Guess what....it's Thursday evening, we're on a coach taking us from Naples to another town about an hour away where we'll be doing a show on Saturday, the weather's good, the world tour has ended and we actually have a day off tomorrow! On top of that, we're looking forward to getting home on Sunday and having a few days off before we head to Sweden to record the next album. It will be great to get some real sleep for a change!
FALLING INTO BED
Last time I wrote was from Barcelona, where we'd just arrived after being up and travelling for 32 hours. I just fell into bed that night. Next day we had the afternoon off so we went shopping. Nothing special, just a look around some of the streets and the shops.
Barcelona is fine, but it's very hard to find a taxi! So we did a fair bit of walking and there are some amazing sights and buildings in the old part of town.
That night we played to an audience that was much smaller than any we'd seen on the tour. Well, there were about 3,000 which is good, because we've hardly spent any time in Spain, but it seemed small in comparison with the huge crowds we've seen on the tour. It went straight well, then straight after we came off stage we got on the tour bus and travelled down to Madrid, arriving there at about 10 o'clock the next morning.
That was Saturday, so we went straight to our hotel to catch up on a few hours sleep 'cos we don't get a lot on the bus! About 4pm we all went down to the venue, did the sound check, then hung around for the show that evening when we played to about 4,000 people. Straight afterwards it was back on the tour bus again, this time to drive to Lisbon in Portugal, where thankfully we had the afternoon off.
The weather in Barcelona had been quite warm, about 23 degrees but Madrid wasn't so good and it was raining. Lisbon was quite nice though, about 24 degrees, but we didn't have much time to enjoy it. We'd spent the night on the tour bus, so we had to get a few hours sleep before doing the show on Sunday night.
END OF THE TOUR
This was actually the very last night of the tour. It was really good night, with seven or eight thousand people at the show, which was really great because we'd never been to Portugal before. We were both sad and happy to see the end of the tour. Sad because it had gone so well and we had to say goodbye to everybody, but glad too because it had been going on so long and we'd been working so hard and doing so much travelling that we were kind of glad to slow down for a while. Everybody had been getting sort of tired the last few weeks, and it was nice to look forward to a change and to doing something different for a while.
Anyway, we didn't have a big party or anything that night. Instead, we all went round to this Irish bar round the corner and had our own sort of farewell party - a few drinks together, ourselves, the crew and that, but nothing mad.
The tour might be over now, but we're still on Europe as I write, and doing promotions and that sort if thing. That started on Monday, but we knew that we'd have a bit of night out on Sunday at the end of the tour, so nothing was scheduled in until Monday afternoon! We slept late, then headed out at about 3pm to do a press conference on a boat.
The weather was really nice so we took this boat out on the river and had some photos done and some interviews and that, and even got a bit of sun! Straight after getting off the boat though, we got into cars and headed to the airport, where we got a flight back to Madrid. We arrived that night, but were all pretty wrecked so we just relaxed for an hour or so, then had an early night.
Tuesday was spent doing promotion. We did a big TV show, which is sort of like Top of the Pops, and performed five songs on that. Then later that evening we pre-recorded another TV show, which is sort of a Spanish Late Late show. We performed Uptown Girl, then got straight on a bus headed over to do an hour - long interview on a radio station that's like the 2fm if Spain! After that it was back to the hotel. We were pretty hungry by this time, but as it was 11 o'clock we settled for something small to eat and went straight to bed. Wednesday morning it was up again to more promotion. We did another TV show at 2 o'clock that afternoon - pre-recorded to go out later - then we went on to do about five smaller TV interviews for different shows. After that we had about four hours off, so we actually got to lie in the sun!
That night we went out for a meal in an Italian restaurant - myself, Nicky, Shane, Bryan and Mark. Kerry and Georgina came with us, as they had come over to join us. Kerry is coming close to the end of her pregnancy, but she's doing great and looks terrific. It was great to have an evening out together and just relax, knowing we didn't have to jump on the tour bus and head off through the night!
GOING TO ITALY
This morning we got on a plane to Milan, and from there to Naples. Right now, as I said, we're headed up to another town about an hour away, where we'll be doing a show on Saturday. It's kind of like a radio roadshow, like a Beat on the street, so it should be fun. Then tomorrow we have the day off and Sunday morning we fly home.
Everybody's fine and looking forward to getting home for those few days before heading off to Sweden. We'll be recording there for most of the summer, getting the new album together. Our next single is more than likely coming out in the middle of summer. We're releasing When You're Looking Like That, and we may have a double side with Lay My Love on You but we're not 100% sure yet.
Tell you more next week! But right now I have to go. We're just arriving at the roadshow venue and I have to pack up the laptop. The rest of the lads send their love, as usual