And finally finally..

Bob posted this video from our last show at Little Harrowden. Here's to next year!
I love Bob's solo. See how many tunes you can recognise!

And Finally....

Saturday was the final show of the tour. Nicki was booked as a special guest on Robbo's Saturday night show at Harrowden WMC just outside Wellingborough.
She was originally booked to play a short acoustic set with Bob

I watched from the side of the "stage"- (it's a tiny club). It was strange hearing the songs sung without the full band playing. The audience loved what she was doing though. After half a dozen songs she invited Cozy and myself to join them and we rocked out. It was great fun.

Chris had been wanting to catch that image all tour. It was taken during the final medley. Just before that we had the whole room singing along to "Boots".

All too sson the show was over. The tour was over. We packed away our guitars and said our goodbyes.
Nicki, Tracy and Bob drove to Heathrow where they stayed overnight before boarding a plane for Sydney.
Cozy spent the rest of the evening with his wife and son before flying out to yet another European tour.
Chris, Sue and I drove home. Chris had an evening with friends in his local, while Sue and I had an early(ish) night.

On Monday I started my sixth and hopefully final bout of chemo. My specialist thinks that this should give me several year's remission.

So roll on 2011!

Saturday July 31st

Six and a half weeks. Twenty five shows. Five thousand miles or more driven up and down the highways of the UK.
I wouldn't have missed it for the world. There was a distinct possibility that I might have done. Soon after last year's tour I was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocitic Leukaemia and I was to have six courses of chemotherapy over six months. In the event I had a couple of spells in hospital following complications and other minor niggles meant that I'd only had four courses by the beginning of May.
When I was told that I had to have two more within weeks of the tour beginning I feared that I'd be too ill to play.
In the event the fifth course went without a hitch and I declared myself fit enough to play. It meant that I had to take it easy and rest as much as possible. My son Chris drove the van and looked after the PA and tuning Nicki's mandolin (she really strums it hard!)and with everyone's help we got through.

Tonight we join up with Barbary Coast once more. Nicki and Bob are due to play an acoustic set during the evening. They then head off to Heathrow before flying out on Sunday.
Plans are afoot for two tours in 2011, one in July and the other in September.

I have my sixth and hopefully final course of chemo on Monday.
God willing, I'll be raring to go come next July.

Nicki Gillis, Rocking your (and our)country!

Great North part three

Each song was well received, but Nicki's little red dress drew a lot of applause and wolf whistles. The audience joined in and sang along (and also banged tambourines- but the less said about that the better!)

The hour flew by. Suddenly we were playing our final song. As the song ended the crowd raised the roof and Nicki left the stage to rapturous applause.
We had time for one encore and that was it.
Our last full show of the tour. We cleared the stage and the next band set up.
Nicki went to meet and greet the crowd and spent a lot of time chatting and posing for photos.
Once everyone was rounded up we loaded up and set off home, arriving back in Northampton at about 1.00. We dropped everyone off and got home about 45 minutes later.

Friday July 30th- Great North Part Two

We were the first band of three on the evening bill. I like the Great North's policy of only having bands or artists that don't use backing tracks. That way you can be sure that what you're seeing and what you're hearing are one and the same thing. The downside is the amount of setting up that needs to be done. Luckily Cozy and Bob had already set up earlier, so we were ready to go almost immediately.
There were a lot of people taking pictures, and we had a lot of fun posing, as this was our last Festival spot of the tour. We were determined to have a good time.

Bob bought a new jacket, and he looked very fetching in it.

Friday July 30th- Great North Part One

We got to bed about 2.00 am and the alarm went off at about 7. We had an early start in order to drive the 200 plus miles up to Castle Barnard in County Durham and the Great North Festival.
Nicki made a great impression on her debut last year and we were looking forward to meeting old friends and performing during the evening.
Before that, Barbary Coast would be playing in the afternoon, hence the early start.
Cozy and Bob both played in Barbary Coast in the 80s, when they were Frank Ifield's backing band, and Bob's coming to the UK with Nicki gave the band the opportunity to play a reunion show or three.
Bass player Bugsy would be travelling with us, while Robbo and John Roche would make their own way.
Bob was first up and through the shower. I followed soon after and made some sandwiches for the journey while Chris managed to drag himself out of bed.
We set off for Wellingborough and picked Cozy up as pre-arranged, then collcted Bugsy from his house.
We then had 200 miles to travel up the A1. Luckily the traffic was behaving itself. we stopped at Boroughbridge for diesel and drinks and arrived soon after one o'clock.
Barbary Coast took to the stage mid afternoon and played a blinding set to an enthusiastic audience.

There was a break before we needed to set up, so we enjoyed some food that was kindly provided for us.
We set up the guitars and had a quick sound check.
Now it was our turn.

Thursday 29th July- Stevenage

We set off to Northampton during the afternoon to collect Cozy, who'd just flown in after playing some European festivals. He loaded a different drum kit, a black and white Premier kit that used to belong to Hot Chocolate back in the 70s.
We made our way through the traffic from Northampton to Bedford, where we queued at traffic lights for ages, then drove past the huge airship hangars where the R101 was built and flown. We joined the A1 and drove south to Stevenage.
The venue is situated down a narrow access. Chris tried to take the van all the way down, but he saw how much the passageway narrowed and decided against proceeding further. We loaded in and left the van out in the street.
This was our last full club show on the tour. There was a good turnout, including a family from Witney in Oxfordshire, who'd seen us at Dumbleton and made the journey (which took them four hours) across to see Nicki one more time. The audience were happy to sit and listen, and warmed to Nicki straight away.
Bob's friends also made the journey up from London and I was pleased to spend time chatting, as we'd not met for over a year.

All too soon the evening came to an end. Nicki received a standing ovation for her performance. We retired to the dressing romm while the club performed the "Flag" ceremony, then packed up the kit. Chris backed the van in and we soon got loaded.
Bob stayed the night with us as we had an early start the next morning.