London - Paris
Monday March 4 was the Royal Festival Hall gig in London. It is a great venue for classical, jazz and rock music and I have been many times to see some great gigs eg. Van Der Graf Generator reunion gig, Dave Gilmour, Chick Corea Electric Band, the Brecker Brothers, Stan Getz etc. I live quite near the centre of London so I took the tube to the gig which only took about 30 mins. I get off at Embankment station and walk over Hungerford Bridge from which you get a fantastic view of London, the river Thames and the South Bank where the venue is.
We played in the main hall of the RFH and I think it was completely full. Sold out. Amazing. Sound check was fine and we checked a few things in the set as well as the monitors ensuring we could hear properly. The gig itself felt really good to me. Good sound, good response from the audience, Steve seemed relaxed and was very funny on the microphone with his between song chat (not easy to do!). I think we played pretty OK.
At a 'hometown show' there are usually various friends and family who come along. So there was John Etheridge, Tim Bowness, Jakko Jaksyzck, Steve Hackett, Steve Rothery, Nik Kershaw, Robyn Koh, Steve's lovely mum and various others. Great to see them all at the after show party.
Afterwards, I put some of my things on the tour bus which was driving to Paris and then walked back over the bridge and headed home on the tube.
The next couple of days involved running around like a crazy person, teaching students and sorting stuff and life and everything before the European leg of the tour. Thursday was particularly crazy (and exhausting) but finishing with a wonderful gig in Highgate, London.
Meanwhile Steven's new album 'The Raven That Refused To Sing (and other stories)' is receiving superb reviews. The Guardian gave it five stars out of five, and magazines and papers around the world have been saying it is the ..err....best thing ever. Steve mentioned that one magazine stated 'if there is only one album you ever own it should be this one..!' Others have been giving it 10/10 and 5/5. In the national album charts it has gone in at number 28 and in the rock album charts - number 1, above Muse, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Wow. First time I think I have been on an album that has been in the national top 40!
So now I am on the Eurostar to Paris for the next gig which is tonight.
Theo TravisNow see the superb new video to accompany the title track
