Well, the final few days of April were jam packed which I really enjoyed. The days included a really great interview for Mojo which took place at Steinways in London, so I was in my element surrounded by 100+ Steinway grand pianos. I also managed to sneak into their maintenance department and have a look at the work they are doing. It brought back great memories of 1975 when I bought my Steinway at their old offices in George Street (sadly don't have it anymore).
I also recorded some more podcasts with Griff Rhys Jones and presented an award for the BBC Magazine event which I thoroughly enjoyed, also meeting up with some old friends.
Anyway, here we are in May, and this is very much a month of preparation for the rest of the year although it's broken up nicely with some shows in Holland.
This is the countdown of the final one man shows in these countries and so they really are the last, but there are still a few more countries for the one man show to bid farewell to.
And when I arrive back from Holland, wait for it, I will be 76. Absolutely terrifying. I wonder what will drop off next?
I've got a lot of preparations to do musically for the USA tour with Hayley (Strictly Wakeman) and we will run through the set list and try out a few new ideas this week and also go through the re-arrangements of the King Arthur music, transcribing the original choir parts for the new girl backing singers, just as we did for the Journey tour last year and which worked so well.
On the 8th I'll be going to Erik's studio to record some piano on a track for Cleopatra music for fellow Water Rat Engelbert Humperdinck and also listen through the finished Melancholia album which I am really excited about and already I've pre-recorded a radio special for Magic Classical FM and there is a Radio 3 Special on the horizon as well. Release date will be mid-July I'm told.
On the 20th at 11.45, I will be live on Talk Sport to talk about Pedal for Paws a wonderful event which anyone can join in with to help raise money and awareness for Saving Strays.
I also have three more days for podcast recordings with Mark Jeeves and a day recording 2 shows for Now Rock which are always fun to do.
And finally, for the third year running, (they must be hard up) I'm opening the village fete on the 31st but will take the rescue dogs with me and get at least one of them to open it with a bark!!!
Cheers Rick