Tour Update 1

It's April 26th, and I'm sitting in my hotel room in Vienna looking back on the tour so far.

It seems eons ago that we were in production rehearsals in Bad Soden, near Frankfurt - there were so many things to do - deciding what cymbal configuration to use, trying out new drum heads and sticks (Shawstix had sadly ceased trading), learning to play the songs from The Inner Sanctum in a live situation, actually deciding which ones to play, and learning new tracks like Travellers In Time and Killing Ground, which, although I'd co-written it, I'd never played it live.

Then it was onto the tour bus and off we go! Acquainted myself with the Masterplan guys at the first gig - I was already a fan and had had the second cd prior to the tour - a great album - Roland, Jan, Axel, and the two Mikes were great from the off. The Markthalle at Hamburg had been the first gig on my rejoining of the band in 2005 so that was an especially poignant moment playing there. This time I was prepared for the intense heat!! - that first tour it had nearly killed me!!! The tour has thundered through, in no particular order, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, France , Spain, Italy, Greece - I have to say that the audiences at every gig so far have been amazing - it has been so fantastic to get such an incredible reaction - thank you to you all! Never mind what other bands say, Saxon fans rule!!!! - thanks again!!!!