Thursday.

St. Louis rules so far on this tour. It always did actually. I remember the old days of Keele Auditorium and promoter Ron Powell. Tonight killed. A big sound was achieved for this sold out crowd in the Voodoo Lounge, courtesy of Englishman, Tom Greenwood. And...how about Chuck Berry’s daughter, Ingrid Berry, joining the band and playing blues harp on the song, Rock Me Baby? Too much fun.

I had a blast meeting old friends Joanie and Mike Moscarelli. The quilt you had made in remembrance of dearly departed superfan, Steve Davidson, was truly amazing, Joanie. Made out of Steve's collection of Wishbone Ash tee shirts, I've never seen anything like it. Truly a work of art. Cody Eggars; nice to see you and your family again and so many others. Atsuko and her husband Pat, flew up from California. There is quite a group now, traveling with us from date to date.

Tomorrow the temperatures get up the 80’s. Like all of you, we are ready for sunshine. It’s been a long, hard, cold winter. Tomorrow should be a nice easy 5 hour jaunt up the road to Chicago and then it’s on to Milwaukee for the big party. Now that’s a rock & roll town if ever there was one. Joe Bonamassa supported us there at Shank Hall last time and now he’s a big star. Funny old world. He’s a good guitarist for sure.

Friday

Woke up and Scott and Muddy came in from the mall bearing the new Classic Rock magazine. There was a review of our London 40th anniversary DVD by a Paul Henderson. He says he’d be churlish to speak bad of the show and then uses the words karaoke and tribute while describing us. He must be on crack. I’m done with this stupid magazine. Show some respect and get with the program. Ridiculous. It’s last time I’ll submit to any “welcome back” interviews or attempt to get a review from them for a CD OR pay for a tour ad in their tribute - band - laden back pages. Sod ‘em.

Tonight more than made up for this. We nailed it at Fitzgerald’s. 400 rabid punters rocked the house. The loudest crowd on the tour so far and that’s saying something after St.Louis. I love Chicago - a fine city full of down to earth honest folk (at least at our shows). 3 encores and people without tickets were turned away at the door unfortunately. But I know a lot of them sat outside in the patio area enjoying the music and the warm summer - like evening. A great vibe all round. Thanks to Ralf and Andy for help with the load out!

Saturday

Last show of the tour this evening. It’s Milwaukee as I mentioned. It will definitely rock. We’ve played the venue many times in the past and we own this crowd. Old friends (and our street team), Steve, Claudia, Cincinatti Wally, Pat of pendant fame (Moonnpaths) - all the gang will be there. Directly after the show we’ll drive back to Chicago (2 hours) drop Bob, Joe and Tom at O’Hare airport and then Muddy, Scott and I will head out across country, back to New York. I plan on getting the other side of Chicagoland before getting some shut eye. On tuesday we fly to Zurich where we’ll meet up up with the others who will be driving from London via Lille to pick up LeDanos who will be rejoining us. There will a be a few Swiss shows and then a couple in Italy ending up with 2 days off in La Roma! Phew. We are ready for that. We’ll be renting scooters and doing the sights and eating some wonderful meals, I’m sure. Wish us luck on the upcoming trip and sincere thanks to all our USA friends for your warmth and hospitality on this trip.

~ A.P.

P.S. Did you know that ‘Chicago’ in native American speak means literally ‘smelly onion’. It’s another story....

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