Thursday 4 April

Drifted in and out of sleep. Chris drove the first leg then Tim took over and eventually threw in the towel at 6.30am after negotiating the already hectic Washington Freeway traffic. Guess those Government types like to make an early start to work!

So, it was my turn to drive the van, first time really on this trip. Full to the gills with Starbuck’s coffee, Bob (my co-pilot) and I head off, with the others sleeping like babies in the back. Drove past Baltimore – beautiful industrial city – and eventually caught site of the Manhattan Skyline way off in the distance, with the Empire State Building now dominating the horizon.

Check into the hotel in New Jersey and sleep!

Simon

Second time in NY on this trip. After recharging the batteries, we head into Manhattan, which looks as beautiful as ever. Decided to take the route down Broadway, for sheer entertainment value, to the venue – The Knitting Factory.

The gig was amazing, great crowd, great venue. Everybody loved us and we came up with the goods when it counted.

Supported a band from Boston called the Pushstars (check out their website www.pushstars.com), who have quite an impressive following. Good lads – sound a bit like Del Amitri. Brian Arm turned up, god bless him, with two friends Neal and Stash. Hung out until the end of the gig and then finally met Kevin French, our Agent. A very cool guy who enjoyed the show and has received nothing but good reports about us across the States.

Returned to the hotel with the warm feeling that we’d taken the roof off tonight. Which felt even better knowing that we did it in NYC, the coolest city on the f*****g planet bar none!

Ant