Monday 26th April
The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon.
Got the yellow pages out first thing this morning and started to make inquiries about reverb pedals. I figured that apart from taking the back off my Mesa Boogie and pulling everything apart this would be the natural answer to the reverb problem - as stated in Sunday's entry. At around midday I made my way by foot through Swindon en-route to the local music shop - and bumping into Peter on the way - I dragged him along with me.
Once there, in the pedal department, It appeared I had a choice of one - a Boss - it certainly looked good; nice colour an' all that , so I bought it. Any guitarist will tell you that even with all the testing and listening that might be done in the shop, you never really know whether it's right or not until you're on stage using it - so we'll see what happens.
Pete suggested that I might think about buying a power supply for this, and the other pedals already in my collection - it did seem like a good idea, after all, they do eat batteries at a frightening rate - so I bought a power supply. Finally, whenever in a music shop I always check out their choice of thumb picks - there's really only one kind of pick I like to use and they're not always easy to find. Well, they stocked them, so I bought the lot and left the shop not much less than £200 worse off.
Arrived at the theatre at 5:30pm for the sound check. One thing I've noticed is how, thus far, almost all the hotels have have been very closely situated to the venues, this is convenient from the point of view that if it's walking distance, you avoid the necessity of being driven there by a tour manager who has to be at the venue much earlier - basically, you end up having more time to yourself.
The evening seemed to be a fairly quiet and conservative affair with what I think is the lowest turn out so far - about 350 people. Maybe the fact that it was a Monday had something to do with it. And the pedal? Well, I won't go into too much technical detail, but tonight we didn't get on very well.

Tuesday 27th April
The Derngate, Northampton.
Early afternoon - checked into the Ibis hotel, Northampton. This is the second time I've stayed at an Ibis hotel, and I do like how uncomplicated they are - big rooms too.
Not a lot to report today really, though I did, once again, visit a music shop - this time accompanying Liam who was looking to buy some sticks. To a non drummer such as myself, the choice appeared considerable, and Liam, whilst muttering things about 'size', 'weight' and 'balance', performed paradiddles on any available surface. After this - and a few comments in regards to expense, we left the shop - stickless. He did buy an SAS jacket next door though for thirty quid.
Lovely concert hall, and almost a full house tonight with around 950 people attending the show. It was great to see friends - Gareth Turner and Simon Care - despite the fact that they're both concertina players. Gareth and I played and recorded together in the Ashley Hutchings Dance Band - the first project I entered into with Ashley about eight years ago. Simon and I are involved in the latest of Ashley's projects - the 'Morris On' band.
On technical matters, instead of routing the guitar through the unit directly, I connected the new reverb pedal through my amp's effects loop, and I'm happy to report that we got along much better tonight.

Wednesday 28th April
The Anvil, Basingstoke.
The weather's taken somewhat of a dramatic turn - after a good few days of sun and warmth, it seems we're back to normality - with rain and bightingly cold winds. The good thing is that because generally there seems to be a complete lack of effective air-conditioning in many hotels the lower temperatures I think make for more comfortable nights.
As one who is passionate about good coffee, I would have to recommend 'Caffe Nero'. There's one (not long been open) in Preston, and I haven't checked it out. Yesterday in Northampton, with Liam, we thought we'd give the one there a try. I get the feeling that their approach and methodology is probably quite consistent - an area where sadly some of the other big names - like 'Costa' - fail miserably. Once-upon-a-time I thought Costa was the best, and then it got franchised here there and everywhere. These days you never know whether you're going to end up with some excessively watery, or milky, or bitter tasting excuse for coffee. At Caffe Nero they advertise themselves as having 'the best coffee this side of Milan', and you know something? - having gone back this morning to double check - I think they could be right.
We left Northampton at noon, fully expecting to be booked into the next hotel within a couple of hours, where we could shower, relax for a while, etc, and so the disappointment was visible when we learned that we had to go straight to the venue. I ended up showering in the dressing room.
Another big audience at tonight's show - about the same size as yesterday's - so is the theatre. Actually, tonight the audience was particularly warm - certainly in the second half, and they sang 'All Around My Hat' the best so far. Usually, in the interval I ask Patch (sound engineer) how things are sounding out front, always hoping, of course, for a positive reply. Tonight, when questioned he responded, "I don't know," - how reassuring!
So, this was quite a long day. Imagine then how it felt eventually arriving at the 'Thistle Heathrow Hotel' at 1.00am to be told that the nine rooms we had booked - and that had been confirmed this very afternoon - had infact been given to other people. They sent us down the road and we stayed in the Meridien instead - incredible.