13th November 2025
Well, I survived it. The Grim Reaper will have to put away his scythe for another day. Man flu was real guys but nothing stopped me. I just soldiered on. In all honesty the best part of my 4 days of feeling like shit was the gigs. We have long days where you get to wallow in the misery of your affliction however I felt fine on stage, boosted by adrenaline. That said, I was glad when I felt the virus’ grip drift away. I think I was just a bit run down. My wife Rachael will tell you that in the 28 years we have been together I have never moaned about stuff like this, I simply get on with it…just ask her!
Funny thing is, with this tour, I haven’t been much of a party animal. I do like to check in on everyone, make sure band and crew are ok, but I haven’t stayed up once. To be quite frank I am completely knackered! I get up and do a bit of work around 10am, get in the venue, do some laundry or get a coffee or whatever needs to be done elsewhere. Soundcheck has been early every day as our crew have been so efficient. By the time we have played a song there are about 3 hours to kill before dinner, then 3 hours to kill after dinner. I have been spending a lot of time just chilling in my bunk. For the first week keeping up with my set homework and now I am listening to the audiobook of Scott Ian’s autobiography (the guitar player from Anthrax) which is pretty funny and really takes me back to my teens. Interesting to hear his recollection of events I was at. Anthrax supported Metallica at Manchester Apollo in Sept 1986, the week before Cliff was tragically killed in Sweden. Scott’s story took me right back. I was there with about 500 others. Downstairs was not sold out and upstairs at our grand old Mancunian theatre was closed but Scott insisted it was sold out….as Anthrax would say….NOT!
The tour is on a level now. Not out of the woods with nerves but I definitely feel I am playing solidly and consistently. I have to say I am blown away with these shows. I ask Vicky, our tour manager, every morning about ticket sales and every morning she tells me that the gig is sold out or expected to be sold out on walk up. Thank you so much. From my vantage point I love to see the joy on people’s faces. I have had lovely comments from people, pleased that I am back. It shows me the power of the internet compared to the old days of slower written press as people are obviously much more up to date with the goings on within the industry. I didn’t think for a second that my return would mean so much to people. I have learnt to not read in to posts too much, especially since I read a comment about my return from one guy who said, and I quote, “No, no! Why? Not him!”
I did an Instagram catch-up post last week which has had nearly 20 thousand views…wow. I am very touched and appreciative, thank you.
So, what has been happening this week? My first visit to Luxembourg was a good one. It was a superb venue with lovely, helpful staff, good food, good showers and a really tidy venue. Our audience were fantastic, really engaged and Ronny’s lights were fantastic.
We moved in to the mountains to Austria where we played in the middle of nowhere. The venue looked like an old chalet in what must be a skiing area. The place was very picturesque. Surrounded by mountains, some heavily topped with snow but sadly it was a pretty wet day so I wasn’t going to venture far and actually it was not, I said not, a day for my shorts! The jeans were back out. Don’t be shocked, there has been a reprieve since.
The dressing room was a strange small dining room so we were quite cozy all day. I managed to watch United beat Brighton which I enjoyed very much, winning has happened often recently, so make snow while the sun doesn’t shine…or whatever that phrase is. As a reference to one of my earlier diaries, at least the Scouse Currants keep losing. Joy of joys.
We woke up near Venice on Sunday morning. We played in Padova. It was a really nice sunny day meaning the shorts were well and truly back out. The weather was a real treat. We unfortunately were nowhere near anything as we were basically on an industrial estate. This gig was as local as it gets for Messa and they received a suitably warm reception from their hometown crowd. Ronny had travelled to Belgium to work the lights for Moonspell which was a pre-arranged show he couldn’t change. What a difference. The lights for our show were pretty poor compared. The first song used so much smoke my cage filled up and I felt like I was choking. I shouted to Will to turn the smoke machine off. Also, I hate strobe lights and the guy was hammering them in the first track. It really throws me off, but the usage was so extreme I thought I would have a fit! It pretty much ruined the gig for me in 90 seconds. All our usual hit points were missed, Greg couldn’t even see his guitar. It just shows the value of trusting your day to day crew. That said, it was a great crowd again and I don’t think they noticed our lighting battles.
We were ready for our day off in Munich. Will and I headed in to town for a little bit of sightseeing, a Mexican lunch and then we went to get Will a new pair of trainers as his had developed what looked like a mouth in the side of his right shoe. Not great for the wet weather.
Nick, Aaron, Will and Me met for an Italian and then I grabbed a hotel room for the night which was nice and it felt good to be off the bus for the first time in 3 weeks pretty much. I have been re-watching Breaking Bad and really enjoying it so I had a mini marathon…two episodes before falling asleep. Going back to my daily routine I have been coming off stage, grabbing a shower, a glass of wine and a piece of pizza and then I have been on the bus in my bunk watching Walter White’s shenanigans. Not very rock n roll I know. But try being me!
Slightly refreshed we then had a great show day in Munich at the fantastic (sold out) Backstage Club. It was a brill show, packed again and we were all in good spirits post show. The feedback we are getting is that fans are really loving the show with the lights, sound and the new set.
When we first received these tour dates I was looking forward to Prague. I last played there in 2008 and haven’t visited as a tourist since 2003 when Rach and I visited there the year after we got married. There is something very special about the Charles Bridge and I wanted to go and show Will so we grabbed an Uber in to town with Gabe. I video called Rachael from the Bridge with the same back drop as a picture we have on our wall at home. The gig was in an old theatre. It was pretty compact but, for me, it was the best crowd of the tour so far. Very loud. A really enjoyable show.
That is about up to date. I am sat in Zagreb with 90 minutes until show time and we are in to our last week..nearly. Everyone at home is preparing for Halloween, even Jax. Someone rang on my doorbell last year, it was a bunch of young teens doing Trick or Treat. I gave them some sweets and as they left one of them said, “You can take your mask off now mate!” Cheeky ba**ard!