More from Nige and a little from me

Finnished the last leg of this tour in Southampton last night..have some time off now till the London show a week tomorrow..will be in the studio with the FFA live album. The gigs on this tour have been wonderful for me. We had a few technical problems at the Brook last night but once they were sorted we were well away.There really seems to be an acceleration on these dates of everything. Venues selling out, a drive in the music, almost a lift in the whole thing which has caught me by surprise as i thought we were doing pretty good before! Thanks for some amazing shows, the singing at the Brook last night was awesome and i would place the Stables show in my top ten concerts performed. Sometimes after a string of shows its hard not to want to carry on but i`m trying to pace myself..there is a long way to go with this record and we are only just begining..it was a pretty cool start though..thank-you. So, over to the mad man with the great fingers. Once again i give you Swansea`s finest..Nige Nige.. Well where do I start? I suppose it has to be with the Friday. Shazia had made the coach trip to Swansea and we planned to travel to Milton Keynes reasonably early for soundcheck. That didn`t happen as I had so much to do on the Saturday morning. I knew it was going to be a good weekend because "the Stables" and "the Brook" are 2 of my favourite venues. Shazia and I talked all the way to Milton Keynes about previous Martyn gig, meeting Martin and Nikki, The fact that someone had decided to practice getting the roundabouts in Milton Keynes the correct shape and size(and wow! did they get it wrong many, many times). The venue was in it`s usual place, but this time it seemed easier to find off the M1. The last time I played there, I think I must have seen every roundabout in Milton Keynes. It took me ages to find it, yet this time.....we got there straight away. We were greeted by Richard and Chris. Then Jon came along. We loaded in the equipment and then after setting up, I made my way around the auditorium taking photos of Martyn soundchecking. After all the usual last minute checks, we head to the dressing room for refreshments. Keith is always at hand as the man that looks after all the acts and tonight, he`s swapped his shift to look after us. Does that mean that he enjoys our company or is he afraid we`ll steal the fruit bowl? The usherettes are quizzing Shazia if I`m the official photographer that is to be making his way around during Martyn`s set.....she informs them that I am not and I have just got a new digi-camera......boys and toys eh!. We are informed that the venue is sold out. Fantastic......Maybe if there`s a millionaire outside waiting to get in with no ticket, I can swop him my seat on the keyboards for his Rolls Royce. The show was a dream. Every song was sang and played with the usual mixture of anger, passion and....er.....spit!......the occasional tears too....... I was amazed that there were kids all around us. Martyn has such a wide range of audience not only geographically, but in ages too. Everyone knows the words......Maybe if someone would be kind enough to tell Martyn them for "The Mayor of Candor Lied", we`d of been playing it........but the end of the first verse had a brick wall attached to the last word.......and the usual cries of......"OK!.......Cup of tea" were usually heard as the song ground to a rather sudden, but expected halt......Harry Chapin shouldn`t have bothered to write the rest of the song exclaiming as he recorded it in the studio "Guitar SOLO"......."Piano SOLO".......la la la la ........Father! Mother! Son! Daughter!......half Brother! Half sister! oooo naughties!...er!........"Half a SOLO" I remember thinking about the morning on our journey back to London. I was brushing my teeth and in my tired state,was confused as to why it was much harder to brush today than yesterday. Nothing had changed. I still had the same arms and teeth.....Then it dawned on me after 5 minutes of furious brushing........."IT`S ELECTRIC". I hadn`t switched it on.......silly me. As we headed back to London, my petrol gauge suddenly dropped to zero(it was 3/4 full). After making a tentative journey to the services, the gauge made it`s wayback to it`s proper position after we`d pulled up one of the pumps. That was a good laugh I can tell you. Shazia was happy as she`d met one of her ex work colleagues there. Claire came to watch Martyn with Barry, her fiancé. He`s been a fan for sometime and I`m sure Claire will be joining the many fans of MJ.............. Southampton was my last port of call on the Martyn Joseph tour. After all the problems of the monitors subsided, we went headlong into the first set. I don`t remember much about the first set as I was still trying to come to terms with the technical issues. The second half started alot better and when it came to finishing up the second set, I was thinking about what I`d said in an earlier diary. The intro and ending of "Cardiff Bay" is like a little piece of emotion that is exchanged on stage between Martyn and myself. It`s two musicians acknowledging each other by saying " In reality we are far apart on this stage, but musically, we are bound to this given moment by the emotion that we feel within each others playing". Total respect and admiration for one another`s musical and emotional standings. On "One of US". As Martyn is ranting at the end, he mentions that the Pope would not be using and Orange Phone.......I have slipped in for the past 4 nights an excerpt from "In the Meantime" by Spacehog. It`s just two ringtone notes at the top of the song which were used on a Vodaphone advert. Clever eh!.......But who spotted it?.........NO ONE......... I was still chuckling though at the idea to drop it in the song. Shazia and I headed back to London as this young lady had an early wake up and a hard days work awaited her in the big city. For me, the only big thing about Swansea is that we had the highest Car crime records in the UK......that`s the only thing big about Swansea.........Oh! and It`s home to Catherine Zeta Jones`s mum and dad and 21st home or something.......Also we are home to losersville in the welsh assembly elections. we couldn`t even beat Cardiff.........we had everything going for us..............and yet!........they thought about putting someone in charge who allegedly went to look for the wombles on Wimbledon common........ah!!!!!!! Losersville.........You must come and visit us sometime. Take in the sea air, Baglan oil refinery and steel works aroma, avoid the seagull droppings as you make your way towards a lighthouse that only seems to attract-seagulls, eat fish and chips by the pier which has to be closed down half the year because it can`t sustain the pounding from the waves- or from the people who`ve ate too much fish and chips, Come and see the museum where they have a football team who once went from 4th to 1st division and back again in the same amount of seasons. Take a bike ride around the Gower and visit Arthur`s stone. Not King Arthur,but Arthur Jones. Come and park your car in any one of our many NCP multi-storey carparks and return not only to find your car gone, but an invoice for the petrol.........Swansea eh!....... And so to the final farewells and goodbyes.......it was my parting hug that told me I wouldn`t be seeing Martyn for a while as we said our fond farewells and headed out of the door towards the car. Last checks to see we have everything......I ask Shazia if she can see the accordion in the back.."Yes" she replies. "Damn"! thought I`d left it behind....... Sadly I won`t be at the London gig because I`m performing live on TV that night. Nothing spectacular........Just a Crimewatch special about accordionists who haven`t learned to keep the case closed. They just reopened the case on them. ......No actually it`s a welsh version of Pop Idols......."Bone idol"......nah! teasing again...........It`s called Wow Factor. It`s really good and people are going to be voting for the winner LIVE........well if they were dead, that would be a short lived career yeah! It`s down to three girls. They have to sing one ballad and one fast song. It`ll be a fun night of joy and laughter, tears and pain. I would love all three to win, but as Frederic Bulsaro once exclaimed "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE"..... Highlight of the two days for me was "Whoever it was that brought me here-" at the Stables. It`s taken on a new meaning for me. REFLECTIVE MOMENT ALERT!..... I`ve always wondered about when I pass over to the other side, who will come to see me safely across? I hoped that would be my mum and dad as they brought me here. If it were God, would he take me to my parents? have they got a little plot in heaven? I have many unanswered questions that I think about each night before I drift off into Nigeyland. How is it when you buy a cheese and onion sandwich at the services do they always make them from cheese and onion spread? Why is the coffee always too hot? Why do the coffee machines always seemed to run out of milk before I get there? Who decided the roundabouts should be round?......why not Square? it would have been alot easier....... Why does your partner always look better in your shirt than you do?mmmm........ How come Martyn and the team had a really good "Little Chef" meal when I wasn`t there..........and yet everyone I`ve had has resembled an " It`s a knockout " tournament in the edible world...? Why do people cry when they are happy?? that ones gets me, but I`ve done it........ So My ramblings are over until the next time. I got to meet so many fantastic people on the tour. I took the time to head out to meet some of the fans on this tour. I don`t usually do it as it`s not me they`ve come to see, but I went out to meet the message boarders and got a whole lot more. Thank you all, whoever you are that took your time to come up and say hello to me. Whether it was to compliment me, comment about my messages and diaries or those who asked me "Can I have a 99 with a flake please"?, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I look forward to the day I set foot upon the stage with Martyn again. Who knows, maybe Little Chef will sponsor us........the plectrums would be replaced by chipped potatoes and the fried bread could be used to mount the merchandise on...... I`ll flightcase my theremin in between the eggs...... mmmmmmmm...................what about those beans?......... Nigey Nige