1st August 2000

This weekend I did my "urr" and hopped on a train with Dawson to travel
down to Newport in South Wales ( like I said, a foreign country ) and did
my best Cilla Black impersonation when I turned up a Nikk's house and gave
him a "Surprise Surprise" by doing a little acoustic set in his front room
for his 30th birthday present. If you read the guestbook then Nikk is the
chap who leaves messages about Liverpool Football Club and his friend Tall
Paul asked me if I could pop down to Wales for an overnight stay and bring
my guitar with me. A good time was had by all ( I think? ) and the only
drawback was having to share a double bed with Dawson who had us both
cracking up in the darkness like two boy scouts by doing his impressions
of Chewbacca. The summer holidays have arrived so I have been spending the
last couple of days with the kids doing "kids stuff" like swimming and
picnics. Yesterday I took my Mum and my kids to the Hindu temple in
Neasden which is in North London. This is a fantastic building and we were
made to feel very welcome and sat in on a short ceremony. The building is
made from over 26,000 pieces ( mostly marble ) and was shipped over from
India and assembled in Neasden. If you are ever in London then this place
is well worth a visit and the admission is free which is not bad either.
That's my bit for the London Tourist Board done. I will be spending this
evening mailing a few folk festivals around the country to see if I can
become a late addition to the bill so if I get any joy then I will put the
dates up on this page. I received a copy of the September issue of Spin
magazine which has an article about the Fakes and shows some interesting
pics of them playing live ( Leopard-skin spandex pants and black string
vests......nice combo! ). The article by David Prince, an avid FGTH fan,
will hopefully inform a lot of people about what these guys are up to and
stop people from attending their concerts. While I am on the subject of
"Rednex In Spandex" I received a letter from The House Of Blues legal
department telling me that they will not book these guys in future which
is good news although I would have loved to have seen the show that was
webcast to check out more items from their garish wardrobe. Quote of the
year from Holly J regarding these chaps " I'm very sorry that people are
getting duped, but God, what Frankie fan who knew anything about the group
could possibly believe in a million years that we would play steak houses
and country fairs? It's so small-fry and so unstylish". Nice one H.