Tim gives an update from Philadelphia…

Hello! Just a quick update. All the shows have been great on this tour – it’s been a real joy to be back in North America again. Portland, ME was definitely a highlight since we’d never been there before. What a gorgeous town. Beth finally managed to find some authentic American pancakes in the wonderful Becky’s Diner, and I wandered around the harbour for hours listening to demos on my iPod before stumbling across Scott and Tony in and Irish pub watching the Champions League final and enjoying the local Shipyard Ale. It seemed churlish not to join them.

Another great moment was the little radio show we did right by the water in Boston. It was an unbelieveably hot day and band, DJ and crowd alike were all burning up, but it was a beautiful spot to play music in and a great way to warm up for the huge show in the evening. The atmosphere at that show was so fun – I’ve got a feeling the hot weather had encouraged everyone to sink a few cold beers by the time we went on stage! Either way, there were a lot of smiling faces and people dancing and it all felt great.

We were in the studio in Philadephia yesterday (actually Conshohocken) working on a couple of fun cover versions, which was fantastic. And I’ve just bought a copy of David Bowie’s Serious Moonlight tour on DVD, so I’m very excited about watching that. We’ve been watching a lot of the wonderful Life On Mars on the bus on this tour. I love Philip Glenister’s unreformed 1970s copper. I also picked up my umpteenth copy of Star Wars – after discovering that Tour Manager Colin has never seen it, the rest of us have resolved to tear him away from his laptop and force him to watch it on the bus after tonight’s show. How can there be anyone left on the planet who hasn’t seen Star Wars? He hasn’t seen Back To The Future either. Very worrying.

Tim