North America tour blog Part 4 - All loud on the western front - December 2014

Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, USA
Photo © Lyndsay Radnedge

Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, USA
Photo © Lyndsay Radnedge

Following a really fun show in Cleveland, we flew on to LA. After the big freeze of the northern regions it was fantastic to welcome back the sunshine!

On our day off Jo and I headed off with our friend Leigh Harris to the Santa Monica pier, where I'd gained inspiration and recorded sounds for 'Please Don't Touch'. It was great to discover the Merry-go-Round is still there in all its magic, and we all immediately jumped on! Steven Wilson is currently working on a 5.1 mix for a re-release of PDT as part of a box set... More news on that soon!

It was great to catch up with other pals too, including photographer Armando Gallo with his wife Cheryl. The LA experience felt like a big circle of friendship! The crowd at the show was fabulous and it all had an explosive vibe...

The following morning we were off to San Francisco. I love the atmosphere of that city - full of character and colour! The two shows there went off like a rocket too...

Good to see friends too in San Francisco and Seattle. From the futuristic monorail and Space Needle to a fascinating past, you can still feel a sense of the Native Americans in Seattle. Intriguing to go beneath the city too, where there's a whole underground Seattle which used to be at ground level. It's reputedly haunted, as is the Moore Theatre where we played. We didn't see anything, but Jo felt something creep up her arm at one point when there was nothing there, so who knows? Strange things continued to happen... In Vancouver all the power went down at one point (not just in the venue but the entire street!) Following my twenty press ups to Gary's drums, power came back, the audience cheered and we carried on! It was a wonderful vibe. Both the Seattle and Vancouver shows had a terrifically warm response... A great way to finish the tour.

The following day I took the opportunity to check out the place where I lived in Vancouver for four months as a kid near Jericho Beach. It was an emotional experience, and brought back vivid memories of my family there. I loved it. For me it was an exotic paradise. Jo and I also visited the Capilano suspension footbridge, which is dramatic and fun, but not for the faint hearted!

My thanks to Brian Coles, Wayne Forte, Carise Yatter, all the promotors, all our team, everyone who put this tour together and everyone who came to the shows... It has been a tremendous experience and I look forward to returning as soon as possible! Watch this space...