Monday 22nd & Tuesday 23rd March
Travel home.
A late check-out had been arranged at the hotel so it was good to feel under no real pressure to have everything packed and ready to go by what seemed to have become the established time of 10 a.m. when usually we all congregate in the hotel lobby.
At Perth airport, our tour manager Richard, announced that he would have bought us all presents had he not thought it was a better idea the we should choose our own. Unbeknown to him, the band had already pooled their resources and bought a rather elaborate filofax system in appreciation for what was obviously a massive amount of hard work and dedication in making this tour happen. Anyway, we all went off in search of whatever might appeal - and that fell into the stipulated price range. I'm not a good shopper, and normally useless at buying anything unless I have days, or even weeks, to consider, and reconsider, and then give further consideration as to whether my purchase might be wise or not. I will never be accused of being an 'impulse buyer'. However, having decided to live dangerously and throw caution to the wind, I ended up with a couple of T-shirts, one for me and the other for Carol (my partner), I was convinced though that she probably wouldn't like it.
The first leg of the journey home was to Singapore, a flight of about four and a half hours. This was followed by a stopover of something like two hours. Singapore airport has an incredible number of shops, giving you every opportunity to part with the currency your not going to have much use for at home. Still, I decided my time would be better spent at a coffee house drinking a 'flat white' and watching a Manchester United match on the large adjacent screen. Eventually we congregated at the departure gate where we waited to board what was obviously going to be a very full 747 - no chance of a window seat on this one. If you've ever spent fifteen continuous hours in the air you will appreciate just how 'mind numbing' it can feel, in fact I began to feel a bit that way after the first two or three hours. What a horrible thought that there was another twelve to go. Regardless though of how one might perceive the passage of time, 'events' quite naturally have their beginnings, middles and inevitable ends - ours was at 05:15 hours as we touched down at Heathrow. On arrival, some kind of power failure held up the baggage handlers, so for a while all we did was stand, hope, and stare at a motionless carousel. Later, with baggage claimed we reentered the outside world where we were greeted by John from Park Records. He firstly reacquainted me with the scarf and gloves I'd left in his car three and a half weeks previously, and then he drove Rick, Maddy and myself to Oxford.
From there, Maddy traveled up with me to Preston in my Nissan Prairie where she would take the train on to Carlisle.
Now I will reflect on the events of the past weeks, and also look towards my next run of work. There is, of course, the UK tour beginning April 18th, but before that I shall look forward to the three days in Italy (8th, 9th & 10th April) working with Ashley Hutchings, to be followed by a further three days with Carol enjoying the sights of Florence.
By the way, Carol says that she does like the T-shirt, but I'm not sure whether to believe her or not.

Monday 5th April
Travel to Florence.
Made a very early start this morning - with the taxi arriving at the house at 6:00 am. The Ryanair flight from Blackpool to Stansted took off pretty much on time at 8:25 am. My usual slight apprehension when flying, began to increase quite considerably when I first laid my eyes on the aircraft, not that there was anything particularly worrying about the vessel itself - a Boeing 737, no, that was fine - I couldn't recall one of those going down of late. What caused me to start catasrophising somewhat was the word 'Kilkenny' painted in huge letters along it's side. When I realised it was an advertisement for a beer of the same name, to be honest, I didn't feel any better.
As I am now sat at Stansted airport with laptop for once actually on my lap, and with a seven hour wait for the flight to Florence, once again, thankfully, my sense of ominous disaster has proven to be misguided.
I hope no one minds me doing this (the diary), I mean this journey doesn't really have much to do with the Steeleye tour, however, I will be rendezvousing later this afternoon with Ashley Hutchings, and after all, he was there, and was totally instrumental in the very conception of the band many moons ago, in fact I'd go as far as to say that if it was not for him, not only would I not be on my way to Italy today but it's possible there wouldn't be a Seeleye Span for me to be a member of.
Later.
We all met up as planned, checked in, and apart from a delay of something like 40 minutes there were no significant problems, well, nothing very serious, but I was shaken somewhat by what I saw through the window from the gate we were standing at before boarding the plane. I was in a position where I was able to look down directly on those little carriages that carry all the luggage to the cargo door and could see each one of them stacked high with bags and cases of all sizes and colours. On the second of these carriages, sitting at the very top of this mountain of luggage sat my two guitars. When checking in I was given the choice of whether I wanted to carry my instruments to the aircraft, or put them through the special section for 'fragile' and 'oversize' goods, I chose the latter. Now I watched nervously through the window as this baggage man began doing his job, and I waited in anticipation for him to reach for these treasured possessions of mine. I shouldn't of watched - it only resulted in me stepping into the plane having just seen both guitars literally thrown, face down, with no concern at all as to the contents, onto the conveyer belt that carried them to the cargo hold.
The main airport for Florence is Pisa, which is where the plane touched down at 9:30 pm, and apart from a chunk missing from one of my guitar cases, thankfully both instruments were OK. We were met at the airport by Sergio (he owns the studio I'll be working in on Tuesday and Wednesday) who drove us at breakneck speed to Firenze (Florence), a one hour journey that took forty five minutes - I'm very happy to be alive.

Tuesday 6th April
Florence.
Another early one this morning, we (Ashley and myself) were scheduled to visit a high school to talk about and demonstrate our music. Most of this, as is with the build up to the concert tomorrow, focuses quite naturally on Ashley's history and significant influence he's had on the world of 'folk' and 'folk-rock' music. We had a group of around thirty students (mainly female), chosen largely because of their language skills. However, Ernesto De Pascale (the man mainly responsible for this trip - I'll explain more about him in a minute) acted as interpreter. The session lasted for about an hour in which Ashley talked of his musical beginnings and influences, videos of early Fairport Convention were shown, and I - with rather stiff, early morning fingers - played tunes and provided accompaniment for him. Then it was to the studio - almost. Lunch is, of course, compulsory over here, and one of the things that Italians enjoy doing is taking good care of you, and as I very much enjoy being taken care of - this is a perfect arrangement in my books. So basically we didn't arrive at the studio until hefty amounts of Italian food and wine had been consumed - not a great idea really when you have work to do. Still, the studio session was a relaxed affair, and despite all the late afternoon yawns, we managed to achieve quite a lot in the way of guitar overdubs.
Ernesto De Pascale is quite a well known DJ and journalist here in Italy, he is very much a fan of English music and seems to know an awful lot about Fairport / Steeleye / Ashley, etc. He has a two hour radio programme on a Saturday evening which is broadcast nationally, but also appears to be involved in lots of other musical projects - us being one of them.
Today there was much talk and discussion of tomorrows concert which will take place at the 'Teatro Comunale dell'Antella'. As well as Ashley and myself performing, there will be an appearance from Riccardo Marasco, a performer extremely popular in this Tuscan region of Italy.
This evening Ernesto took us all to one of the classiest eating establishments you could visit. It was called 'Teatro Del Sale'; an old theatre, renovated so stylishly (as are a great many buildings here) and turned into a restaurant that spacialises in medieval food - which is served as a buffet, and in copious quantity. To eat there, you have to become a member - that is not difficult, it's just that no more then ninety nine people are allowed in at any one time. I am member no: 16589.
After food follow live music; tonight we listened to a singer / guitarist called Stefano Barotti. I knew I wouldn't escape the evening without being hauled up on stage at some point to play, and sure enough it happened - just one song though.

 

Wednesday 7th April
Florence.
Arrived at the studio at midday. Did more guitar overdubs - both electric and acoustic. The songs we're working on are all part of an Anglo / Italian project that Ashley and Ernesto have cooked up, all the material (some of which I have had a hand in co-writing) involves subject matter that relates to both countries.
The show tonight was most definitely a success, and the theatre - a small, stylish and intimate hall that held not much more than one hundred, was full. Ashley and I started the evening with a set of about fifty minutes, and then after the break Riccardo took to the stage. He has a very strong, quite operatic voice, he's also very funny - even I was laughing at times and I didn't understand a word of what he said - that's how funny he was. I had to follow him; I played 'Dangerous' from my 'The Bridge' CD - it seemed to go down well, and then Ashley joined me on stage for a final song: 'The Lions of Highbury' before Riccardo came back on for the grand finale.
All this was followed by all manner of speech's (the Italians do like to talk) and Ashley was awarded an honorary membership to the Fiorentena supporters club (the local soccer team) by the vice Mayor and (supporters) club's secretary.
All of the above was followed, of course, by food - lots of it. I like it here.