Mucho Airport Time!
I’m writing this at 6.30am in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on the way back from my most recent excursion with “Rat Pack - Live At The Sands” US tour. Life has been really crazy lately with more travelling than I would have thought I’d ever do. Running backwards and forwards between UK and US Tour dates is certainly exhausting!
It’s been a good trip this time despite a couple of changes from the normal routine. Andy Rumble, our musical director, was away on another gig this time so we had the show’s Musical Supervisor; Matthew Freeman with us in his place. He likes to run things a little differently from Andy so it was trying at times but we were lucky to have some very fine musicians joining us in Grand Rapids, MI and Hershey, PA. A particular joy for me was the presence of two former Harry James bandsmen in Hershey. I was privileged to have trumpeters Skip Stine and Bill Hicks on the section with me. They both played Lead Trumpet on the Harry James band at various times during the 70s and were able to offer a little personal insight into one of the greatest trumpet players of all time! I should also give a shout to Mark Lusk, who played Bass Trombone in Hershey; a thoroughly nice guy and a wonderful player. He previously played on the Woody Herman Band in it’s last incarnation under Woody’s baton along with my most recent teacher; the formidable Roger Ingram.
We’re back to UK dates for the next week and a half although I’m taking a break from “The Pack” to go on a short tour in Austria with the wonderful trumpeter Thomas Gansch and his band. I’m sure much fun will be had, much beer consumed and many photos taken. The photos, at least, I’ll be able to share on here and I’ll try to keep up with that upon my return. It’ll be a busy few days which see me heading to Southampton on Wednesday for the show, on to Vienna on Friday (early) morning, back to Leeds on the following Wednesday and then up to Edinburgh in time for a Thursday matinee. I then finish out the week in Edinburgh before returning to Cleveland to play the last fortnight on the US Tour.
Life, as you can see, is crazy right now so apologies for the recent lack of posting and I’ll try to get back on top of it when I get back to just touring in one country for a while in the summer!
