Newcastle
I was wondering whether this hotel expressed the triumph of style over substance, given that the first room they put me in had a constant noise from the restaurant's generator next door and uncloseable windows, but now I'm sitting in my top floor room having just consumed an exemplary room service breakfast (including porridge with double cream - yum), and I'm feeling quite benevolent towards the place.

I drove down here yesterday morning just in time for our soundcheck/rehearsal. I think DG wins the 'tiredest person' prize this time. It was very disconcerting to be playing our JPP set of tunes, with assorted members of JPP hanging around backstage and sharing the green room. But the most amusing part of the day was walking back to the hotel and having Matt Seattle lean out of a car and wave excitedly and blow kisses as he drove past. He was going to another gig somewhere and didn't even know DG was in the country ...

later
Well, that was a fun gig, playing on the main stage at the Sage. It was a bit of a shame to be playing in 'a black shroud' with hundreds of lights aimed at us in such a beautiful brand new hall, so for my melodica solo of Ellun sotiisi (I'd got lost backstage Spinal Tap-style with the tune's composer Arto Järvelä earlier but that's another story) I went down into the audience to walk around, and they put the houselights up so that I could see where I was going and admire the architecture. Having said that, being lit in the proper rock 'n' roll manner ensures that you give a performance no matter how tired you are. The piano keys are all appear in front of you in different coloured patterns, so either someone backstage has slipped some hallucinogen into your bottle of water or there are hundreds of people waiting to see and hear what you'll do next.

My Estey reed organ passes the 'roadable' test with flying colours, although now that the wind supply works you can hear how out of tune it still is. Some work to be done there. But with the help of the trolley Alison bought for the Pearl River one when she brought it back from Seattle, I can move it easily myself, it fits in the back of the car, and when miked up it sounds pretty good. I still have to master opening the mute more gently with my right knee while playing, but that will come in time I'm sure.

Quite a few fiddle players from the Northern Sinfonia went along to DG's morning class today, which buoyed him up even further after his late night jam session with Arto, Beáta Salamon and a Cajun player whose name I forget. So bits of our SADN album, and the tunes that we do with Suzie LeBlanc, all got tested in front of their native speakers. 

Yesterday we'd taken it in turns to be completely and utterly exhausted, DG in our afternoon concert, and me in the evening (missing the jam session, kicking myself afterwards). Helpfully I tried to show DG a short cut back to the hotel and we ended up in a multi-storey car park. I only mention this because he said 'this had better go in your diary'.

One nice thing about playing in a big non-classical event is the assumption of backstage catering. So today I got to share a buffet lunch with Timo Alakotila in the green room, and I hope he was genuinely pleased and not irritated when I told him how great I thought he was. You can never tell with Finns, they don't give much away ...