Calgary, Rockies and Tilley hats

Ah, Calgary. Good to be back in cowtown and just managed to miss the Stampede. It’s been a great week and I’m leaving early in the morning for San Francisco via Vancouver. I was mainly in town for a gig at the Kaos club on 17th Ave but did a number of interviews on radio too. One of these is to be broadcast right across Canada on CBC radio on August 4th.I really enjoyed the interview with a national renowned voice on radio, a guy called Bill Cameron. He asked good questions and pushed me a bit further than most. The gig at Kaos was a great night and I’m very grateful to my good friend Giovanna Longhi who, with the help of some friends (thanks Scott and Vanessa), put the whole thing together. We more or less sold out and it’s amazing to think I hadn’t ever played here until a year ago. To play the intros to songs and have folks applaud is a pleasing surprise. So apart from these odd sporadic moments when I need to work, the rest of the time has been spent in the great outdoors. Went up to Banff in the Rockies and climbed a mountain, well, half of it. It was called Mt Indefatigable, which means ‘does not tire’, unlike me, who had to stop every few hundred yards as the air grew thinner and I seriously thought I may have played my last ever gig! It was so worth the effort though, as was the next day which, armed with my new pioneering spirit, found me hiking in the Johnston Canyon. Those of you, who have made this hike, please don’t let on as to how easy it is. Earlier in the day I talked live to BBC Wales about the tour here and the MST programmes we made in Brazil and upcoming release of ‘Till The End’. It was strange to be talking to Julian and Alan, who were in the studio in Cardiff, while I strode by the side of the turquoise River Bow guarded by the Rocky Mountains in Banff Springs. Whilst I waited to talk to them on the phone I heard them talk to a guy in Stoke who was having a bath, one of the more surreal moments of this journey. Finally, let me tell of my great discovery, a hat I bought called ‘Tilley’, which is I’m told Canada’s premier outdoor head accessory. When you buy one you get a lifetime guarantee and a manufactures manual which contains many gems including the story of the elephant that ate the same hat three times but couldn’t digest it. I leave with you that thought, as I need to be awake in a few hours. Check out the gallery for some spectacular pics of the adventures of frontiersman Joseph!