I've literally just returned from the second leg of the short European tour of the final one man shows… Holland was amazing and possibly one of the best organised tours I have ever done. Great pianos everywhere, great venues, great audiences and great food too! It was nice to catch up with old friends and it was a shame there were just the four shows. Equally there were only four shows in Scandinavia, (Denmark, Sweden and Norway), but so enjoyable and the last show in Norway had a piano to "die for".
I landed at Heathrow last night and made it home in time for my wife's amazing apple and rhubarb crumble, so what a great week!
So, what does the rest of June bring forth? Well I have a full medical assessment which they've allotted me 30 minutes, but I reckon they'll need three times that!
Plenty more podcasts to record this month including my collaboration podcasts which start later in the year with Griff Rhys Jones… we've called the podcasts Sounds of the Seventy Year Olds and as with mine, it's produced by Mark Jeeves. These podcasts are quite different from mine and great fun to record so we're hoping that they are just as much fun to listen to.
The new album Melancholia has been mastered, and I have a meeting on the 20th to find out the release date. Two radio specials will be announced in next month's ramblings, and whilst on the subject of recordings, I am really pleased to announce that in August, I start recording Return to the Red Planet with Adam Falkner on drums, Dave Colquhoun on guitars, Lee Pomeroy on bass and the 2 vocal pieces on the album will be sung by Mollie Marriott. Recording will be at a residential studio so it will be great, good old-fashioned recording with musicians all in the same room! That's right, we're going back, in order to move forward!
I'm off to the House of Lords too for a reception being held for Animals Asia and in next month's ramblings there will be what I consider a very exciting announcement regarding the sanctuary in South Vietnam and yours truly.
On Sunday 29th, Hayley Sanderson and myself are doing a concert in aid of saving Strays at the Old Granary where we will be playing the entire set that's planned for the July American tour. Tickets sold out in 24 hours which is really nice… especially for the dogs!
Well that's it for now… lots going on… more next month!
Cheers Rick