What a difference a day makes. A beautiful spring day in London Town, we’ve scored a great hotel and the venue tonight was spectacular. Union Chapel is an active church as well as being a regular concert venue: a beautiful space with exquisite acoustics. This show was sold out a couple of months ago so there was a nice buzz of anticipation in the air. We played a solid show and the audience, once again, was great. London is the one city in the world where I am always nervous before a show and tonight I was never able to completely relax and enjoy the space, but I think Margo and Jeff more than made up for a certain lack of fluidity on my part.

*****

I think the last time we were in Brighton I put the place down in the diary. I was properly chastised by a local who pointed out that I was wrong on many of the points that I had made. Once again, I think it was my complete exhaustion and the relentless sheets of rain that jaundiced my perspective. A different story this time. Another warm sunny day (pushing 60 degrees) and my hotel room overlooks the sea. It can’t get too much better on tour. This town was once a pokey sea-side resort, and it still maintains some of those characteristics, but over the last ten years it has become something of an artists haven and as result there is a burgeoning counter-culture in the town. A cool little place (especially if you have an ocean view).

A decent venue tonight. Another sold out show which is a good thing, but it meant that the sightlines for the standing room crowd weren’t great, especially since it was such a low stage. We were worried that this might inspire latent geese-like tendencies in the faithful, but there was no need for worry: another amazing audience. We are kind of overwhelmed by how intense, respectful and downright excited all four of these English crowds have been. They have already made our experiment a success.

On to Hamburg…time to take the pulse of zee Germans….