Theatre Hafren, Newtown (Nigel)

Nige here. After a day off with my children, Nicholas and Katy,It was time to head back to Loony tunes and his Armada.Green men,Robes staff's,hitchhikers, it was a bit surreal.My journey was fraught with danger from the word go.I encountered a train that held me up on the Llandovery crossing that never appeared.Then I went along some back roads in to the middle of nowhere. I encountered a few floods and finally made it back on to the road to Newtown. When I arrived at Newtown, (An Hour Late) I set up and soundcheck in the normal fashion.The room was like a school assembly room. Tables and chairs scattered aroundToday was mishap day. After a main's spike on Thursday in Cumbria which reset my main keyboard, I reprogrammed the sounds and headed off for the dressing room. We changed, and headed stagewards. We are recording this show so all must be perfect. To start with, I cut my finger the night before washing a glass in the sink. I'd forgotten how to do it properly as we've been away so long so that was something I had to deal with. We started up, Martyn's effects processor was playing up,then as we ventured into the set, I was aware that every time Martyn spoke, It triggered the noise gate which keeps my keyboard set up quiet and Hiss free.That's strange. They have a hearing aid loop installed in the building for hard of hearing. This I find funny because I think everybody in the building should have hearing aid's installed because Martyn's sings and plays so quietly sometimes, then turn them off when he gets to "Liberal Backslider"We open part 2 with "Raindrops", "Please Sir" and "Precious". I Look at the audience and spot Charlie. Now Charlie has been to almost as many gigs as me on this tour. I felt that the crowd was a little bit conservative tonight as opposed to the other shows. We perform well in the second set. When it gets to "a Good Man", you can hear a pin drop, but then again I thought I heard one in some of the other songs as well."Cardiff Bay" sounds great. We encore with "Dolphins" and the adventure "All this Time"I am saddened a bit as this is my last, but one show.The guys are off to Belfast and I'm off, full stop. Martyn shows me his fingers.They look battered and in need of a good, well earned rest. But there is good news.Big Mike has rented his house in Pheonix, Arizona so that means we could be seeing allot more of each other(I Hope) and tonight , the Big Man upstairs has painted the most beautiful sky with every star visible to the naked eye.(Just my eyes were naked. It was a bit cold for the rest of me).Treacherous roads lie ahead and I'm aware that as the Armada with Stirling Moss is some half an hour behind me, I leave a message on his answer machine to take care.The visibility is 100%.I stop to view the stars and I picked one each for my children and hope that in the future, they too will become stars in their own field. Still you'd think with this kind of visibility the green robed, bearded man with the staff would be seen, but it is even too cold for him. I'll leave you with this one thought..God must have a large store room to accommodate all those stars during thedaySee ya, Nige