrong time. It was huge and very heavy.

Another bit of very bad luck for some folks while we were on our way home this morning, was that a terrible road accident happened on the M42 involving fatalities this time, with three motorcyclists and a car in collision. That closed the road down for about 7 hours. Bob Skeat and myself were forced to make a long detour after we’d managed to get out of the long motorway tailback.